Dean Gordon scored his first goal against Coventry in the next home game – a 2-0 win, and then Brian Deane again showed his ability to be a complete pain in the arse to opposing defences by helping us gain a creditable 1-1 draw at Highbury. Then we had the Geordies at home. It was a midweek evening game on a chilly December night and it ended 2-2, but we really should have won. A couple of our veteran players grabbed the goals, in the form of Townsend and Cooper, and Gazza was accosted on the pitch by some festive-spirited ladies who were visibly feeling the cold.

 I remember this game for more than just the football, because the next day I met Mark Schwarzer at Harrogate railway station. (I was on my way to London for an interview, having decided I couldn’t bear the ICI Wilton isolation treatment any more). It was a few minutes before I was certain who I was stood next to on the platform, and I tried not to sound like a complete fool when I spoke to him. My opening gambit of, “Those Geordies were lucky last night,” caught him by surprise, I think. He replied, “Yeah, mate, they were,” and said that he wasn’t usually recognized in Harrogate. We had a little chat and then the train arrived. I resisted the temptation to sit opposite and stare at him all the way to Leeds.

 A 1-0 win at home to the Hammers was followed by a famous day for the Boro. On the 10^th December we travelled to Old Trafford, expecting a bit of a lesson in football at the very least. Bernie Slaven, commentating on the game for local radio, made a rather rash prediction that we wouldn’t get anything from the game, and said that if we won he would bare his backside in the window of the Binn’s department store in Middlesbrough. He should have kept quiet, because Ricard, Deane and Gordon put us into a 3-0 lead. United could only get back two of the goals and we hung on for a marvellous, historic victory.

 Bernie was true to his word and carried out his threat, wearing a kilt and having the numbers 3 and 2 written on his buttocks to show to the waiting public and local press. Roary the lion was there as well and seemed to find it all very amusing.

 And then it was Christmas. On the last day of work before the break I left my job with the Stockton firm after an eight-year stint, striking out on my own as a freelancer. I didn’t even get a card or a present from work (they’d probably forgotten I existed), so I decided to take a huge bottle of blended whisky from the office party in lieu. In Yarm later that afternoon, in my state of emotional inebriation, I nearly managed to get our group chucked out of one of the pubs because I wasn’t very subtle about the bottle I still had with me. I got home in rather a state and managed to spill the coffee my wife made for me on the stairs. I then read a newsletter from my old senior school that had arrived that day, and found out that an old classmate had recently committed suicide. I sat on the stairs, drunk as a skunk, crying into the newsletter and saying this poor fellow’s name over and over again. Life…it’s a funny old game.

 I started a freelance position in London just after the New Year, and spent the next four months travelling down to The Smoke on a Sunday night and returning on a Friday afternoon. It wasn’t an ideal situation, but I still managed to get to the Saturday home games.

 Boro’s fortunes went rapidly down the swanny at that point, as they invariably seem to do after Christmas every season. We went all the way to mid-March without a win, losing to Derby, Leeds, Sheffield Wednesday, Liverpool twice, Everton and going out in the third round of the FA Cup 3-1 to Manchester United. It was a run of seven defeats and three draws, with only five goals scored and twenty-one conceded. If it hadn’t been for the early-season good form, relegation might have been a real worry. There weren’t even any cup runs to warm the cockles this season, as we had also gone out of the League Cup in the third round.

 As it was, a seven-game unbeaten run started in mid-March with a 3-0 win against Sheffield Wednesday, followed by Forest, Wimbledon, Charlton and Coventry all being put to the sword, and draws gained against Blackburn and Chelsea away. We were hovering in the upper-middle regions of the table, and knew that if it hadn’t been for that bad run, we may have been challenging for a European spot. Of course, the fact that we were safe from relegation by early April should have been something to be proud of. The other promoted teams were struggling badly, battling with Blackburn Rovers (champions only four years ago) and a few other perennial strugglers for survival.

 The season was petering out. There wasn’t much to play for now. Arsenal visited the Riverside in late April and gave one of the best displays of attacking football by an away team that I have ever witnessed. We were torn to pieces that day, with the Nigerian Kanu giving us a master-class in outrageous skill and finishing. The flicked back-heel goal from the edge of the penalty area was just ridiculous, and almost everyone in the stadium applauded it. I left at 6-0, having seen enough. Alun Armstrong scored a consolation goal towards the end, to sarcastic cheers and renditions of “pig bag” by the visiting fans. You’d think Mark Page would have realized that this piece of music has potential for infinite mockery, but it’s still used in 2010. Ho hum.

 Into May, then, and I managed to blag myself a job closer to home in Leeds. The commute from Ingleby Barwick wasn’t much fun, but I was home every night. The last three games of the season saw a 1-1 draw with Newcastle at their place, followed by a 1-0 home defeat to Man United. They, of course, were on their way to an historic treble of Premier League, FA Cup and UEFA Champions League, culminating in that dramatic comeback in Barcelona. Our last game was a nothing 4-0 defeat away to West Ham, and the season was over. We finished 9^th, and were only six points off West Ham in 5^th. All those draws (fifteen of them) and that terrible run had put paid to what could have been a superb season. We can’t complain too much, of course. In our first season back up we finished in the top half and were four places above Newcastle.

 I’d take that right now, thank you very much.