COVERING the North-East’s big three football clubs, all too often you find yourself mired in misery. If it’s not Mike Ashley’s running of Newcastle United and the mounting protest movement aimed at removing him from his position in the boardroom, it’s Sunderland’s struggles on the field and the all-too-familiar collapse that caused such humiliation in the club’s last outing.

Less hotbed, more sickbed, it’s no wonder the rest of the country looks on our region with a mixture of bafflement and sympathy.

All of which makes nights like last Friday all the more enjoyable. Watching Middlesbrough return to the top of the Championship with a 1-0 win at Norwich – a stay that proved frustratingly short as Watford and Bournemouth both claimed points the following afternoon - it was hard not to compare the state of things at the Riverside with the current chaos that passes for normality at both Newcastle and Sunderland.

For all that Boro might be playing in the Championship, I’d dare bet a fair proportion of fans at the region’s two Premier League clubs would happily swap places with their fellow supporters on the banks of the Tees. With that in mind, it would be nice to imagine that all North-Easterners were backing Boro over the course of the next two games.

Clearly, the Middlesbrough hierarchy have not been immune to making mistakes. The fall-out from relegation hit the Teessiders hard, and given that the club posted a pre-tax annual loss of £20.4m last week, there will have to be some more tough decisions if promotion proves elusive.

But just consider all the positive things that are happening with Boro for a moment. On the pitch, the club’s players are producing some of the best football that has been seen on Teesside for many a year.

The much-vaunted Rockliffe academy continues to produce a home-grown core – Ben Gibson has been a key player throughout the season with fellow Boro fan Jonathan Woodgate also influential at the heart of defence – and another North-Easterner, Grant Leadbitter, has been the skipper for most of the campaign.

Some might quibble about the high number of loan players, but the likes of Patrick Bamford and Tomas Kalas have helped provide a youthful energy that fans immediately warm to. Team spirit is clearly strong, and while the motivation levels of some Newcastle and Sunderland players can be questioned at the moment, a lack of desire will certainly not be the problem if Boro fail to make it to the Premier League next month.

In the dug-out, Boro boast the kind of dynamic, progressive coach that both Newcastle and Sunderland will be attempting to recruit later this summer. A few eyebrows were raised when Aitor Karanka was awarded his first senior coaching role a year-and-a-half ago, but the Spaniard has proved a roaring success.

Bright, innovative and meticulous when it comes to his preparations, Karanka is clearly destined for big things in the future. It is hardly a leap of faith to suggest he is likely to achieve considerably more than either John Carver or Dick Advocaat in the next decade.

The Northern Echo:

The Riverside fan base has bought into Karanka’s stewardship, and while crowd levels have remained frustratingly low for the majority of the campaign, the fact next weekend’s final home game with Brighton is already a sell out augurs well for the future. If it is to be Premier League football next season, expect average attendances to rise.

Then, of course, there is the figure at the head of it all. While Newcastle fans demand Ashley’s removal and Sunderland supporters are still guessing at the ambitions and motives behind the secretive Ellis Short’s stewardship of their club, Boro fans have a permanent banner proclaiming Steve Gibson as “One of Us” at each and every home game.

Ultimately, the direction a football club takes is determined by the person in charge, and in Gibson, Boro continue to boast an owner who is the envy of just about everyone else in the game.

As last week’s accounts conclude, the only reason the football club is a going concern is because Gibson, via the Gibson O’Neill Company Limited, continues to write off around £1m a month in order to sustain the current level of investment.

The Northern Echo:

Gibson’s money ensures that Middlesbrough are not saddled with external debt, and the accounts contain a pledge to “continue to provide financial support for the foreseeable future”.

In an era where club owners have become increasingly detached from the communities they are supposed to be representing, Gibson’s roots and enduring affection for all things Middlesbrough set him apart from the vast majority of his peers.

That passion and altruism permeate through all aspects of the club’s existence. It helps explain why there is so much positivity around Boro as a whole at the moment, and strengthens the impression of a club that knows exactly what it wants to be. Hopefully, next season, it will be all of that and more in the top-flight.

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HE has enjoyed a farewell tour that Frank Sinatra would have been proud of, but Tony McCoy will get into the saddle for the final time at Sandown tomorrow and end one of the most successful careers in the history of British sport.

His achievements are unprecedented – more than 4,350 career victories, 20 champion jockey titles, countless wonderful wins and remarkable rides. There has never been a National Hunt jockey like him, and there is unlikely to be so again.

The Northern Echo: File photo dated 09/03/2013 of Jockey Tony McCoy. PRESS ASSOCIATION Photo. Issue date: Friday April 19, 2013. Tony McCoy will not ride at next week's Punchestown Festival after sustaining broken ribs in a fall at Cheltenham on Thursday. See PA Story R

The last time I saw him ride was at Catterick on the Monday after he had announced his intention to retire at the end of the season. He had two rides, the first of which won, and the second of which was beaten despite being heavily backed in to favouritism.

“Disappointed not to do the double?” he was asked. “That’s racing,” he replied. “And anyway, I think you’ll find the winner’s a bit useful.”

The horse that won? Saint Are. The same horse that, next time out, finished second in the Grand National at 25-1. Clearly, for all that he is retiring, McCoy remains a decent judge of what’s going on.