THE season got off to a mixed start for Boro as the opening day success at Coventry was followed by a point from the home fixture with Spurs and a disappointing defeat at the hands of Leeds on Saturday.

Bryan Robson is furious about the Leeds reverse. "I was very angry at half time as all we seemed to have worked on had not been put into practice on the pitch. The second half was better - but too little, too late," he said.

Robson also admitted that Mark Summerbell had a right to feel upset at his omission after he capped a hardworking display against Spurs with a point-saving goal.

"I said to Mark that if any player had a right to knock at my door on Monday morning after the Leeds defeat it was him," he said. "I made what I thought was the right team selection, but I have to acknowledge that Mark has never let me down when I asked for a tight marking job in midfield. In future I will think long and hard before leaving him out."

There is a break this weekend due to international football, with the intriguing possibility of Paul Ince and Christian Karembeu going head to head in midfield in the heat of tomorrow's England-France friendly.

The saddest news of the week came with the death at the age of 49 of former player and manager Willie Maddren after a five-year battle with Motor Neurone Disease. Willie, one of Boro's greatest central defenders, formed a superb partnership with Stuart Boam in the Seventies.

Boam was full of praise for Maddren. "Willie should have been captain not me. We had an almost telepathic relationship on the field and I was proud to know and play alongside Willie," he said. "I will miss him very much. He was not only a great player, he was a great man."