Due to the rapid fire nature of the fixtures in the Championship, and my own hectic work schedule, a fair number of matches have passed since my last column.
There have been five games since we beat Ipswich 3-1 at the Riverside. Since Gary O'Neil's glorious header and Aliadiere's two goal special.
First came an almost perfect replay of the Ipswich match, only this time away against Sheffield Wednesday. The goals came from Adam Johnson and Jeremie Aliadiere, plus an own goal from the Owl's Darren Purse.
Full of confidence and unbeaten in September we should have relished a visit from promotion rivals West Brom. Instead we made an organised but not particularly spellbinding Baggies side look like world beaters in comparison to our naive, scared bunch of amateurs.
The Boro 'man of the match' was deemed to be new loan signing Sean St Ledger. Firstly everyone else must be impressively bad (which of course they were) for a player who was part of a defence which let five goals in to be man of the match!
However, if forced, I would have made the same decision, even though I think St Ledger's introduction unsettled our fledgling defence. St Ledger himself did not have a good game, nobody in a Boro shirt did, but he did have a couple of moments where you thought 'Ok, that's why we've brought him here'.
Caleb Folan would love to be able to say the same.
As debuts go, it was simply awful. The Hull City player looked less like a Tiger and more like a baby giraffe - all long limbs which he couldn't quite control. If matches were one-shot X Factor-style auditions, Folan would most definitely have been eliminated.
But luckily for the Republic of Ireland international, and hopefully Boro, the gangly forward will have other chances to prove his worth, assuming his recovery from a hamstring injury is not being overseen by Pogatetz' physio!
I'm joking of course. But Emanuel Pogatetz has now had more 'injury set-backs' than Southgate has 'learned lessons'. However, in his absence his stock will go up.
Boro players are good at making themselves indispensable simply by not being involved in our worst performances. Against Cardiff it was Aliadiere, and against West Brom it was Gary O'Neil.
And while we aren't on the subject, why oh why does Gareth insist on banning his players from post match interviews when they lose?
To my mind it compounds the weakness they have just displayed on the pitch.
I actually asked the man himself this question. He responded that he felt it was the duty of a team's manager to 'protect his players'. He also opined that the players were 'shell-shocked and didn't really understand what had happened'.
At twenty-four, a similar age to most of the players, I find this slightly patronising. I'm aware that this might not bother anyone else but hey, its my column, so where better to air my personal grievances?
The misery of the West Brom match was blunt trauma, like repeatedly being hit over the head with all our inadequacies. Five times to be exact.
Coventry was different. We could and should have claimed all three points relatively easily. Sean St Ledger opened his account for the club and Rhys Williams finally did what he has been threatening to do since his profilic pre-season, and scored.
Rhys has a long trip to Australia for the internationals and will return shortly before Boro's next match, at home to Watford on the 17th.
Ordinarily I get irritated with players pleading 'tiredness' from international duty but Australia is a hell of a long way to go and Rhys is unlikely to be firing on all cylinders if Southgate does decide to risk him. With this in mind, I'd stick with Gary O'Neil in the centre and reintroduce Didier Digard.
We got back on track with Reading, with goals from Sean St Ledger and Leroy Lita, or Leroy Lita and Leroy Lita if you choose to believe the ex-Reading man. Lita claimed both goals in his post match interview, displaying the selfishness that we have been lacking in a striker for quite some time.
Also speaking after the match, David Wheater made a point of saying that "it is us on the pitch" Bravo to our young captain, another of our players whom I feel the need to defend.
Yes the removal of Robert Huth unsettled our defence and particularly Wheats but I don't believe that the young centre back will struggle too much over the course of the season.
I believe Wheater and St Ledger will form a valuable partnership sooner rather than later and their display against Reading showed that the seeds have already been sown.
Interestingly St Ledger is already offering more of an aerial threat than Huth did, despite being somewhat shorter than the Berlin Wall.
Joe Bennet is also worth a mention, as the young full-back has looked full of energy and intent whenever he has graced the pitch, and his pace offers Boro another forward outlet.
And Brad Jones kept a clean sheet. Jones gets enough abuse when he performs badly (or when his name is read out at the Riverside) that I feel it is only right to give him a verbal pat on the back for his controlled performance against the Royals.
Watford next. Adam Johnson scored five goals in twelve games while on loan to Watford and should receive a warm reception from the travelling fans.
Boro really need to prove that we can transfer our away form to the Riverside and Johnson, who has rarely looked as good on home turf, could be integral to this.
We also need more goals from our strikers, Aliadiere may have already exceeded his paltry league tally of last season, but he could be closing in on double figures by now with some of the chances he has fluffed. A word to the Frenchman - keep it simple.
Leroy Lita is now in scoring form and will hopefully continue where he left off when the season resumes.
Two home matches on the bounce will test Southgate's resolve but I am hopeful that boro will not once again choose to test the fans' increasingly stretched patience.
Six points from the next two games is infinitely doable and therefore with my optimism restored I say we will pick up at least four!
First published on www.ComeOnBoro.com on 12/10/2009
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