ComeOnBoro.com columnist Tom Warnock gives us his weekly view.

Hands up if your Sunday dinner was going down an absolute treat - shovelling Britain's finest dish into your mouth and choking on a Yorkshire with each Newcastle United produced chuckle - only to have your pudding ruined by a two-goal comeback and an Everton collapse.

My hand is raised aloft but it wasn't all gloom this weekend. I watched Football First, Match of the Day, Goals on Sunday, and yes, even Match of the Day Two (although I couldn't quite stomach watching Andy Gray's smug chubby mug on Sky's The Last Word - a face for commentary indeed).

Why this feast of highlights indulgence, you may ask? It was a special day, our sole away win of 2008 so far and with only three months remaining until we party into 2009, it was just in the nick of time.

All the moaning and whinging we expelled during the month of September, bemoaning missed chances and last minute lapses, well the shoe was well and truly on the other foot on Saturday. That old cliché in football, things always even themselves out, was once again proven to be true.

After we battered West Brom at home and they snatched a lucky winner, after we squandered guilt-edgers against the Mackems and they snatched two lucky winners, we survived a pummelling at Wigan, and... oh yes, we snatched a lucky winner.

It wasn't even a good chance. It was a three touch move that any long ball specialists would be proud of. It was bumped up front to Downing - whose reaction and control was top class - then pea-rolled past the keeper by Aliadiere. Cue mayhem in the Boro end.

In truth, I didn't pay a hell of a lot of attention to the Boro match as it was being played live.

In fairness, we all knew it was going to be tight until the end, as little rarely gives in the opening stages of our games this season.

The highlights also showed just how good Ross Turnbull can be. This lad is good and his performances have eclipsed Brad Jones from the 'number one' equation.

Some of his saves put the agility of Schwarzer to shame and he looks to be one of the best keepers we've had in a while. If Gareth had started him in the first game of the season, then we would have been applauding the manager's judgement in not purchasing a keeper. However, we will never know if he would have even played had Brad Jones not been injured. Sorry Gareth, no credit for that decision.

On the subject of team selection, I was baffled at the starting line-up on Saturday and in particular the insistence on playing Shawky and O'Neil in the same midfield. Yes it was an away fixture, yes we needed to be solid and yes we needed to give Cattermole a good clatter, particularly after his comments on Stewart Downing.

However, I am that impressed with Digard and I have much more faith in his ability to create, that I don't think it's a coincidence that our breakthrough came via him. All too often, Shawky can be a liability. He doesn't have much mobility and he frequently times tackles late.

It was sweet to put one over on a certain Lee Cattermole, who exhibited the typical stubbornness of a young Stockton lad with his immature comments about Stewart Downing. He claimed to talk to Stewart all of the time, adding that Stewart will and should leave Boro for a bigger club.

He went on to add that he was distracted by mates in Teesside, which was basically his excuse for being banned from a few boozers in the region and losing his place in the Boro side. If I was Lee, I would be hailing the academy which gave him the chance, instead of sullying the club who made him. We are not impressed young Cattermole.

It's obvious that we have to find a balance between our recent contrasting performances. By putting the ball in the net early, we will be able to relax, take hold of the ball and dictate the play, scoring a second or third goal whenever we choose to step up the tempo.

Instead, we hustle and chase for eighty minutes, desperately scratching around for a goal. We therefore use twice the energy and crawl off the pitch wounded and tired, instead of swaggering off with a comfortable cushion.

An early goal is the fine line between an easy win and an uphill struggle and in the words of Gareth; we must learn this quickly, because that would be simply (to quote McClaren) magnificent.

Next week it's our first live game on Sky this season and the stage is set for an underdog victory. We need our big guns firing and we need a performance from someone similar to that of Mendi v Manchester United, Rochemback v Chelsea and last season Alves v Manchester United.

The stage is set - who will take the lead role?

Until next time

Up the Boro

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