Time to put all this crap behind us with the whole Downing saga and concentrate on a lot more important things such as Sunderland at home.

This fixture back in September was unfortunate and yet unlucky, with Downing missing a penalty only to be followed by a cocky Geordie to swagger on and score two goals. Revenge couldn’t be more sweeter than beating them on Saturday as we’d go above them and have initiative in the relegation fight, for the time being of course.

Boro’s absentees are Hoyte and I want to say Mido but who knows? Sunderland’s are defender George McCartney and keeper Craig Gordon but any of these won’t make a difference to the fight that both these teams are going to put up. Gary O’Neil will have hopefully shrugged off an ankle injury and Julio Arca will be back from his ban, but it’s Josh Walker who has raised a few eyebrows so maybe if he partnered Digard in the middle putting O’Neil wide right could mean that we could keep the ball for longer and pass it better.

It’s anybody’s guess if Downing features, I think he will in this central role that they seem to see him in, a part of me thought it would be an away game tactic but seen as though it’s the formation that was played against Barrow I guess not. That would probably mean Tuncay drifts to the left and as well Downing would have a bit of a free role.

Sunderland however have had a little turnaround under Sbragia, they’ve won 2, drawn 1 and lost 1 under his temporary and permanent charge. The combination of Jones & Cisse might prove to cause difficulties but then again it’s a derby so anything can happen. To deal with those two I wouldn’t be surprised if Gareth started Wheater & Huth to deal with the power & height and play Poggy on the left.

Boro need to start well, they didn’t do that against Everton in our last home fixture, as the away opposition they kept possesion and passed it around and frustrated us. So one, we need to get the ball and two, we need to keep it (I know yeah der!) but this is what we don’t do at home and when we do we don’t do it very well.

I just hope it’s not another boring 0-0 draw like when Newcastle, you think they could be goals in the game but in the end both teams are frightened of each other.

1-1.

Come on Boro!!