DURING his playing days Tony Mowbray formed a partnership at the heart of the Middlesbrough defence with Gary Pallister that is widely regarded as one of the finest in the club’s history.

Yesterday proved the starting point of another pairing.

This time, rather than trying to stifle opposition strikers, Mowbray has linked up with chairman Steve Gibson and must strive to save their beloved club from disaster.

The last few years have been difficult for Gibson.

He’s watched the Boro he supported as a boy transformed into Carling Cup winners and UEFA Cup finalists, and then freefall towards the bottom of the Championship.

To stand any chance of avoiding life in the third tier of English football again, a division ironically in which Mowbray led them out of in the late 1980s, there was only one appointment that could have been made: Mowbray.

Undoubtedly supporters could have dreamed about persuading Martin O’Neill to move to Teesside again.

Realistically, though, if O’Neill didn’t fancy it four years ago in the Premier League, he was never going to fancy it now, particularly with a pay cut.

Paul Ince was a contender; he was second choice for Gibson. He was well liked as a player at the Riverside, but never to the level of adulation Mowbray enjoyed.

Throw in the fact Ince has never managed in the Championship and the latter wins hands down.

Then there was the rest.

With the exceptions of Juninho or Fabrizio Ravanelli – who admittedly might have brought an exciting ride – no candidate stood any chance of winning back thousands of disaffected fans in quick time.

Mowbray, from the moment he walked through the Riverside doors yesterday, knows he has a chance to do that.

It will not be easy, but at least he has a chance.

Other candidates were out there, with Phil Brown and Gary Megson believed to be choices three and four, but Mowbray’s curriculum vitae is more than a match for them all.

And while he has previously delivered promotion out of the Championship, which is also the best that either Brown or Megson could boast, Mowbray can also brag to have an affinity with the Middlesbrough fans before the first whistle has even blown to start a new chapter in his life.

He is back where it all started, as a hungry young teenager desperate to impress.

The Ayresome Park gates might have moved home, but now he has an opportunity to show to all of those who were with him the first time around what he has learned.

The younger generation of supporters, those who have grown up knowing only life in the Premier League, are likely to be those who helped a poll in the Evening Gazette highlight less than 50 per cent want him in charge.

But now he has an opportunity to become a hero in all eyes through his managerial style. His decisions will shape Boro’s direction.

There may still be the chairman’s hopes that promotion can be achieved this season.

Sitting third from bottom of the Championship with November just days away suggests that could be a tall order.

Mowbray might be prepared to give the squad he has inherited from Gordon Strachan an opportunity to shine in the Championship. But there will, undeniably, have to be adjustments made.

Mowbray has a completely different style of managing and coaching to Strachan and will require time to turn things around.

There will be no quick fix, fans can’t expect too much too soon from a manager who arrives a third into a season and with no money to spend.

All he has had to do with the pool of players he will now spend the rest of the week working with is a short time with a few of them during his time in charge at Celtic, when he opted to move on Scott McDonald, Stephen McManus, Barry Robson and Willo Flood.

But what his arrival should guarantee is that little bit of freedom needed from the fans to put his own stamp on things.

He has shown in the past at West Brom that he can put together a team capable of promotion in the Championship, now he needs to do it again.

If that is this season then Gibson can rub his hands.

But realistically, there should be a drive towards gradual progress.

If that means promotion next year, when money will be too tight to mention after Premier League parachute payments end this summer, then so be it.

Mowbray must deliver, if he can he might just have a job for life.