Their futures may lie alongside either the cream of the continent or the dregs of the Nationwide, but Sunderland and Middlesbrough's 118th Tees-Wear league derby ended in rip-roaring if predictable stalemate last night. As the repercussions of this breathless draw, epitomised by a second mindless booking for Christian Karembeu in the dying stages which saw the Frenchman dismissed and Terry Venables protesting on the pitch, shiver through the respective camps, the likelihood remains that neither scenario will come to pass. Sunderland's European challenge continues to stutter while, a point better off in the cramped scrap for survival, Boro live in hope.
Venables had already won the day's first skirmish with his Wearside counterpart Peter Reid by agreeing to pay Inter Bratislava sterling £3 million for the Slovakian international striker Szilard Nemeth.
The chairman Steve Gibson opted to pay a fee to guarantee the 22-year-old's arrival on Teesside whatever the outcome of their ongoing relegation toils.
Nemeth, who has scored 18 goals this season, had been courted by Internazionale and had trained recently with Sunderland. Instead, the lure of a five-year deal, a strike partnership with Alen Boksic and the possibility of First Division football next season clearly proved more tempting.
His presence is desperately needed in the Boro team. Behind Boksic's 11 Premiership goals, the suspended centre-half Ugo Ehiogu remains the Teessiders' second leading league goalscorer with three. Yesterday they began with their recent signing Dean Windass alongside the Croatian and the former Bradford forward made an immediate impact, colliding with Thomas Sorensen after four minutes and earning a yellow card.
That challenge was the first of a tempestuous opening which soon saw Paul Okon crumple under Gavin McCann's illegal lunge, prompting the second of six first-half bookings. Don Hutchison's cheeky lob and quickly taken freekick, both of which had Mark Schwarzer scurrying in the home goal, briefly broke up the niggling. Given the breakneck pace, it was somewhat ironic that it took an innocuous contest between Kevin Phillips and Gianluca Festa to leave the Italian sprawled face down on the turf; the centre-back soon departed on a stretcher.
Amidst the fire and brimstone, the visitors' slick breaks were unsettling Boro's nervous rearguard. With the frenzied action packed on to the half-way line, Kevin Kilbane flicked on for Michael Gray to chase and the full-back's cross forced a desperate block from Steve Vickers. Stefan Schwarz's 30-yard freekick, which skimmed the crossbar, and Phillips's curled effort maintained the one-way momentum. Quite how Kilbane, standing on the goal-line, failed to make contact on the England striker's nod back was a mystery.
Roared on by the increasingly anxious home partisans, Boro threatened again after the break. Robbie Mustoe threw off his defensive chains after 50 minutes to emerge from a cluttered midfield and rip a shot at Sorensen. The Dane, perhaps taken by surprise as the ball swerved at him, could only parry but Boksic, on the angle of the six-yard box, slammed the rebound wastefully into the side-netting.
The home side could hardly afford such profligacy, but within minutes had repeated their flawed trick. Karembeu's astute lob into the area had visiting defenders foundering and Hamilton Ricard, who had replaced the ineffective Noel Whelan at half-time, hammered the ball the wrong side of the post.
MIDDLESBROUGH: Schwarzer, Fleming (Deane 72), Vickers, Festa (Gordon 19), Karembeu, Gavin, Mustoe, Okon, Windass, Whelan (Ricard 45), Boksic. Subs not used: Marinelli, Crossley. Sent off: Karembeu (85). Booked: Windass, Karembeu, Gavin, Boksic, Deane.
SUNDERLAND: Sorensen, Carteron, Thome, Craddock, Gray, Arca (Butler 81), Hutchison, McCann (Williams 78), Kilbane (Quinn 66), Schwarz, Phillips. Subs not used: Macho, Varga. Booked: McCann, Schwarz.
Referee: A D'Urso (Billericay).
