2002–03 Middlesbrough F.C. season

Middlesbrough
Season 2002-03
League	FA Premier League
Manager	Steve McClaren
Chairman	Steve Gibson
League position	11th
Top goalscorer	League: Massimo Maccarone (9) All: Massimo Maccarone (9)
Highest attendance	Home: 34,747 v Liverpool (Premier League) Away: 67,464 v Manchester United (Premier League)
Lowest attendance	Home: 27,433 v Southampton (Premier League) Away: 7,558 v Brentford (League Cup)
FA Cup	Third Round
League Cup	Third Round

During the 2002-03 season, Middlesbrough participated in the FA Premier League.

Team Kit and Sponsors

Middlesbrough had a new sponsor of Dial-A-Phone for the 2002-03 season, the team's strip was produced by Errea. The home shirt consisted of a plain red shirt, red shorts and red socks with white trim. The away strip consisted of white shirts with black piping, plain white shorts and white socks with a black trim.^[1]

Home colours

Away colours

Season review

League review

Despite losing the new £6 million signing of the returning Juninho, Boro made a promising start to the 2002-03 season - peaking at 3rd at the end of September and early October. The signings of Maccarone and Boateng, along with the loan of Geremi gave the fans real hope of a top 6 finish.

However, following a fantastic 3-0 win away at Spurs at the end of September, Middlesbrough seemed to press the self destruct button, losing the next 8 games away from home without scoring, and although they remained undefeated in this period at home, this saw them sink to 12th position.

This persuaded McClaren that changes needed to be made, and during the January transfer window, he brought in Chris Riggott and Malcolm Christie from Derby, Michael Ricketts from Bolton and Doriva on loan from Celta Vigo.

This (and the return of the now fit Juninho) seemed to stop the bad run of form, and the results picked up a bit. Middlesbrough hovered around 14th for a few weeks before finishing 11th. Again, the season was regarded as a disappointment after the promising start.

Domestic Cup review

Both cups were also a disappointment for Boro. They went out of the FA Cup in the 3rd round losing 1-0 at Chelsea.

They fared slightly better in the League Cup, beating Brentford in the 2nd round 4-1, but then losing to lower league opposition in the form of Ipswich 3-1 away.

Squad

Senior squad

The following are all the players who were involved the Middlesbrough F.C. first team at some point during the 2002-03 season.^[2][3] Note: Flags indicate national team as has been defined under FIFA eligibility rules. Players may hold more than one non-FIFA nationality.

No. Position Player 1 GK Mark Schwarzer 3 DF Franck Queudrue 4 DF Gareth Southgate (captain) 6 DF Chris Riggott 7 MF George Boateng 8 FW Szilárd Németh 9 FW Massimo Maccarone 10 MF Juninho 11 FW Alen Bokšić 12 MF Jonathan Greening 14 MF Geremi 15 DF Tony Vidmar 16 FW Joseph Desire-Job 17 DF Ugo Ehiogu 20 MF Doriva 21 DF Mark Wilson 24 MF Phil Stamp 25 GK Mark Crossley

No. Position Player 27 DF Robbie Stockdale 28 DF Colin Cooper 29 DF Jason Gavin 30 MF Stuart Parnaby 31 MF Luke Wilkshire 32 DF Steve Baker 32 MF Allan Johnston 34 GK Sam Russell 34 MF Stewart Downing 35 GK Brad Jones FW Michael Ricketts FW Malcolm Christie DF Brian Close DF Andrew Davies DF David Murphy DF Craig Dove FW Dean Windass

Transfers

In

Date Player Previous Club Cost 4 June 2002 Massimo Maccarone Empoli £8.15 million[4] 25 July 2002 Geremi Real Madrid Loan[5] 30 July 2002 George Boateng Aston Villa £5 million 5 August 2002 Juninho Athletico Madrid £6 million[6] 31 January 2003 Malcolm Christie and Chris Riggott Derby £5 million[7] 31 January 2003 Michael Ricketts Bolton £3.5 million[8] 31 January 2003 Doriva Celta Vigo Loan[9] Out Date Player New Club Cost 6 August 2002 Paul Ince Wolves Free[10] 12 August 2002 Paul Okon Leeds Free[11] 22 August 2002 Mark Summerbell Carlisle Free[12] 29 August 2002 Phil Stamp Hearts Free[13] 30 August 2002 Robbie Mustoe Charlton Free[14] 15 January 2003 Dean Windass Sheffield United Free[15] 21 March 2003 Mark Hudson Chesterfield Free[16] 17 May 2003 Anthony Ormerod Scarborough Free[17] 2 June 2003 Alen Bokšić Contract terminated -[18] Premier League Results       Win       Draw       Loss Note: Results are given with Middlesbrough score listed first. Man of the Match is according to mfc.co.uk. Game Date Venue Opponent Result F–A Attendance Boro Goalscorers Man of the Match 1 17 August 2002 A Southampton 0–0 28,341 Schwarzer 2 24 August 2002 H Fulham 2–2 28,588 Maccarone 32', 51' 3 31 August 2002 H Blackburn Rovers 1–0 28,270 Job 90' Southgate 4 3 September 2002 A Manchester United 0–1 67,464 5 10 September 2002 H Sunderland 3–0 32,155 Németh 17', 66' Maccarone 37' 6 14 September 2002 A Everton 1–2 32,240 Németh 11' 7 21 September 2002 H Birmingham City 1–0 29,869 Queudrue 29' 8 28 September 2002 A Tottenham Hotspur 3–0 36,082 Maccarone 33', Geremi 55', Job 58' Maccarone 9 5 October 2002 H Bolton Wanderers 2–0 31,005 Ehiogu 23', Geremi 68' 10 20 October 2002 A Charlton 0–1 26,271 11 26 October 2002 H Leeds 2–2 34,723 Job 25', Southgate 83' 12 4 November 2002 A Newcastle 0–2 51,558 13 9 November 2002 H Liverpool 1–0 34,747 Southgate 82' Greening 14 16 November 2002 A Chelsea 0–1 39,064 15 23 November 2002 H Manchester City 3–1 31,510 Ehiogu 53', Bokšić 62, Geremi 84' 16 30 November 2002 A West Brom 0–1 27,029 17 7 December 2002 H West Ham 2–2 28,283 Németh 58', Ehiogu 88' 18 14 December 2002 H Chelsea 1–1 29,160 Geremi 32' 19 21 December 2002 A Arsenal 0–2 38,003 20 26 December 2002 H Manchester United 3–1 34,673 Bokšić 44', Németh 48', Job 85' 21 28 December 2002 A Aston Villa 0–1 33,637 22 1 January 2003 A Blackburn Rovers 0–1 23,413 23 11 January 2003 H Southampton 2–2 27,443 Whelan 73', Maccarone 82' 24 19 January 2003 A Fulham 0–1 14,253 25 28 January 2003 H Aston Villa 2–5 27,546 Maccarone 33', Greening 35' 26 8 February 2003 A Liverpool 1–1 42,247 Geremi 38' 27 22 February 2003 A Sunderland 3–1 42,134 Riggott 21', 28', Christie 59' 28 1 March 2003 H Everton 1–1 32,473 Juninho 74' 29 5 March 2003 H Newcastle 1–0 34,814 Geremi 62' 30 15 March 2003 A Leeds 3–2 39,073 Maccarone 36', Juninho 45', Geremi 64' 31 22 March 2003 H Charlton Athletic 1–1 29,080 Christie 57' 32 5 April 2003 H West Brom 3–0 30,187 Christie 36', Greening 76', Németh 87' 33 12 April 2003 A Manchester City 0–0 34,793 34 19 April 2003 H Arsenal 0–2 34,724 35 21 April 2003 A West Ham 0–1 35,019 36 26 April 2003 A Birmingham 0–3 28,821 37 3 May 2003 H Tottenham Hotspur 5–1 30,230 Christie 23', Juninho 26', Németh 28', Maccarone 51', 75' 38 11 May 2003 A Bolton Wanderers 1–2 27,241 Ricketts 61' Cup Results League Cup Round Date Opponent Venue Result Attendance Goalscorers 2 1 October 2002 Brentford Away Won 4-1 7,558 Marinelli, Whelan, Wilson, Downing 3 6 November 2002 Ipswich Away Lost 3-1 14,417 Queudrue FA Cup Round Date Opponent Venue Result Attendance Goalscorers 3 4 January 2003 Chelsea Away Lost 1-0 29,796 Player statistics Goalscorers Goalscoring statistics for 2002-03.[19] Name League FA Cup League Cup Total Massimo Maccarone 9 0 0 9 Németh 7 0 0 7 Geremi 6 0 0 6 Job 4 0 0 4 Ehiogu 3 0 0 3 Christie 3 0 0 3 Juninho 3 0 0 3 Bokšić 2 0 0 2 Greening 2 0 0 2 Riggott 2 0 0 2 Queudrue 1 0 1 2 Whelan 1 0 1 2 Ricketts 1 0 0 1 Marinelli 0 0 1 1 Wilson 0 0 1 1 Downing 0 0 1 1 Appearances / Discipline Appearance and disciplinary records for 2002-03 league and cup matches.[2] Name Appearances Yellow cards Red cards Schwarzer 39 1 0 Crossley 2 0 0 Parnaby 23 1 0 Queudrue 33 7 3 Ehiogu 32 5 0 Riggott 5 1 0 Southgate 37 3 0 Gavin 1 0 0 Close 1 1 0 Vidmar 15 2 0 Davies 2 0 0 Stockdale 15 3 0 Cooper 23 1 0 Murphy 8 0 0 Boateng 28 6 0 Juninho 10 1 0 Downing 3 0 0 Geremi 34 2 0 Greening 39 6 0 Johnston 2 0 0 Dove 2 0 0 Eustace 1 1 0 Wilson 9 3 1 Doriva 5 0 0 Marinelli 9 1 0 Wilkshire 16 1 1 Christie 12 0 0 Maccarone 34 3 0 Ricketts 9 1 0 Whelan 17 3 0 Windass 4 1 0 Németh 30 0 0 Bokšić 19 2 0 Job 29 1 0 References and notes ^ http://www.kitclassics.co.uk/kits/Middlesbro.png ^ a b ESPNsoccernet: Middlesbrough Squad Statistics ^ Middlesbrough FC 2004-05 ^ World Cup Soccer. All the top world soccer news daily. News from international soccer. World Cup 2010, Euro 2008, champion's league, premiership football, bundesliga, serie a, j-league Archived September 29, 2007 at the Wayback Machine ^ BBC SPORT | Football | Teams | Middlesbrough | Geremi granted Boro permit ^ BBC SPORT | Football | Teams | Middlesbrough | Juninho heads back to Boro ^ BBC SPORT | Football | Teams | Middlesbrough | Boro grab Derby pair ^ BBC SPORT | Football | Teams | Middlesbrough | Ricketts seals Boro move ^ www.soccerbase.com - The Internet Soccer Database ^ www.soccerbase.com - The Internet Soccer Database ^ www.soccerbase.com - The Internet Soccer Database ^ www.soccerbase.com - The Internet Soccer Database ^ www.soccerbase.com - The Internet Soccer Database ^ www.soccerbase.com - The Internet Soccer Database ^ www.soccerbase.com - The Internet Soccer Database ^ www.soccerbase.com - The Internet Soccer Database ^ www.soccerbase.com - The Internet Soccer Database ^ www.soccerbase.com - The Internet Soccer Database ^ http://www.boroscoreforecast.co.uk/200405.htm