Yet another successful weekend without a ball being kicked! Derby as good as gone. Sunderland sunk again.

In fact watching both Sunderland and Fulham huff and puff with no end result in the televised games this weekend, you wonder if either will win another game this season.

The other FA Cup casualties apart from Fulham were of course our opponents on Saturday, Middlesbrough.

With Premiership safety assured their season is effectively over.

Hopefully from their point of view the remaining league fixtures will seem as appetising as an open topped bus tour round Teesside in January.

A win on Saturday would undoubtedly put us within touching distance of safety.

Viewed in that context what we absolutely must do is go into Saturday's game wanting it more and the result will hopefully follow (unlike at Leicester).

We showed that sort of appetite last week against Chelsea in what I thought was one of our best performances of the season despite the blank scoreline.

Not for the first time this season we completely outplayed more illustrious opposition for the larger part of the game.

The annoying thing about us is that if we could show that sort of form and commitment week in week out we'd surely be a top six as opposed to a bottom six side.

On the night there were a number of excellent individual performances. Central defenders Henning Berg and Craig Short in particular rightly won plaudits for their displays.

Man of the match by some distance for me however was David Dunn who ran the show in his favoured central midfield position, especially during the first half.

When on song Dunny is different class and assuming he can maintain that standard the only midfield decision to be made in my view is as to who should partner him in the centre.

Over the last day or so however the limelight has been stolen by another of our up-and-coming stars Matt Jansen. His England call up was well deserved after his recent performances although the suddenness of the announcement still came as somewhat of a surprise.

Sven's decision was met with predictable derision by sections of the national Press but surely Matt's silky skills and all action style offer more scope down the left hand side than the likes of the lumbering Heskey, the comatose McManaman and the anonymous Barmby.

Looking at the situation strictly through blue and white tinted specs the obvious worry is that if Matt's hernia op needs to be delayed until after the World Cup, it will leave him struggling for fitness in time for the big kick off in August.

As Graeme Souness has said however it would be wrong to deny Matt this opportunity.

Good luck Matt! Let's hope you get a decent run out tomorrow night and give Sven plenty to think about.