THIS season marks the fifth anniversary of the sensational European campaign that took Middlesbrough, a self-styled 'Small town in Europe', all the way to the UEFA Cup final in Eindhoven. In the first of an exclusive two-part series, former manager Steve McClaren revisits the run of matches that preceded the quarter-final stage
FIRST ROUND
First Leg
September 15, 2005
MIDDLESBROUGH 2 (Boateng 28, Viduka 83) SKODA XANTHI 0
Schwarzer; Xavier, Ehiogu, Bates, Pogatetz; Parlour (Morrison 74), Doriva, Boateng, Johnson (Queudrue 60), Maccarone (Yakubu 74), Viduka.
Second Leg
September 29, 2005
SKODA XANTHI 0 MIDDLESBROUGH 0
Jones; Xavier, Southgate, Riggott, Pogatetz; Morrison, Boateng, Doriva, Queudrue (Parnaby 78); Maccarone (Nemeth 71), Hasselbaink (Yakubu 71).
At the start of the season, I think the overriding feeling was one of real excitement at getting a second crack at Europe.
In my opinion, the team that finished seventh the season before was the best team I had in all my time at Middlesbrough, and things had obviously come to an incredible head with Mark Schwarzer's save at Manchester City.
I still have a picture of that save in my house, and it's one of my very favourite memories from the whole of my managerial career.
The draw paired us with Xanthi, and while you normally want to have the second leg at home, I was fairly happy about putting things to bed at the Riverside.
We didn't play brilliantly in the first leg, but I remember thinking that Viduka's goal towards the end was a real boost going over to Greece.
We stayed in a lovely hotel in Athens and everything was fairly relaxed until we turned up at the ground for the second leg - it was really, really basic, even by some continental standards.
The stands were tiny, the pitch was rock hard and the facilities were probably like a League Two club over here.
We had some big characters in that dressing room though, and they more than pulled us through.
Now, the Xanthi away game is probably best remembered for Abel Xavier's failed drugs test, but obviously we knew nothing about that until the results came through a couple of weeks later.
For an hour or two, we were all in an absolute state of shock. We knew Abel was a bit of character, and sometimes you never really knew what he was doing from one day to the next, but you never expect one of your players to fail a drugs test.
We had a series of conversations to try to get to the bottom of things, but to this day, it's all still a bit of a mystery.
GROUP STAGE
October 20, 2005
GRASSHOPPERS ZURICH 0 MIDDLESBROUGH 1 (Hasselbaink 10)
Schwarzer; Parnaby, Riggott, Southgate, Pogatetz; Nemeth (Morrison 67), Boateng, Doriva, Mendieta (Queudrue 79); Hasselbaink, Viduka (Yakubu 85).
November 3, 2005
MIDDLESBROUGH 3 (Yakubu 36, Viduka 51, 56) DNIPRO 0
Schwarzer; Parnaby, Bates, Riggott, Pogatetz; Morrison, Doriva, Mendieta (Kennedy 60), Queudrue; Viduka (Nemeth 64), Yakubu (Maccarone 57).
November 24, 2005
AZ ALKMAAR 0 MIDDLESBROUGH 0
Jones; Bates, Ehiogu, Riggott, Pogatetz; Morrison (Parnaby 65), Doriva, Boateng, Nemeth (Queudrue 75); Hasselbaink, Viduka (Yakubu 64).
December 15, 2005
MIDDLESBROUGH 2 (Maccarone 80, 86) LITEX LOVECH 0
Jones; Bates, Ehiogu, Riggott, Queudrue; Morrison, Doriva, Kennedy, Johnson; Hasselbaink (Cattermole 83), Maccarone.
We were all fairly happy with the draw for the group stage, although we would probably have preferred to have had Alkmaar at home. With three teams going through though, we certainly fancied our chances.
The Grasshoppers game was first up, and I thought we produced a really solid European performance.
Defensively, we were superb in Switzerland, and while the latter stages of the UEFA Cup run were all about goals and excitement, I think people sometimes forget that we kept a clean sheet in all of our first three away games.
We were always capable of nicking a goal - just like Jimmy did early on in Zurich - and if our defenders did their jobs, we were confident of getting a result against pretty much anyone. That's what happened in the group phase.
The Dnipro game was probably our easiest in the entire run, although it might well have been different if we'd had to travel to the Ukraine.
Mark Viduka and Yakubu played really well together that night - choosing between the two of them and Jimmy, and keeping all three of them happy, was one of the hardest jobs I faced in the whole of the season. Not that I was complaining mind!
The Alkmaar game was a little bit of a non-event really, but funnily enough, I remember it well.
Alkmaar had a really good side at the time - people like Landzaat, Mathijsen and Arveladze - and it was a really horrible day, wet, cold and miserable.
I remember driving on the coach to the ground thinking, 'This will test them', but to be fair they came through well.
We started well in the first 20 minutes or so, but for most of the last hour, we were relying on our defence. Mark Schwarzer played a blinder, something that was to become a bit of a theme throughout the rest of the campaign.
The point was enough to get us out of the group stage, and as a staff, we were a pretty happy group on the flight home. I wouldn't say we were starting to think about progressing deep into the competition, but we certainly knew we had a squad that we were happy to go to war with.
Because we'd already qualified, the Litex Lovech game was a bit of a damp squib, but it gave me a chance to play some fringe players who would go on to have important roles later in the campaign.
Matt Bates played in a few of the European matches, Adam Johnson had an odd cameo here and there, and of course the player who scored twice against Lovech was Massimo Maccarone. Even at the time, I had a funny feeling it wouldn't be the last we heard from him in the UEFA Cup run.
ROUND OF 32
First Leg
February 16, 2006
STUTTGART 1 (Ljuboja 86) MIDDLESBROUGH 2 (Hasselbaink 20, Parnaby 46)
Schwarzer; Parnaby, Riggott, Southgate, Pogatetz; Davies, Boateng (Kennedy 81), Doriva, Rochemback, Downing (Johnson 73); Hasselbaink (Yakubu 85).
Second Leg
February 23, 2006
MIDDLESBROUGH 0 STUTTGART 1 (Tiffert 13)
Schwarzer; Parnaby, Riggott, Southgate, Queudrue; Davies, Cattermole, Mendieta (Viduka 86), Boateng, Downing (Taylor 89); Hasselbaink (Ehiogu 86).
We watched the draw live at the club, and I think we all thought Stuttgart were somewhere in the middle of what we could have got. They weren't the strongest team in the competition, but they certainly weren't the weakest either.
There were a lot of games in the European run where for whatever reason, we didn't start that well, but that wasn't the case in Stuttgart.
We were great for the first 20 minutes or so, and Jimmy obviously chipped in with a typically well-taken goal.
That left us in a bit of a quandary about our approach, but I remember telling the lads to be positive at half-time, and urging the full-backs to push on because I didn't think their wide midfielders were particularly willing to track back.
I thought we could get a bit of joy there, but I honestly didn't expect Stuart Parnaby to crack one in a minute or so after the interval. Mind you, talking to him after the game, I don't think he saw it coming either!
The only downside to the away game was the goal that we let in right near the end - that made the second leg much more difficult than it would otherwise have been.
In the whole of the European run, the second Stuttgart match was the only game where we didn't really know what to do. We hadn't been in that situation very often, not knowing whether to attack or sit back.
To be honest, it didn't go very well. We conceded early on, and it just seemed like we never really got our heads around what we were doing. By the end, I'd brought two extra defenders on and I think we were playing 4-6-0.
I got a bit of criticism the following day from some supporters and the press, and looking back, maybe we could have been a bit more positive. The game just didn't really pan out that way though, and we were forced to rely on our defence.
Thankfully, Chris Riggott and Gareth Southgate were immense. In some of the later games, we didn't have those two players available. If they hadn't played in the second leg of the Stuttgart game, I think we would have been out.
ROUND OF 16
First Leg
March 9, 2006
MIDDLESBROUGH 1 (Yakubu pen 12) ROMA 0
Schwarzer; Davies, Riggott, Southgate, Pogatetz; Mendieta, Boateng, Cattermole, Downing (Queudrue 89); Yakubu (Viduka 81), Hasselbaink.
Second Leg
March 15, 2006
ROMA 2 (Mancini 43, pen 66) MIDDLESBROUGH 1 (Hasselbaink 32)
Schwarzer; Davies (Queudrue 46), Riggott, Southgate, Pogatetz; Mendieta, Boateng, Cattermole, Downing; Hasselbaink, Yakubu (Parlour 59).
We were obviously thrilled to be in the last 16 in Europe, but it wasn't something new, we'd done it before. Back then though, we were always on the back foot against Sporting Lisbon.
This time, I think the home win over Roma was the first time we started to think, 'You know what, we might have a little chance in this competition'.
Roma were a big name, and were probably the best side left in. Huge players, huge reputation, huge task, but we bossed them at the Riverside and, to be honest, never really looked troubled.
Jimmy used all of his experience to win a penalty - let's just leave it at that and move on! - and you could always trust Yakubu to stick a spot-kick away.
I took a lot of pride out of that result, but at 1-0, we knew we were in for a huge task in the Stadio Olimpico.
Throughout the UEFA Cup run, whenever we were away, we had a tradition that, as a squad, we would have a bit of a walkabout in the city on the morning of the game.
I thought it was good for the players to get out of the hotel a bit, and I think the fans appreciated that we weren't closeted away. It was a huge adventure and we were all in it together.
Normally, you'd get a few supporters coming up, saying hello and asking for a picture, but the morning of the Roma game was different.
There were loads of fans asking us what we knew about the night before, and it quickly became apparent that there had been some trouble and some Boro supporters had been injured.
It was difficult to know what to do. We had local lads in the team who were worried about friends and family who had travelled over, and as the manager, I was obviously keen to make sure the club did all it could for anyone who had been hurt.
I think the possibility of a visit to the injured supporters was discussed, but the logistics of a match day meant that wasn't really possible. Even now though, I want all of our fans to know we were genuinely unsettled by what had happened.
The fans were fantastic throughout the run, but it's the Roma away game that really sticks in the mind, walking out onto the pitch and seeing thousands of them up in the stands.
We made a strong start, and Jimmy scored after half an hour. It was probably the best goal of the whole campaign - a wonderful cross from Stewy and a great bullet header.
Scoring first was the main aim of the game plan, but it then became a backs-to-the-wall job with Roma really thinking they had nothing to lose.
They scored two of the goals they needed, but couldn't get the third, and that was mainly down to Mark Schwarzer, who was magnificent.
You don't achieve anything unless you have a good keeper, and for me, at that time in the Premier League, Mark was just about the best there was.
There were a couple of moments where my heart was in my mouth - they missed a sitter fairly near the end - but we held out and I remember all of us on the pitch at the end applauding the fans.
There were some great nights to come, but leaving the Stadio Olimpico knowing we had just knocked out Roma took some beating.
* Read the second part of Steve McClaren's UEFA Cup memories on Monday, when the former Boro boss will explain:
* Why Stewart Downing was the most important player in the cup run
* Why he thought Boro were out, even after Massimo Maccarone scored the fourth goal against Steaua
* Why the Sevilla game turned out to be a bridge too far
Source: Northern Echo
Source: Northern Echo