[McClaren will be without the ineligible Rochemback against Xanthi who feature former Boro favourite Emerson.] He's my kind of midfielder, ... He's a terrific tackler, strong, he can take the ball and create. He's 33 but is still a great all-rounder. Xanthi have three or four Brazilians, so they've got flair. Anyone expecting an easy game will be in for a surprise. |
A great European performance, full of experience, concentration and discipline. |
A great European performance, full of experience, concentration and discipline. We got an early goal...I was disappointed we couldn't get a second. It's half a job done, the tie is evenly balanced. We are capable of scoring away from home. |
A week is a long time in politics and even longer in football at times. We have had an eventful couple of months. But credit the players for this win. Through all the criticism, all the performances and the results, we have always stuck together. There has always been a great spirit and it rewarded us today. |
Andrew has done well on loan at Bradford. We've had some positive reports on his performances and the experience should stand him in good stead. |
As the chairman [Steve Gibson] stated earlier, and I will state now, we don't want to lose our best players at this football club - and Mark Viduka is one of them. |
At home, it will be another atmosphere and a different match. |
At present the England manager is the England manager until 2008 so it is one of those situations where people are speculating, putting two and two together and getting six. |
At the moment he's going to be out for six to eight weeks. I don't think he will see very much of the present season if he does come back. |
At the moment we've got no consistency, ... Away from home our form has been very good but at home it's been patchy. That's been disappointing but the solution is there and we will find it. |
But he does that sort of thing in training all the time. He is a special player. |
But the players know what they have to do. I've told them in no uncertain terms, and they are as determined as anybody because we need to do something against Birmingham. |
Coming back from Europe, we only won one in 10, so we learnt a lot from that. |
Everybody has their opinion and likes to state it, and if that's what he wants to say, then that's what he wants to say, |
For 24 hours we'll allow ourselves to wallow with pity, but Tuesday we'll get on with the job. |