Break In Play

THIS international break has dragged its heels with much more labour than usual. But with England already qualified and their game yesterday only available via Windows Media Player, Nick Collins’ training ground reports were never going to be sparkling.

Unlike the last World Cup qualifying interruption when we had lost our first league game, this one came at a frustrating time for Boro. Having stopped the rot with a confident win at the Madejski last week, we’d have liked to follow it up with a game in quick succession.

Instead, the only Boro player in action this weekend was free-scoring centre-back Sean St Ledger, who continued his fine form in front of goal by scoring his first for Republic of Ireland in their agonizing draw with the Italians last night.

St Ledger celebrates a goal earlier this year for former club Preston

It’s quite a mark of the club’s decline that only two players were away from Rockliffe Park representing their countries this week. Rhys Williams, an unused sub in Australia’s friendly stalemate with Holland, was the other.

There might have been more call-ups from the MFC ranks if it weren’t for injuries. Emmanuel Pogatetz is, after all, the captain of Austria. But the likes of Brad Jones, Caleb Folan and Mohammed Shawky can scarcely be etched into the forefront of their respective managers’ minds at present.

In previous years, the club has been accustomed to losing a number of youngsters to the England-U21 squads. Now, though, that Messrs Johnson, Wheater and Taylor are no longer of age, there are slim pickings for Stuart Pearce on Teesside.

Jonathan Grounds, Seb Hines and Josh Walker are yet to make an impact this season, while teenagers Jason Steele and Joe Bennett are expected to leave their mark in coming years after playing big parts for the U19 squad recently.

So with such a shortage of Boro boys in action, what better time to take a glance around the lower divisions to see how a few former stalwarts are getting on.

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In League One, it was a weekend to forget for Graham Kavanagh, whose swing at clean air in his own area allowed Wes Hoolahan to seal a 1-0 win for Norwich at Carlisle. Kavanagh was subsequently yellow-carded and subbed mid-way through the second half.

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Cult keeper Mark Crossley, now 40, was keeping the bench warm for Chesterfied as they pulled off an impressive win at Bournemouth. The penalty-saving expert is a player-coach at Saltergate.

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Ben Hutchinson made it a hat-trick of ex-Boro players failing to make an impression in the third tier. Having been blighted by injury since making a dream switch to Celtic last year, the youngster will have been frstrated to last only 34 minutes for loan club Swindon Town.

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Meanwhile, in League Two, doomed Darlo named three former Riversiders in their match-day squad at Dagenham. But none of Noel Whelan, Gary Smith or David Knight could do anything to change the Quakers' fortunes. Steve Staunton looks like he's got a job on to salvage the mess left by Colin Todd and Dean Windass.

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John Johnson, still a Boro player but on loan to Northampton, managed the full 90 minutes as his surrogate club came back from 2-0 down to draw at Bury.

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And his former reserve side teammate Jason Kennedy, now no doubt relieved to be away from crisis club Darlington, was the only old Boro boy on a winning side this weekend as Rochdale edged to a 2-1 success over Barnet.