Regular readers of my column will remember that whilst I continue to be hopelessly and depressingly devoted to the Boro, I see no conflict of interest in supporting other teams so long as they are not in direct competition.
Following this theory, I keep an eye on Gillingham - my lower league team, Hibs - I grew up in the same village as one of their defenders, and I sometimes travel with the Boro Futsal team.
Middlesbrough Futsal Club, unlike their footballing brethren this season, are a credit to the town.
Of the seventeen first team players, ten are from Middlesbrough or surrounding areas such as Stockton and Sunderland, and Boro winger Stewart Downing is the club's honorary president.
The manager and chairman, Damon Shaw, founded Middlesbrough Futsal Club in 2007 and although it has not all been plain sailing since then, largely because players left when they graduated from The University of Teesside, Shaw has now assembled a team that is unbeaten this season in the Futsal Northern League.
Partly due to the nature of the futsal rules and partly due to the camaraderie between the players, the team are a solid unit who all work for each other.
Currently top of the Northern League, Boro have qualified for the FA Cup semi-finals in July. In addition, the B team are competing in the Tees Valley Futsal League and the North Riding Cup. The under-fourteens, formed just last March, have already won the Perth Youth Futsal Annual Open this season.
I really don't want to remind you exactly what the Boro football team are competing for this season.
Players such as Jeremie Aliadiere, who have been on the fringes of bigger clubs, began their time at Middlesbrough just 'appy to play every week but have lacked lustre and failed to turn it on.
Players like Stewart Downing and Matthew Bates who were born in the town, and in some cases as recently as the 1990s, should not need any more incentive than growing up in Middlesbrough to perform for the fans.
Experienced players such as Emanuel Pogatetz should already be invested in the club and should be putting up a far greater fight.
The footballers should be doing a lot of things but most of all, they should be doing their jobs.
The big difference of course is that the futsal boys are not professional, they play for the love of the game.
Whilst a Boro first team player earns around £40,000 a week, a Boro futsal player is not paid and can expect to have to contribute to travel costs, accommodation for tournaments and kit.
This brings me nicely on to the strips. The Boro futsal kits are sponsored by former MFC sponsor Errea. The home kit is blue but as with the Boro football strips, the fans were given the chance to vote online for the futsal away strip.
The options were red, white, yellow and pink and although it was a close run vote for a while, pink came out on top.
Whilst the red of the Boro should convey danger to opponents, this season we have only been a danger to ourselves.
Aerosmith once informed us that "pink is the colour of passion" and the distinctive pink away strip certainly hasn't slowed the futsal boys down. They wear their kit with pride and as Damon said: "Teams hate being beaten by a team in pink" as it adds to the humiliation.
"Pink it's like red but not quite". This season, when it comes to Middlesbrough, pink and futsal are clearly better.
If you want to catch a futsal match and see the 'other Boro' boys in action, get yourself to Thornaby for Boro v Sheffield on the 17th of May, see below for further details:
With Tees Valley Under-14s Girls Tournament: 10am-1pm
Boro Under-14s Exhibition: 1.30pm
Entry: Adults - £2.50, kids - £1
First published on www.ComeOnBoro.com on 7/5/2009
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