Steve Gibson was born in Middlesbrough, he is passionately fighting to prevent the closure of the steelworks, Corus have announced 1700 redundancies, and Gibson said Corus closing will have a massive negative knock on effect on the Teesside economy.

Middlesbrough are having a hard time adjusting to life in the Championship, their find themselves trailing local north east table topping rivals Newcastle United by a massive 17 points, Boro are still only 3 points behind a playoff place but have only picked up 5 points from 18.

Last Sunday Steve witnessed Boro’s lowest attendance for a league game played at the Riverside and Gibson feels that the trend will get worse because of the financial problems that the area faces.

“There’s going to be a ripple effect of these job losses through the town.”

Gibson said: “I can’t measure the effect but it’s going to be devastating.

“There’s going to be a ripple effect of these job losses through the town.”

Middlesbrough fans have reacted angry to his comments.

Peter (Boro fans since 1961) Said” it’s all excuses attendances are falling because the football we are playing is boring, this will be my last year as a season ticket holder.”

Bobby, 38 from Middlesbrough “it’s funny that Gibson is banging on about Corus, ask him where the steal came from to build the Riverside, the guy is an hypocrite, he bought it from Germany when he could of got it from Corus and helped the local economy.

Ricky, 44 from Billingham “it’s No good making excuses for the big mistake made, I think it’s more to do with sacking Southgate never mind steelworks closing.”

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It had been declared in May that the 150-year-old Redcar plant was to be mothballed.

The plant had been at danger since a 10-year deal abruptly fell flat.

Business Secretary Lord Mandelson conveyed his letdown, saying it would be a “very difficult time for the workforce”.

The deal that had fallen flat was signed by an global consortium, led by Italian steel specialists Marcegaglia, in 2004, and committed the consortium to buy just under 78% of the Redcar plant’s production.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/8395891.stm