MIDDLESBROUGH kicked off their pre-season campaign in style as they cruised to an emphatic 6-0 win at National League side York City on Saturday.

The Teessiders opened the scoring through a Scott Flinders own goal, and added further goals through David Nugent, Albert Adomah, Jordan Rhodes (two) and Adam Reach.

It’s always dangerous to read too much into pre-season performances, but the game at Bootham Crescent nevertheless threw up some interesting topics for discussion…


ADAM CLAYTON AND GRANT LEADBITTER ARE NOT GOING TO HAVE THINGS THEIR OWN WAY THIS SEASON

Last season, Adam Clayton and Grant Leadbitter were firmly established as Aitor Karanka’s first-choice defensive midfield pairing. Clayton did reasonably well in the second half of Saturday’s game – Grant Leadbitter was unavailable as he completes his recovery from a summer operation – but Marten de Roon and Julien de Sart provided an early hint of their capabilities and will be pushing hard for a first-team spot.

The Northern Echo: All smiles Dutch signing Marten de Roon with George Friend in training for Middlesbrough yesterday

De Roon made his first appearance since an £11.75m move from Italian side Atalanta and caught the eye alongside Clayton in the second half. He set up Reach’s goal with a pinpoint through ball, and dictated things for long periods. Tall, athletic and clearly able to cover a lot of ground, he looks ideally suited to the English game.

De Sart arrived in January, but his involvement last season was restricted to two substitute appearances. He is highly regarded within the Rockliffe Park coaching set-up though, and he was Boro’s stand-out midfielder in the first half of yesterday’s game, spraying a series of excellent long-range passes around the field.


HE’S FIVE SIGNINGS IN, BUT AITOR KARANKS STILL WANTS TO MAKE MORE ADDITIONS

Two of Boro’s summer signings made their first appearances at York – de Roon and defender Jordan McGhee – and Victor Valdes and Viktor Fischer are expected to feature in next weekend’s game at Doncaster. Bernardo Espinosa continues to recover from the knee injury he sustained at Sporting Gijon.

Five signings before the middle of July represents a decent start to Aitor Karanka’s transfer business, but the Boro boss clearly wants to make more additions, with centre-half and centre-forward priority positions.

The Northern Echo:

Karanka is reluctant to say too much in the wake of pre-season matches, but he let his guard down slightly when he admitted: “Last summer, we had problems bringing in players at the beginning, but now we have a lot of players arriving and hopefully there will be more arriving soon. The targets are more or less clear, and for that reason I am really pleased.”


BOOTHAM CRESCENT IS NOT A PARTICULARLY HAPPY HUNTING GROUND FOR BORO

For the second season in a row, Boro kicked off their pre-season preparations at York, and for the second season in a row, they left the ground cursing an unfortunate injury.

A year on from Alex Baptiste’s broken leg, and it was James Husband who was suffering as he dislocated his shoulder in an innocuous first-half incident.

The Northern Echo:

As was the case with Baptiste, York’s players were blameless, but Husband is now expected to miss the start of the new season. He wouldn’t have started ahead of George Friend, but his injury robs Boro of their only natural left-back cover.

DON’T WRITE OFF DAVID NUGENT IN TERMS OF NEXT SEASON’S PLANS

It is widely expected that Boro will spend decent money on a new striker in the next few weeks. If they do, the new addition will battle with Jordan Rhodes for the starting spot in next month’s Premier League opener with Stoke City.

Or will he? Nugent has been written off somewhat in recent weeks – “good enough for the Championship, but not really a Premier League player” – but that assessment might prove to be misguided.

The Northern Echo:

Karanka has always rated the 31-year-old highly – he played him ahead of Rhodes in May’s crucial final-day decider with Brighton – and Nugent looked extremely sharp as he scored one goal and set up another in the first half of yesterday’s game.


GET READY FOR THE ICELANDIC CHANT CELEBRATION TO SWEEP ACROSS ENGLISH GROUNDS NEXT SEASON

In fairness to Middlesbrough’s fans, the Icelandic chant celebration that has proved so popular at Euro 2016 is not something that is new to them. The ‘Red Faction’ supporters’ group have been doing the chant sporadically for the last three or four seasons, often changing the ‘Huh’ to ‘Tees’ as they clap above their heads.

The Northern Echo:

Still, the first-half airing of the chant at Bootham Crescent was surely an indicator of what we can expect at Premier League and Football League grounds up and down the country in the first few weeks of next season.

I was watching Yorkshire play Lancashire in the Twenty20 at Headingley recently, and a version of the chant could be heard on the Western Terrace. Like it or loath it, you’re going to struggle to get away from it.