THE great adventure is all but over for Middlesbrough after Chelsea had imparted the final indignity of a season gone terribly wrong for Bryan Rob son and his players, in Saturday's FA Cup final.

Chelsea, so often the butt of absent friend jokes on England's big football days, ended a vigil that had lasted all of 26 years, with a goal in just 42 seconds and another seven minutes from the end, to win emphatically.

For Ruud Gullit and the squad he had assembled from some of Europe's farthest outposts, it was the proof that when ambition and money come together, anything is possible in football.

Robson and his army of followers in the north east, may require some convincing of that after losing two Wembley Cup finals in just over a month and, more crucially still, surrendering their place in the Premiership.

According to Robson, the chairman and the club's chief executive are to appeal against the deduction of the three points which ultimately, cost them their Premiership status and, almost certainly, their hopes of keeping the foreign legion intact at the club.

Even as he spoke, however, the words lacked conviction and the realism in the man told him that soon, Juninho, Emerson and Fabrizio Ravanelli, will be off to pastures new, to feed their mercenary instincts.

With the certainty of European football at Stamford Bridge next season, to underpin his strategy, Gullit will have considerably less trouble in persuading Gianfranco Zola, Frank Leboeuf and Gianluca Vialli to soldier on for another term a the club.

Ostensibly, the mix of foreign flair and British resolve, was designed to produce one of the more imaginative finals of recent seasons. The reality was something quite different, however, after Chelsea had roared off with the fastest goal in FA Cup final history.

Far from the cavalier football the cognoscenti promised, the off side trap was deployed so often and with such precision by Chelsea, that the game never developed the fluency which pedigree had suggested.

In a couple of magical moments, Zola showed us what might have been, particularly when he took on the opposing defence almost singlehandedly in the second half, only to find Ben Roberts perfectly placed to save the final shot.

Yet, overall, the authentic British qualities of Mark Hughes were just as valuable for Chelsea. Judged on some forthright tackling, Frank Leboeuf, their French central defender, might well have been schooled in Britain and the extraordinary running powers which established the Romanian, Dan Petrescu as one of the day's top performers, were likewise, rooted in traditional values.

In the end, the Player of the Match accolade went to the Italian, Roberto Di Matteo, as much for that classical first minute strike as anything else, but for many of us, the award should have gone to the little Brazilian, Juninho in the number 10 shirt for Middlesbrough.

On a day when his compatriot Emerson again disappointed and Ravanelli was gone from the game with indecent haste after suffering a recurrence of a groin problem after only 21 minutes, Juninho was the shining exception of the big name player who delivered.

Circumstances decreed that for much of the game, he was deployed too deep but even then the speed with which he came on to the ball and the sheer volume of his work, made him far and away, the day's outstanding performer.

Sadly, those talents may now be lost to British football for he will not, it seems certain, accompany Middlesbrough in their drop into the First Division and even the aura of Manchester United, may not be enough to keep him in the Premiership.

After the game, he spoke of the challenge to regain his place in the Brazilian national squad, as his top priority. And while diplomacy deterred him from saying so, the unspoken message was that it would be accomplished more readily, through the agency of either Italian or Spanish club football.

"I will speak with Mr Robson and the club chairman this week but I must do what is best for my career," he said. "And the most important part of my career, is to play for Brazil."

Although Liverpool are thought to be interested, Ravanelli may have more problems in finding a new paymaster after his startling decline in the last month of the season. Neither is Emerson, likely to be inundated with offers of new employment following the latest in a long line of ineffective performances.

For all the traditional values which Nigel Pearson and later Steve Vickers brought to their defence, Middlesbrough never looked wholly comfortable under the sporadic pressure Chelsea mounted after that dramatic start.

Curtis Fleming knew some uncomfortable moments when confronted by Petrescu but still competed effectively after moments of crass carelessness, had plunged the losers into disarray, almost as soon as the game started.

Emerson and the other central midfielder, Robbie Mustoe were marked absent as Di Matteo began his run from halfway and with Zola and Hughes going on decoy runs to take their markers with them, the Italian progressed untroubled, before cracking a 25 yard shot off the underside of the crossbar, for the opening score.

The second goal, secured on the break, was less flamboyant but equally precise with Petrescu putting in the cross, Zola returning it from the backline and Eddie Newton completing the move with the gratitude of a man who wasn't sure of his place in the team until some 24 hours before the kick off.

The goal which might have fuelled a Middlesbrough recovery was denied them just on halftime, when Gianluca Festa climbed above the defence to head home Phil Stamp's cross, only to be flagged for a marginal offside decision.

In that moment, was identified the pattern of their luckless season and when Vickers, reacting quickest to Juninho's free kick, saw his shot saved by Frode Grodas, they knew for sure, that their tribulation was ongoing.