Middlesbrough 1 Aston Villa 1

May 17 2009 by Mark Douglas, Sunday Sun

MIDDLESBROUGH remain in purgatory, but the fire and brimstone of relegation is only days away.

A battling point against Aston Villa keeps Boro in the Premier League for now – but after another tame second-half surrender, they now are a top-flight club in name only.

Nothing short of a miracle is needed to extend Boro’s 11-year stay in the big league. Even a strained Gareth Southgate admitted it would be an immensely “tall order” to keep Boro among the domestic game’s elite – up there with “Afonso Alves hasn’t found his shooting boots yet” as the understatement of the season.

Boro must now beat West Ham, overturn Hull’s goal difference advantage of four and hope that both the Tigers and Newcastle are beaten in their final game to keep them in the top division.

To be blunt, there is more chance of rampant self-publicist Phil Brown winning a Premier League popularity contest than that set of circumstances transpiring next weekend. Boro haven’t won on their travels for 12 games and have scored only 27 times all season – praying for final-day salvation and a thumping win at Upton Park is a pointless exercise.

Better, instead, to quickly come to terms with the fact that Boro will be playing Championship football next season – and learn the lessons that this dreadful campaign has thrown up.

The inquest that chairman Steve Gibson will hold with manager Southgate will be a brutal one – and there are no guarantees that both men will still be at the Riverside by the start of next season. Wicked whispers abounded about Boro’s dire financial outlook before kick-off – and relegation won’t help that.

In theory, the club has enough talented and eager young players to make a real fist of coming back at the first time of asking. But Leeds, about to spend their third season in League One, provide a nightmare vision of what can happen to clubs who fail to come to terms with the drop. The irony is that results elsewhere meant Boro were presented with the perfect opportunity to remain in the thick of the survival fight. Newcastle and Hull falling behind early – combined with Boro’s own rip-roaring start – raised hopes of a great escape. Even the tannoy announcer got in on the act, playing the film’s iconic theme song before the teams came out for the second half.

But hopes were dashed after a superb, spirited first half had given way to a lifeless, limp second period. It was all depressingly familiar for the Riverside masses, who turned on boss Southgate at the end.

Most of the players were generously acknowledged. Brad Jones and Tunçay, both excellent and entirely blameless for this failure, were clapped to the rafters.

But patience is clearly wearing thin with a manager who has fought doggedly and with dignity against the inevitable – but ended up being found wanting.

Southgate was booed by the majority of an impatient crowd when he came onto the pitch to console his haunted players at the end, a cruel fate for a man who looked broken as he trudged down the tunnel to try to rouse his players for Mission Impossible next weekend.