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Boro started 2001 in 18th position just a point away from safety. A good start to the year under Terry Venables, less than a month into his contract as Head Coach, allowed Boro to progress.
Boro were a new team and went through January unbeaten picking up six points from four league games (D,W,D,D) and progressing to the 4th round of the FA Cup, at the expense of Bradford City.
The highlight was a 4-0 victory at home to Derby which was complemented by three creditable draws at Leeds, Liverpool and Everton. By the end of the month Boro had moved up to 16th place, three points clear of the drop zone.
Already the future of Venables was big news and hardly a day went by without his name being mentioned in the media.
February
Off the field the future of Venables continued to grab the headlines while on the field Boro failed to win a game picking up just two points from three games (D,D,L) and losing in the FA Cup 4th round, to Wimbledon, in a replay.
A disappointing 1-1 draw at home to Manchester City was followed by a boring 0-0 draw at home to Wimbledon, in the FA Cup, although Boro extended their unbeaten run to 12 games with an impressive 1-1 draw at Villa Park.
Then it began going wrong with a 3-1 defeat by Wimbledon at Selhurst Park in the FA Cup, Ugo Ehiogu was sent off for violent conduct, for which he later received a four match ban. Finally Southampton sneaked a 1-0 win at the Riverside in a game which Boro dominated from start to finish.
The month saw Boro drop one place to 17th just a point above the relegation zone.
March
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Another month dominated by off-the-field headlines mainly due to the fact Boro played only three games in the month, picking up four points (D,W,L).
Boro started the month with a dull 0-0 draw at home to Charlton, then had a week off due to World Cup Qualifiers, during this week Boro snapped up Dean Windass from fellow strugglers Bradford City.
Windass missed the chance of making his debut against Newcastle at St. James’ Park after injuring his back when getting his bag out of the car. Boro managed to pull off a fine 2-1 victory without him thanks to two Alen Boksic goals.
Some good fortune allowed Boro to hang on for all three points after playing the second half with ten men, Newcastle missed a penalty with five minutes left. No doubt, one of the games of the season.
Boro finished the month with a disappointing 2-1 defeat at Stamford Bridge, Windass scoring his first goal in a Boro shirt.
Nevertheless Boro remained in 17th position but now had a four-point safety cushion between themselves and Manchester City.
April
A thrilling 0-0 draw at home to the Mackems started the most productive month of the year to date with Boro picking up seven points from five games (D,W,L,W,L). Boro produced their result of the season against Arsenal, running out 3-0 winners, their first win at Highbury since 1939. It almost handed Manchester United the title on a plate.
Boro were brought back to earth just two days later when Ipswich stunned the Riverside by winning 2-1, both goals being scored by Boro old boy Alun Armstrong, within five minutes of the restart.
Following another 3-0 away win, this time at Leicester, Boro were almost safe, moving up to 16th place they had their destiny in their own hands with two game left. Another three points would be enough but Manchester United, the champions elect, kept up their impressive record at the Riverside by winning 2-0.
Off the field the Christain Ziege transfer was making headlines, with the FA questioning both clubs and Ziege over the allegations. Paul Ince urged Terry Venables to make up his mind once and for all about his future as ITV set him a deadline.
May
With only two games left Boro still needed three points to be mathematically certain of safety, a 1-1 draw at Bradford was not enough. Thankfully Boro’s fate was settled by the ‘tractor boys’ who beat Manchester City in a live game which had the whole of Teesside glued to their sets (or in the pub).
The final game was a celebration game against West Ham. A fairly comfortable 2-1 win saw Boro climb to 14th position, well above the relegation zone which they had flirted with for two thirds of the season.
Terry Venables was given a standing ovation at the end of the game but the cheers turn to boos when he was joined by Bryan Robson.
Eventually, after much deliberation, Venables signed for ITV and parted company with Boro. Steve McClaren’s name was mentioned as a replacement when he was given permission to leave Old Trafford, although he also talked to West Ham and Southampton.
The press revealed that McClaren had joined Boro in favour of West Ham but there was no official word from the club.
Christian Ziege’s move from Liverpool to Tottenham is blocked by the Premier League due to Boro’s allegations of irregularities in his transfer from Boro.
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he long awaited departure of Bryan Robson and his assistant Viv Anderson, much to the relief of Boro fans around the world. The seat was vacant for just one week before Steve McClaren was finally unveiled as Boro’s new manager.
Gordon McQueen was the first casualty of the new regime as he follows Robson and Anderson down the road.
July
Boro return to pre-season training without Gary Pallister who decided to call it a day after a season dogged with injury.
Boro replaced Pally with the £6.5m signing of Gareth Southgate from Aston Villa, they also received a work permit for Szilard Nemeth, who was ruled out of the start of the new season when he had a hernia operation. Christian Karembeu left the club for Olympiakos in Greece for £3.5m.
Steve McClaren revealed his new backroom staff bringing in Bill Beswick as his assistant, Steve Harrison as first team coach, Steve Round as second team coach and Paul Barron as goalkeeping coach.
The first two friendlies of the pre-season resulted in two victories, 3-0 at Scarborough and 3-2 at Mansfield.
August
Boro remained unbeaten in two more freindlies, a 1-1 draw at Preston then an impressive 3-0 win over Athletico Bilbao, in Curtis Fleming’s testimonial match.
A flurry of transfers followed as Boro signed up Jonathan Greening and Mark Wilson from Manchester United for a combined fee of £3.5m. Keith O’Neill left the club for Coventry City.
Both new recruits impressed on Boro’s short tour of Holland where they beat Willem II Tilburg 1-0 and Den Haag 2-0.
Ugo Ehiogu and Gareth Southgate were called up into Sven Goran Eriksson’s squad for England’s friendly with Holland, Greening and Wilson were included in the U21 squad.
The final friendly before the big kick-off saw Boro retain the North Riding Senior Cup with a 2-0 win at York.
Boro started with three straight defeats in a week, losing 4-1 at home to Arsenal, then went down narrowly 1-0 to Bolton at the Reebok Stadium followed by a disappointing 2-0 reverse at Goodison Park. Amazingly Boro stayed off the bottom, due Leicester City’s suffering two heavy defeats.
Ex-Mackem Allan Johnston joined Boro from Rangers after weeks of speculation.
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September
Boro’s season continued with a fourth straight defeat, at the hands of neighbours Newcastle, a 4-1 defeat at the Riverside condemned Boro to the worst start in their history.
A welcome 3-1 win over Northampton in the Worthington Cup gave Boro the confidence that had been missing, just the tonic they needed.
Three games later we had climbed to 12th position and the poor start had been forgotten.
A comfortable 2-0 victory at home to West Ham was followed two days later by a welcome 2-1 win at Filbert Street, as Boro came from behind to win the game with two goals in the last 5 minutes.
Another late goal at Stamford Bridge earned Boro a point in a 2-2 draw after they were 2-0 down, and although they ended the month with a 3-1 home defeat to a poor Southampton side Boro were in a respectable 14th position, having won seven points in the month (L,W,W.D.L).
October
With only three league games in the month Boro did well to create a comfort zone between themselves and the drop zone, picking up four points (D,W,L).
Unfortunately we were knocked out of the Worthington Cup away to Blackburn, losing 2-1, to a goal deep into extra-time.
A dull 0-0 draw at Charlton was followed by a pulsating 2-0 win over Sunderland at the Riverside, a game that saw Paul Ince sent off for a ‘hand bags’ offence.
The final game of the month saw Boro go down 2-1 at White Hart Lane, which was disappointing after Boro’s first half performance, in which Boro took the game to Spurs and were rewarded with a 1-0 half-time lead.
Nevertheless Boro remained in 14th place.
Two Boro players spent time in London on loan, Steve Vickers at Crystal Palace and Phil Stamp at Millwall but both players refused a permanent deal when offered.
Other news off the field involved the controversial sale of Christian Ziege, which is dragging on and on, and also Marco Branca’s claim for compensation, which has not yet been settled.
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Another month short of games as internationals interrupted the season again, although Boro don’t mind, in the three games they played they picked up five points (W,D,D) and moved six points clear of the relegation zone.
A 5-1 thrashing of Derby at the Riverside was the highlight at the beginning of the month with Carlos Marinelli being the star of the show grabbing a brace for himself.
That was followed by two goalless games away at Villa Park and at home to Ipswich.
Boro lost Brian Deane, who moved to Leicester City for a nominal fee, and Steve Vickers who had another loan spell, this time at Birmingham City, in the hope that ex-Palace boss Steve Bruce would be joining the Blues. He was joined by Curtis Fleming.
December
December was always going to be a difficult month on paper with games against Liverpool, Man. United, Newcastle and Arsenal the pick of them.
Boro got off to a flier with a 1-0 win at Blackburn, Alen Boksic scoring a rather fortuitous goal on the stroke of half time.
Liverpool and Man. United were too good for Boro, who were beginning to get a reputation for being hard to beat, but Liverpool managed two without reply at Anfield and Man. United scored the only goal at the Riverside to win 1-0.
Steve Vickers made his move to Birmingham permanent but Curtis Fleming returned after his month was up.
Mark Schwarzer returned from World Cup duty with a groin problem and was sent for a hernia operation which will keep him out until the end of January 2002.
Boro could have done with three points from Fulham, who were the last visitors to the Riverside of the year, but heavy overnight snow denied Boro the chance of getting that winning feeling again.
A Boxing Day trip to St. James’ Park, with the Geordie’s at the top of the table, was not the game that we could have wished for at such a stage of the season, the result certainly wasn’t, a 3-0 drubbing.
The final game of the year saw Boro visit Highbury, the scene of their historic 3-0 win earlier in the year but Arsenal were not so generous this time round coming back from a 1-0 deficit at half-time to win 2-1.
Boro slipped perilously close to the relegation zone, picking up just three points from five games (W,L,L,L,L). the most worrying factor being that Boro have only scored two goals since they beat Derby 5-1 in November, in a total of 630 minutes.
On New Years Eve Curtis Fleming completed a move to Crystal Palace for a fee of £100,000.
Summary
Robson and Venables have departed, McClaren has arrived.
Players in: Windass, Nemeth, Southgate,Greening, Wilson, Johnston, Queudrue (loan).
Player out: Maddison, Pallister, Karembeu, O'Neill, Deane, Vickers, Fleming.
Average attendance down below 30,000.
We are two positions higher and have four more points than the smae stage last season, so we have moved on!!!
Playing record (league)
P36 W10 D12 L14 F40 A43 P42