TO reach one cup final and get relegated is eccentric enough. To reach two and still go down would border on lunacy. Middlesbrough's season remains awkwardly poised between triumph and farce.

Having beaten Derby County in some style at the Baseball Ground on Saturday, Boro are in the last four of the FA Cup for the first time in the club's 121 year history. On Wednesday Bryan Robson's players should assure themselves of a place in the League Cup final by completing their victory over Stockport County, who have already been beaten 2-0 at Edgeley Park in the first leg of the semi finals.

All this has been achieved against a background of gathering gloom in the Premier League, where Middlesbrough have won only three of their last 21 fixtures and have occupied bottom place for two months now.

That said, there was nothing in this performance to suggest that here was a team in deep trouble.

"Too often, in the league, we've been conceding goals in the first 20 or 30 minutes, putting pressure on ourselves," Rob son reflected after the match. There was no sign of that at the Baseball Ground, where Nigel Pearson and Curtis Fleming had outstanding games with Gianluca Festa and Clayton Blackmore not far behind.

True, Middlesbrough's cause was helped in no small measure by the absence of the suspended Dean Sturridge and injured Robin Van Der Laan from a Derby County attack that lives on short rations at the best of times.

This was the Baseball Ground's last FA Cup-tie. Derby are moving to a new stadium next season. The old place deserved a rather more distinguished game of football to mark the occasion. Indeed, but for Juninho there would have been little to recall beyond Boro's efficient defending. Amid the frenetic muddle of misplaced passes and mis-hit shots the Brazilian's ability to find space and control the ball at a touch, had a calming effect.

Seven minutes before half-time Juninho gathered a return pass from Craig Hignett and after deceiving Igor Stimac, the Derby sweeper, slipped the opening goal past Martin Taylor. In the closing minutes of the game he sent in Fabrizio Ravanelli to complete Middlesbrough's victory.

Ravanelli is now joint top scorer in the Premier League with Arsenal's Ian Wright, and, 12 of his goals have come in cup matches. Having completed a hat trick in Middlesbrough's 6-1 league win over Derby three nights earlier he found fewer opportunities on Saturday but his late goal rounded off a typically industrious performance which often found the Italian striker helping out in defence.

The prospect of seeing Ravanelli and Juninho in two Wembley finals is an exciting one, but difficult to reconcile with the idea of massively paid players of this quality trudging around Swindon, Reading and Oxford next season.

Then again, given Ravanelli's obvious delight in skinning the rabbits of Hereford, Huddersfield and Chester in the cups, the thought may tickle his fancy.