Middlesbrough feel the heat

IT may have been cold enough to freeze their gloves off at Highfield Road on Saturday, but in truth the heat is on for the expensive foreign imports of Middlesbrough. Messrs Ravenelli, Emerson, Juninho and Beck hardly lifted an icy finger between them to try to halt the alarming slide of the Teesside club, who have managed to amass a totally unacceptable seven points from their last 14 premiership outings.

If their manager Bryan Robson was hoping that the St Stephen's Day victory over Everton was the start of an upturn in fortunes then this latest festive offering must have convinced him that he was very much mistaken. Robson accepted: "We cannot keep going on like this. We played well for an hour but then gave goals away. We have a lot of injuries to defenders, and have now picked up a couple more knocks, don't want to start playing again, so it looks as though I shall have to go out and buy.

Spanish international defender Miguel Nadal, known as the Beast of Barcelona, is one player Robson has in mind. An offer of £3.25 million has already been rejected by the Barcelona manager, Bobby Robson, but if the younger Robson is prepared to increase his bid to £4 million, a clause in Nadal's contract would allow him to move to the Riverside Stadium.

But can Robson afford any more foreign luxuries? Emerson clearly did not relish the treacherous underfoot conditions. It may have been 30 degrees in both Sao Paulo and Coventry, but the fact that the figures were in fahrenheit here compared to centigrade in Brazil, made him a virtual non competitor.

Juninho appeared only in short bursts, while Fabrizio Ravenelli clearly became more frustrated with his Middlesbrough colleagues as the game progressed. The Dane Mikkel Beck made no impact as Coventry dominated, with their £1 million signing from Newcastle Darren Huckerby proving that bargain buys can still be found within the home grown ranks.

Huckerby, having headed Coventry into a 30th minute advantage, then caused havoc in the Middlesbrough defence with a lightning break which prompted the pursuing Chris Morris to tumble over and deliberately handle in the penalty area.

Gary McAllister scored from the penalty spot with almost as much conviction as the Middlesbrough defender Neil Cox showed when, in attempting to clear Paul Telfer's cross, volleyed the ball high into his own net to complete a miserable afternoon for the visitors.

Meanwhile, Coventry's fourth successive victory provided them with their best sequence of league results in 24 years, and put them in the perfect frame of mind for the New Year's Day visit of Sunderland. The result also capped a memorable day for Steve Ogrizovic who made a club record 544th appearance for the club.

However, Coventry manager Gordon Strachan remains cautious: "There is still a long way to go, and there is no point in getting too happy or excited, only to get a kick up the backside."