Middlesbrough introduce overdue changes to usual script

Namely, Same Old Script, with the Boro nation having grown accustomed to frustrating and sometimes cringeworthy episodes at the hands of Leeds United throughout the Riverside’s 20-year history.

On an afternoon when Boro, as a club, showed their support full-square behind the steelworkers at the under-threat SSI plant in nearby Redcar, the hosts’ iron resolve on the pitch highlighted their hardened promotion credentials at the expense of flaky Leeds.

Before the game, home fans displayed cards in support of the local steel industry with several flags at either end of the ground showing the Government where Teesside stood while Boro players warmed up in ‘Save Our Steel’ T-shirts.

Head coach Aitor Karanka, a man from the industrial north of Spain, was clearly conscious of Boro doing their bit to lift spirits in the workplace.

After the win, Karanka said: “I am pleased we have given the people of Teesside something to smile about at a difficult time.

“For 90 minutes they can maybe forget their problems.

“All of us want to dedicate the win to them.

“I’m proud of my players. Once again they fought until the end; it was a tough game. Maybe 3-0 wasn’t a (true) reflection. It was good to score early and it’s another three points.

“The aim is to play as we are, fight for every point and the main thing for our fans are our home points.”

Boro’s second win at home against Leeds in 23 years also lifted them to second place in the Championship on an afternoon when the Teessiders, for the third successive time already this season, obliterated yet another hoodoo. Prior to this campaign, Boro carried several battle scars from bruising yearly trips to the City Ground and Hillsborough, not to mention wounds from a number of telling blows inflicted by Leeds during numerous visits to the Riverside.

But after wins at traditionally far-from-happy hunting grounds in Nottingham Forest and Sheffield Wednesday, a victory over their Riverside nemesis has provided the equivalent of the cherry on the cake for Boro.

Having beaten Forest, the Owls and now Leeds already this term, it is small wonder that Boro fans are starting to think it might, just might, be their year.

For Leeds, the law of averages suggested that a difficult day at Boro’s home was perhaps due at some point in the not-too-distant future.

And finally, Leeds’s ship came in by the Tees.

For Uwe Rosler’s side, the damage was self-inflicted, less than a day on after another side in white in England’s rugby union men showed lamentable game-management with the gleeful beneficiaries in that case being Wales.

Here, too, a side in red was able to feel justifiably satisfied after coming out on top in another joust for bragging rights, this time in the north of the country.

Well, in Whitby, Thirsk and other North Yorkshire areas where allegiances are split between Boro and Leeds, at any rate.

The colour to best describe the mood of Rosler after the game was crimson – crimson with anger.

The German was livid with the failure of referee Neil Swarbrick and his linesman Scott Ledger to cancel out a legitimate looking United goal, while Cristhian Stuani also escaped a second yellow card when many other referees would not have been so lenient.

Truth be told, Rosler – who was decidedly cryptic when asked about the five changes to his starting line-up after revealing he did not plan to make them all – should have more pressing concerns given the atrocious defending from his charges.

To see a Leeds manager hot under the collar on Teesside after previous difficulties for the likes of home managers Karanka, Tony Mowbray, Gareth Southgate, Steve McClaren and Gordon Strachan in this fixture, will have made for a refreshing sight for Teessiders, for sure.