Middlesbrough 2 Stoke City 1

Aug 31 2008 by Steve Brown, Sunday Sun

HE ONLY played 13 minutes and failed to maintain his goal-a-game form, yet Mido was still the centre of attention yesterday.

Crucially, if inadvertently, he was also the influence underlying victory.

For amid mixed messages about a move to Wigan, the Egyptian has cast a shadow from the sidelines out of which Afonso Alves and Tuncay Sanli have only now, finally, emerged.

That pair had yet to open their accounts for the season before Stoke arrived at the Riverside.

From one start and two late cameos, Mido had three.

With Mido on the bench, the pressure was on Alves and Tuncay to produce the goods.

After Stoke’s Amdy Faye was dismissed both struck.

They netted either side of an own goal that besmirched Justin Hoyte’s first Premier League start for Boro and a penalty miss by Stewart Downing.

The win established the club’s best start to a season in almost a decade.

Yet this was not the fluid team that Hoyte has likened to Arsenal, nor the stylish side Yeovil boss Russell Slade tipped for the top six.

It was also much less entertaining than the recent performances of assorted Olympians who were paraded about the ground before kick-off.

It can’t have impressed the watching Roy Keane much either.

The top-flight tapestry is a rich one, though, and it can’t always be a pleasant stroll in the park. Teams like Stoke — robust, agricultural Stoke — put you under pressure. Thus, if you want to progress, you have to adapt.

The bookies may already have paid out on the Potters going down, but they were the better side for the first half hour.

They battled and Boro have often failed to against less fancied teams when expectations have been lifted . . . remember Cardiff?

Yet here, tin hats to the ready, the Teessiders coped and after Faye’s red card they assumed control.

They would have won at a canter, but for a series of spurned chances.

For that, you could in part blame those strikers-in-the-spotlight. The pressure on them told from the off.

Eleven minutes in, Gary O’Neil’s cross angled goalwards, but when Alves climbed above Andy Griffin he planted a firm header narrowly wide.

The Brazilian would make amends for that error later, but it ought to have been a goal.

Before then, Stoke had already launched their aerial assault . . . Griffin “boxed-it” from deep, Ross Turnbull flapped at the high ball and Hoyte was forced to block a goalbound strike from Rory Delap.

Seyi Olofinjana then lofted over and Ricardo Fuller curled high and wide from 20 yards before blasting off target.

That followed a Liam Lawrence free-kick which Turnbull palmed behind to his left.

Amid all that, the tension continued to curse Alves.

After a Thomas Sorensen mis-kick was nicked off Abdoulaye Faye’s toes by Mohamed Shaky, the Brazilian slipped as he attempted a shot . . . missing the ball completely.

Following up, Shawky himself fired straight at Sorensen, but soon enough Alves went one better.

Retrieving possession on the edge of the box, O’Neil underhit a lay-off to Shawky and that tempted Amdy Faye to lunge in two-footed.

Referee Mike Dean rightly sent the hapless former Newcastle flop off and from just short of 30 yards Alves thundered a free-kick past Sorensen off the underside of the bar.

Having been the poorer of the two teams up to that point, Boro then emerged as the more vibrant.

Before the break, Alves slid a shot wide and Tuncay saw an effort deflected behind by Leon Cort.

After half-time the hosts’ dominance increased further.

Downing’s free-kick was blocked, Tuncay stabbed over after Alves cut back from the right-hand byline before Sorensen punched another Downing drive clear.

Boro then contrived to spurn the best chance of the lot.

On 64 minutes, Seyi Olofinjana was somewhat harshly adjudged to have bundled over Alves on the left of the box. Penalty.

Yet from the spot, Downing crashed his effort off the bar. It didn’t end there though.

Aliadiere chipped over and then squared for Tuncay, whose strike was deflected off target again by Cort.

Digard followed that up by curling wide from 25 yards.

Then, predictably, Boro paid the price. After 71 minutes an isolated foray by Stoke saw Lawrence arc a cross from the right down the awkward, uncertain corridor between defence and keeper.

Neither attacked the ball, which was allowed to reach the back post and Dave Kitson applied just enough pressure to force Hoyte into a reaction.

Alas, it was a clumsy one and the ball bobbled up off the defender’s arm and past the wrong-footed Turnbull.

Hoyte was hauled straight off, replaced by Andrew Taylor, though the change was in the offing anyway.

More significantly, the introduction of Mido soon followed.

Even before then, as he readied himself on the touchline, his presence was felt and it spurred Alves to turn on the edge of the box and shoot, although his left-foot effort was saved well by Sorenson.

With the Brazilian substituted, the pressure was now on Tuncay.

And latching on to a mis-hit shot by Digard, the Turk — clean through and played onside by Andy Wilkinson — took a touch and fired into the net.