AS A Boro lad through and through, I have long admired Bryan Robson because of what he has done for my hometown club.

When he arrived in May 1994, Boro were not even established as a yo-yo club - one of those clubs that cannot make up its mind if it is Premiership or First Division. Indeed, just a couple of years earlier, we'd been flirting with the Third Division.

We were in a stadium which held many happy memories but was not equipped for football in the future.

Robson has turned all that around. We are now established in the Premiership with some of the world's leading stars - even Manchester United only have one World Cup winner in their squad, just like us. We are playing in a super stadium and training at Hurworth, the best facilities in the country.

Although it has all been done with chairman Steve Gibson's money, Robson must take much of the credit.

When Robson arrived six years ago, most fans looking to the future would have settled for this position in 2000. But with the success of the last couple of seasons, so the fans have raised their expectations. As Robson has taught us, so we expect to be in cup finals at Wembley; we no longer expect to be relegated every other season as happened in the bad old days.

It reminds me of what is happening at Feethams where chairman George Reynolds is coming in for criticism. Yet when he took over, Darlington were deep in the mire - now they can look forward to a new stadium.

But back at Boro, will we forever be looking at games like this Saturday's to pull ourselves out of trouble? Will we ever be comfortable in midtable and dreaming hopefully of European qualification?

There are other noises off that concern me. Why has the media been so kind to Robson? Usually, as soon as the tabloids sniff managerial blood - even from 250 miles down the A1 - they descend in a shark-like feeding frenzy. Perhaps they know that it isn't all Robson's fault, that there are others not pulling their weight.

Then on Tuesday night, I saw Emerson on the Champions League highlights. Fabrizio Ravanelli is scoring goals at Lazio in Italy, Juninho is back in the Brazil team, Nick Barmby is at Liverpool and, in the same city, Paul Gascoigne is a player re-born at Everton. All have slipped through Boro's hands as disappointments.

Then there's yesterday's outburst from Bernie Slaven. He condemned big names like Christian Karembeu and Alen Boksic for not pulling their weight, but he also said of Robson: "I hope he asked himself some serious questions like: 'Am I the right man for the job and can I turn things around?'."

If Slaven is asking these questions, it is little wonder the fans are too. Yesterday, according to the Evening Gazette, 89 per cent of them felt that the answer was 'no'. It is a good man who knows when the time has come to go, and that time is usually dictated by the weight of public opinion.

And so reluctantly, while worrying about who might replace him, I must conclude that the time has now come for Bryan Robson to say goodbye, and I for one will thank him for all the positive things he has done for my club.

THE England rugby players' strike was no surprise. I am involved in the background at West Hartlepool rugby club and have heard the same complaints. The Rugby Football Union (RFU) is awash with money from internationals and television deals, yet none of it seems to be filtering down to the players or the clubs who have nurtured those players. The England players may be greedy, but they too are as much talented entertainers as our highly-paid footballers or someone like singer Charlotte Church who is already worth millions. With the same complaint about the RFU echoing from all quarters within the game, it is not hard to see where the fault lies.