Seven months earlier, the Teessiders had played in the UEFA Cup final in Eindhoven.
Four days later, they were thrashing Bolton Wanderers 5-1, with Mark Viduka bagging a brace and Stewart Downing also forcing his way on to the scoresheet. Steve McClaren was manager and Championship football was still three-and-a-half years away.
In footballing terms, it feels like a lifetime ago. So what has Hines, a Wetherby-born 22-year-old, achieved in that lifetime Five league starts, two substitute outings and five more appearances in the FA and Carling Cups.
Four years; 12 senior matches.
Little wonder his recent run of back-toback league games feels like a watershed moment in his career.
I've been here for seven years now but I haven't really played a lot of games, said Hines, who will make his fifth start of the season when Boro travel to Crystal Palace this afternoon.
I was here when Steve Mc- Claren was here that's how far back I go.
He was the first person to put me in the first-team environment, but injuries have held me back throughout my career. I've been in and around the first team for years, but haven't played the number of games I would have hoped to by this stage.
I've had to come in and out of the team without ever really playing in a sustained run of games.
Hopefully, now I'm injury free and in the team, that will change.
Much has been written about the four cruciate knee ligament injuries that threatened to wreck Matthew Bates' career, but rather less has been said about the catalogue of p r o b l e m s that have afflicted his current cent r e - h a l f p a r t n e r , Hines.
Before he even made his senior debut, the Yorkshireman had suffered a s e r i o u s knee injury that ended his season as a youthteam player.
S h o r t l y after breaking into the s e n i o r squad, he broke his arm in three s e p a r a t e places and s u s t a i n e d knee ligament damage that sidelined him for the best part of a year.
Then, just as he was threatening to force his way back into the first-team reckoning last season, he damaged his ankle so severely it was feared he might never play football again.
Each injury tested his mettle, each recovery was more painful and protracted than the last. Now, having signed a new two-and-a-half-year contract last week, Hines accepts it is time to start fulfilling the potential identified by a succession of managers at Rockliffe Park.
This is a big stage in my career, probably the most important I've ever had as a footballer,
he said.
The next couple of years will be massive for both me and the club. Hopefully, in two years time, Middlesbrough are back in the Premier League and I've got another 80 or 90 games under my belt.
I was never really tempted to let my contract run out. I wanted to get games under my belt, and I've always wanted to do that here at Middlesbrough.
With David (Wheater) leaving, there was always going to be an opportunity for me to step up and get a place in the team. That was obviously part of my thinking, and now the contract is all sorted, I'm just happy to be at Middlesbrough going forward.
Wheater's departure has created an opportunity, with Hines slotting alongside Bates in three of Boro's last four games. However, the sale of the Teessiders' best defender has also ratcheted up the pressure on the latest in a long line of Academy-produced centre-halves.
Hines and Bates first played together in their youth-team days, although the presence of Wheater meant the former was often fielded as an out-ofposition full-back.
Now, he is back in his preferred role, and is determined to help propel Boro away from relegation trouble in the Championship table.
I've got some massive boots to fill, he said. David has proved himself over the last couple of seasons, and deservedly made that spot his own. I've got it now and I have to prove I deserve it.
I'm not really a young lad any more, I'm 22, so hopefully now I've got my chance, I can take it.
It helps that I'm playing with someone I know. I've known Matt ever since the Youth Cup days. He was the year above me, but we've played together a lot.
Mind you, for quite a long time, I was playing at left-back in the juniors with Matt and David as the centre-halves. It's quite nice to be actually playing alongside him now.
Being the youngest out of me, Matt and David, I often had to slot in at full-back.
But now David has gone, I can play in a more comfortable position that's my own.
I've known Matt for years, although we've probably spent more time in the gym together than we have on the pitch.
Source: Northern Echo
Source: Northern Echo