BEFORE talking about tomorrow’s match, I want to quickly mention last week’s heroics at the Britannia.

I know we can’t dwell on the past, but what entertainment and what a result.

I was determined to be there for the first home game and everyone turning up was richly rewarded.

There will be plenty of bad days for us in this league, but last weekend shows there can be some very good ones too.

It certainly quietens the critics by showing that, on their day, Stoke City can beat one of the best teams in the Premier League.

Everyone is assuming Middlesbrough will be down with the Stokes this season, but their first two performances suggest otherwise after beating Spurs and losing unluckily to Liverpool.

Steven Gerrard’s late winner shows the class the top clubs can call upon to win tight games, just as Deco did for Chelsea the next day when I went to see them beat a Wigan team that was the far better outfit on the day.

Middlesbrough’s assistant manager is a man I’ve known for years and worked with often in the past, and Malcolm Crosby isn’t one to speak bull when he says they are hoping to do better than all right this season. They have a fantastic chairman up there who gives them the resources and then let’s them get on with it.

Malcolm says they are delighted with the players they’ve brought in this summer like Justin Hoyte, even though they haven’t had much of a chance in the opening two leagues games.
Middlesbrough have got size at the back and pace going forward, a great mix which must give them a great chance of doing something this season.

In Jeremie Aliadiere, Stewart Downing, Tuncay and Afonso Alves, you have pace and skill to hurt teams and Stoke will be tested to the full.

They certainly need another performance like they got out of Abdoulaye Faye on his debut in central defence against Villa last week. I know I’m biased in favour of centre-halves, but for me he was man-of-the-match.

More of the same big fella, if you don’t mind.

If we are going to get a result tomorrow, then we are probably going to need the kind of brilliance that Ricardo Fuller provided with that outstanding second goal of his last week.
That shows that Stoke aren’t totally reliant on long balls and set-pieces.

But those long throws of Rory Delap clearly are a weapon and everyone in the Premier League will have sat up and taken notice of that 94th-minute winner against Villa.

I’m sure teams like Boro will be working on the training ground to come up with a way of defending them.

They are more dangerous than corners in many ways because Delap can ping them in at pace and with a different trajectory that makes it difficult for keepers to come through the bodies in front of them to catch or punch.

Stoke shouldn’t be criticised for long throws and they’re certainly nothing new... our first goal at Wembley in the 1972 League Cup final came from Peter Dobing’s long throw.

I thought Stoke also played some good stuff last week anyway, but that’s because they have some good players and good players don’t suddenly start lumping it.