Riverside Dream Team #11 Decided

The left midfielder for the Riverside Dream Team has ben chosen.

With various left backs and central midfielders having a go on the left of midfield there hasn’t been many successful out and out left wingers at the Riverside for Boro. So, there were only 2 choices for this position in our Dream Team.

2nd in the poll came current Boro winger Adam Johnson with just 6% of the votes. Johnson is an academy graduate and made his Boro debut away to Sporting Lisbon in the UEFA Cup campaign of 2005-2006. He played the first part of last season on loan at Watford, scoring 5 goals in 12 league games. He made such an impact there that when he was recalled the Watford team slumped from the automatic promotion places to the play-off places.

By a massive margin though came Stewart Downing in 1st place with 94% of the votes. As another academy graduate, Downing broke through into the first after a successful loan spell at Sunderland. He was recalled from that loan due to injuries on Teesside and has never looked back since, scoring 17 times in 144 league games. He has since been a regular for Boro and has broke into the senior England team, making 18 appearances so far. Apart from a dip in form in the middle of last season, Downing has been consistently brilliant for Boro and is arguably our best player. He scored 10 goals last term, his highest tally in one season so far, and capped it off with a fantastic volley in the 8-1 drubbing of Man City on the last day of the season. Downing signed a new deal during last season and him signing the deal resulted in better performances on the pitch. He is contracted to the club until 2013 so is due to have many more good seasons on Teesside.

As a consistently good performer and arguably our best player in the current squad, local lad Stewie is another worthy entrant into the Riverside Dream Team.

The poll to find the 1st of our 2 strikers is now open so get voting!

Riverside Dream Team:

1. Mark Schwarzer (1997-2008)

2. Luke Young (2007-present)

3. Franck Queudrue (2001-2006)

4. Juninho (1995-1997, 1999-2000, 2002-2004)

5. Gary Pallister (1984-1989 and (1998-2001)

6. Gareth Southgate (2001-2006)

7. Gaizka Mendieta (2003-2008)

8. Emerson (1996-1997)

9.

10.

11. Stewart Downing (Academy – present)