McClaren marvels at Middlesbrough

Middlesbrough FC will head to Germany for this week's UEFA Cup Round of 32 first-leg meeting with VfB Stuttgart in unexpectedly good heart after recording a remarkable 3-0 victory against Premiership leaders Chelsea FC on Saturday afternoon.

Slide arrested
Steve McClaren's side had endured a miserable run, winning just once in their previous eleven league games - a sequence which included a 7-0 defeat at Arsenal FC and a 4-0 home loss to Aston Villa FC the week before Chelsea's visit to the Riverside stadium. That run of results had seen Middlesbrough slip to 17th position in the Premiership, but the slide was arrested in spectacular fashion as first-half goals from Fábio Rochemback and Stewart Downing were added to by Yakubu Ayegbeni in the second to secure a morale-boosting three points.

'Sticking together'
"A week is a long time in politics and it's even longer in football," said McClaren. "Full credit to the players, through all the criticism they've stuck together. There's always been a good spirit and this is just reward for them keeping positive. But I'm especially delighted for the fans. They haven't had much to shout about and I'm delighted to give them a win like this."

'Hope for the future'
Middlesbrough have been missing a number of key players through injury but George Boateng and James Morrison both returned against Chelsea allowing McClaren to field a more experienced side than in recent weeks. "We had men out there against Chelsea and that makes a big difference. It's been very difficult putting the same team out game after game and consistency of personnel gives consistency of performance. We also have the likes of [Franck] Queudrue and [Ugo] Ehiogu coming back, other big players, and that gives us a lot of hope for the future."

Rochemback class
There were several exceptional performances in Middlesbrough's win, with Rochemback's clever promptings in midfield catching the eye in particular. "Fábio was excellent in his first game and we've seen flashes since," McClaren said of the Brazilian, who joined from Sporting Clube de Portugal in the summer and has been registered for the UEFA Cup. "He's gradually settled and the Chelsea match was the icing on the cake. He showed exactly why we brought him here."

Positive platform
McClaren believes that the victory – José Mourinho's heaviest defeat since taking over as Chelsea manager in summer 2004 – gives his team a platform for the future, starting at the Gottlieb-Daimler-Stadion on Thursday night. He said: "We've shown what we're capable of doing although we haven't done it enough and in the past couple of months our home record has been poor. But we had nothing to lose and when we scored the first goal you could see the confidence and belief come back. This gives us something to build on."