by Martin Spinks

GARETH Southgate arrived in his dug-out before kick-off dressed in a snazzy suit and tie, but was soon requesting an overcoat to protect himself from the elements – natural and man-made.

Welcome to ST4 4EG.

A people renowned for their warm friendliness have somehow, and quite gloriously, transformed their football stadium into one of the most inhospitable places on earth for 90 minutes every fortnight.

There is a unity of spirit and purpose which has seen supporters scrum down with their players – the props to their hooker in the front row if you like – and in the process generated a noise per head surely on a par with an Old Firm title decider.

The net result is Wimbledon circa 1988, but without the mad chairman, the brutal captain and the sheep’s testicles.

Tony Pulis doesn’t exaggerate when he describes some of the noise on Saturday as being the loudest he has known in his five-and-a-half years as a Stoke manager.

So that’s why they built the stadium on a hill in the middle of nowhere.

And such a din wasn’t just apparent when the ball hit the back of the net, or when the final whistle blew, but at 0-0 when the home players were in obvious need of a timely shove towards their late heroics as even Delilah, for once, was narrowly eclipsed by strains of Oh When The Reds Go Marching In.

The statistics also accurately betray the evident advantage of the Britannia and its support after Stoke made it 28 of their 32 points coming on home soil, rendering the league table healthier than at any time during this historic first season in the Premier League.

It was never pretty and rarely of high quality on Saturday, but it was the kind of grind for which Stoke have been manufactured, prepared and have proved ideally suited.

All of which left one chairman reflecting on the wisdom of remaining faithful to his manager, but the other questioning the folly of staying loyal to his.

Your heart goes out to Southgate, a man surely on death row now, and you have to say there are other managers down at the bottom you’d rather see walking the plank.

Still, he posed for pictures and signed autographs in between some after-match interviews pitchside, however, although there was an anxious look over his shoulder when an ambulance parked close by as if to offer him a lift home.

Neither side could be accused of shutting up shop for the draw during a contest mirroring the fascinating slog now appearing to involve eight clubs in the nether regions of the Premier League.

Stoke were always at their most dangerous from the set-piece as the likes of Ricardo Fuller were more muscular than mesmeric on an afternoon when either he or his nearest opponent invariably ended up on the deck.

And his various little tête-à-têtes with Boro’s defenders didn’t give the impression the feisty Jamaican was offering his hearty congratulations for England’s bizarre victory over the West Indies the night before.

His temperament was clearly being tested by malice aforethought and, for one horrible moment in the first half, Boro appeared to have succeeded when his flailing arm struck Robert Huth in the gob with sufficient force and recklessness to leave you fearing the worst when the referee fumbled for a card.

How he deemed it a yellow-card offence – when it was either a straight red for violent conduct or nothing for an accidental strike – is a mystery Fuller was happy to let go after at least having the decency to make contact with an opponent’s chops on this occasion.

Fuller’s partnership with James Beattie functioned rather than flowed, but it was that type of afternoon for everyone against a Boro rearguard playing with three central defenders to nullify Stoke’s physical threat down the middle.

Beattie has now gone two games without a goal – send for the panic button quick – but twice found inviting positions from which to threaten the visiting goal to try to maintain his personal 100 per cent scoring record at the Britannia.

Sadly, a first-half prod close to goal was tipped around the post as Boro floundered from an early throw.
Then a second-half header was deposited wastefully over the bar after Liam Lawrence’s fine work and cross from the right.

Boro’s clearest opportunities tended to generate themselves more from open play, in fairness, and Tuncay produced the best football of the day after rounding off a neat passing manoeuvre in the first half by cutting in from the left and dipping a vicious shot on to the roof of the Stoke net.

Tuncay would later drill one effort wide of the near post and another across goal after twice opening up the home defence in the second period, while Gary O’Neil inspired the save of the day when a firm drive was touched around his near post by Thomas Sorensen’s lively reactions.

Stoke, with that crowd of theirs demanding nothing less, were threatening to finish the stronger when they finally breached a clean sheet that Boro could never take for granted, even as late as the 84th minute.

Perhaps preoccupied by Mama Sidibe’s introduction a few seconds earlier – and certainly restraining him with a bear hug or two from Rory Delap’s long throw from the right – Boro were caught leaden-footed by Ryan Shawcross launching into a little goal-ward run to flee his marker.

His movement, jump and contact were timed to perfection as he glanced the ball past a stranded goalkeeper and inside the far post for his third in four games after going all season without a single goal.

What followed was the anxious finale – thankfully devoid of any real scrapes – to which we have all been privileged to regularly witness on this winding journey over the past eight months.

There will be those tempted to write off Middlesbrough and West Brom already, and with sound reason possibly, which would realistically leave Stoke as one of half-a-dozen other clubs scrambling to avoid the final vacancy in the condemned cell.

Throw in the present table, Stoke’s current form and their forthcoming fixtures ... and you have an equation fans could only have dreamed of back in August.

Not safe, not by a million miles, but looking a hell of a lot safer than they once were.

Rival talk

Middlesbrough boss Gareth Southgate: We have to play to our strengths. We couldn’t go to
Stoke and play them at their game because they are better at it than we are.

As much as we could we wanted to pass the ball and we did and we kept it from them for long periods of time and when we did pass it we opened them up.

But we didn’t show enough quality in the final third in terms of our final pass or finish.

We certainly had a couple of good chances to win it and haven’t taken them. In football you have to take your chances.