Pain will drive us on
Leadbitter urges Boro to use play- off misery
GRANT LEADBITTER smiles when reminded of the tears he shed at Wembley last year when Middlesbrough failed to reach the Premier League after losing their play- off with Norwich.
“I don’t think that pain ever goes, does it?” he says.
This afternoon, he and his Boro team- mates have a chance to put that right in a winnertakes- all game at home against Brighton.
It is worth about £ 170million with victory securing a place in the Premier League. The pressure will be huge but Boro captain Leadbitter is losing not one wink of sleep.
It is not that the nerves have failed to get to the midfi elder – on the contrary, he concedes there must be a certain level of fear factor going into football’s richest- ever game.
In a rare glimpse into the family life of a player, he says: “You can’t help but sleep well if you’ve been running round after your two kids.”
The relentless schedule that has dominated his life recently does not help, however. “It’s tough, really tough,” he said. “Saturday, Tuesday, Saturday, Tuesday. I’ve got a few grey hairs. And sometimes your family have to step aside.”
Like they will today when he tries to banish last year’s hurt once and for all. “We’re a stronger squad now,” he says. “You’ve got Stewie Downing, Jordan Rhodes and David Nugent. The club has spent well and we’re a stronger group, better players and more experienced players who have been through a lot. I’m sure they will come into their own this weekend. But the pain is there and we’ll use it.”
Leadbitter is polite, looks you in the eye and possesses a dry sense of humour that would no doubt go down well once
you get to know the former Sunderland trainee. But when he left Sunderland seven years ago, he never imagined he would be out of the top fl ight for so long.
“I’d have been a bit disappointed if you’d told me I’d still be a Championship player now,” he says. “I’d have wanted to play more games in the Premier League but I have an opportunity to do that now.
“I want to be part of something special with this group . It kind of falls into your lap sometimes. You always get good lads in dressing rooms but often there are one or two who aren’t. About 90 per cent are like that.
“But here, we have a really strong one because we know that when the chips are down, we can rely on each other. There’s good people in there. A lot of players just say that but, trust me, it’s true.
“These are people who I’m sure, when we move on, we’ll stay in contact with for a long time. We’ve gone through a lot together and I’m sure that will benefi t us.”
That includes the work undertaken by the squad to help thousands of families on Teesside hit by the lingering death of the region’s steel industry.
Leadbitter is from Chester- leStreet, some 30 miles north, but with Downing, Ben Gibson and Jonathan Woodgate among the locals in the dressing room, the plight of many of their fellow Teessiders is rarely far from their thoughts.
“It certainly helps because lads like Stewy, Woody and Ben have family in the area,” says Leadbitter . “They know people and keep feeding stuff into the dressing room about it which benefi ts the group. “We’re aware of what’s going on. You see and hear things, especially with what has gone on over the last 12 months with the steel industry, so for that reason alone it would be better for the area if we won promotion.” They are doing it for the people of Teesside. But they are also doing it for themselves. “It’s not just a normal game,” he says. “We know that. But we’ll try to treat it like that because we want to do what we’ve been doing all season.”
‘ It is often relentless... sometimes family have to step aside’