Mute Applause

With their club sliding slowly down the table since November Middlesborough fans have not had much to shout about this season. However, according to a recent letter distributed by the club then that may not be a bad thing. Whilst most clubs enduring a slump in fortunes would call on its fans to get behind the team, Boro have taken a much different approach with the letter, signed off by the club's safety officer, actually asking supporters at the Riverside to keep it down.

It's the letter's concluding paragraph which has angered most Boro fans receiving it. “I am receiving more and more complaints from our fans... about both the persistent standing and the constant noise coming from the back of this stand. Please stop, make as much noise as you like when we score, but this constant noise is driving some fans mad.” If Boro fans are to only make noise when their team scores then the Riverside is set to be eerily silent in coming weeks; Middlesborough have found the net just once in their last nine league games.

Middlesborough are a well run club who unlike many of their compatriots have not tried to overreach themselves in recent years. It is perhaps that which has stopped the Riverside being surrounded by the sort of doom-mongering which may have greeted similar form at their fellow top flight North East clubs. However, when the chips are down its perhaps best not to give your supporters more ammunition. Gareth Southgate's task at hand is difficult enough without this sort of over-zealous PR making the need for results more fierce.