| Middlesbrough | Ipswich Town | ||
| Hugill Tavernier |
37′ (pen) 72′ |
Reach | 10′ |
| Possession Shots On target Corners Fouls |
42% 19 9 5 16 |
Possession Shots On target Corners Fouls |
58% 6 4 3 12 |
Boro double eases tension
Paul Lambert brought his nothing to lose Tractor Boys to the Riverside this afternoon to meet Tony’s confidence sapped Boro. After a very disappointing Boxing Day Pulis will have probably the best chance of his career to right a wrong in only 72 hours against the division’s worst side bar none seven points adrift from safety. So bad was the negative, dreary borefest served up on Boxing Day that this afternoon surely had to be an improvement with beleaguered home fans now openly hostile.
The Injury situation for Boro was a case of as you were with only Shotts and Gestede out although there were high hopes in the concourse that a few others who started that numbing negative display against the Owls would have picked up “niggles”. The Blues had a few more concerns with Ward, Adeyemi, Huws and Skuse all out. Having won just once on their travels this season and having lost each of their last three away games what could possibly go wrong for Boro? Boro had now recorded just one solitary victory at home in their last eight games whilst the travellers from East Anglia had won just four games in their last thirty six matches across all competitions.
Team news saw a few changes for Boro with Assombalonga, Clayts and McNair “rested” and Saville, Wing and Hugill in along with a surprise appearance for Gestede on the bench. Pre kick off we assumed (wrongly) that there would be a back four but TP threw a surprise and went with a back three of Ayala, Flint and Fry with Howson and Friend providing the width. Besic was cleaning up in front of the back three with Saville and Wing providing the tenacity and drive with Downing positioned to link up the play with Hugill. As a game plan it made sense to a degree but in execution the game started like the Riverside atmosphere, flat and pretty much continued in that vein throughout the first half.
That Stadium atmosphere was like the Prosecco party originally planned for Boxing Day where the bubbles had now gone very flat for the majority of the Riverside faithful. On the positive Howson was looking lively in his role. We had a few early corners as Wing and Howson linked up well and seemed to have developed a level of understanding from the off. Despite Lambert’s claims to the contrary his side actually started deep with Boro enjoying the early pressure with a Downing effort sailing over as the first real serious threat on Dean Gerkin’s goal. It took the Blues just short of fifteen minutes to register an attack when Kenlock fed Sears whose angled effort was denied by Randolph.
Boro were chasing, pressing and closing down Ipswich high up with Gerkin putting his defenders under pressure a few times by playing it out to them. A clever bit of play between Wing and Howson saw the new wing back driving forward, playing in Wing who then fed Hugill but he sliced his shot well wide while running into the box. At least there was movement on display along with some attacking intent. On twenty five minutes Ipswich “earned” a disputed corner after an effort from the Blues went over the crossbar from which Randolph had dangled from with both hands but somehow it was adjudged to have been a save much to the incredulity of the North Stand. From the corner Chambers made a looping header which had Randolph scrambling and managing to get a palm to it to push it clear in what could and would have been a huge miscarriage of justice. That moment was the first time the crowd had really galvanised albeit into abuse to the officials which was the nearest thing to support for the home side the afternoon had witnessed up until that point.
Ipswich were very much looking like a side rooted to the bottom of the league but Boro despite having more possession and playing higher up than normal still looked little better. Randolph was hoofing it down field rather than rolling it out to Ayala and Friend which kept the pressure on Ipswich but also allowed them to sit deep waiting for the next assault. It wasn’t easy on the eye and the stadium was eerily quiet clearly still suffering from the hangover where proceedings had finished against Wednesday. There were a few moans and groans as Besic was chased down by Downes setting Ipswich free again as if to rub salt into raw wounds but Spence fortunately fired over for the Blues. Just over half an hour gone and although powder was being kept dry you felt that unless there was a Boro breakthrough things would not be pleasant come the half time whistle.
A deep free kick delivered by Wing was met at the far post by Ayala and after some panic in the Ipswich defence dropped to Hugill who missed his target handsomely. A few minutes later Saville registered a shot on target albeit straight down Gerkin’s throat and was easily collected but it did register an ironic burst of cheers and overly enthusiastic clapping from the South Stand. Just short of ten minutes until that damning half time whistle and the mood was building but not in a positive way. A minute later TP’s personal Archangel must have intervened as Hugill was adjudged to have been manhandled as he went for a cross and the whistle went for a penalty to Boro. It was one of those “seen them given” but equally “seen them ignored”.
It was the break that Boro needed because despite huffing and puffing they couldn’t find a way to seriously trouble Gerkin. Hugill himself picked up the ball, stepped up and put it to Gerkin’s right as he guessed left and the boil was lanced and “we’ve scored a goal, we’ve scored a goal, we’ve scored a goal, we’ve scored a goal, we’ve scored a goal” echoed around the Riverside. It was only a penalty but the goal starved Teesside faithful were appreciative despite the self-deprecating sing song. As the half ran down, Kenlock chased a ball down our right with Flint running across to cover but caught in two minds allowed the Ipswich attacker to get past and play in Nolan who in turn threaded his pass to the chasing Sears whose shot was saved brilliantly by the advancing Randolph, quick off his line, using his legs, and that frail solitary goal advantage was just maintained by half time.
Things had lightened a little but it was a less than convincing performance from Boro and it was interesting as the sides took to the field for the second half there was muted enthusiasm and encouragement from either the South or North stands. Clearly Boro hadn’t done enough and the fans were definitely reserving judgement. Early in the second half Lewis Wing chased onto a ball flying across the Ipswich box and went 50/50 into a tackle leaving Chambers in apparent agony with the Blues defender coming off much the worse. I suspect mainly because he didn’t expect such a no holds barred challenge from Lewis in that area of the pitch. There must have been a Christmas miracle as Chambers went from being mortally wounded, laid out on his back for several minutes to running back on to the field of play a few seconds after the game resumed.
Boro were still enjoying more possession but in this half they looked to be a little more cutting and balls were flying into the Ipswich goal area. Hugill saw a great chance well saved by Gerken and then moments later Saville seemed to go down in the box after being bundled into by Pennington but this time the Ref waved play on which in fairness was the right decision from my vantage point. Saville looked to be keen to add to his couple of Boro goals to date as a minute earlier he hit an effort well over. After bitterly complaining to the fourth official over the “penner” that wasn’t TP sent on Tav for Stewy in an effort to squeeze that much needed additional goal to ease nerves. Tav immediately got into the game and even managed to get himself booked for a challenge on Spence whilst back defending.
In response on seventy minutes Lambert brought Roberts on for the ineffective Jackson but within a minute of that Tavernier had chased into the box after a lovely weighted and paced long range ball from Howson in the middle of the park to hit a low stretching attempt with the outside of his left boot catching Dean Gerken wrong footed for the ball to sneak in at the near post and its 2-0 to Boro. This time the celebrations were genuine and minus sarcasm and cynicism apart from a few mumbles about what does he need to do to prove himself to TP. You could sense the defeat in the air now in the Ipswich camp as three minutes later Besic burst through and crossed a peach of a ball across the box with Hugill sliding in but he was inches away from connecting.
Lambert then put Dozzell on for Nolan but at this point Ipswich looked resigned to another pointless journey with Boro recording a season double over the Tractor boys. Hugill forced Gerken into a flying save to prevent a third after a great cross from Friend. Clayts came on for Besic who had done OK despite having one or two of those Besic moments that were less than magic in his own half. On arriving almost immediately a corner came into the Ipswich box and Clayts hit a stinging shot forcing Gerken to palm it out and the Keeper having to reposition quickly to smother the follow up. Boro were now playing with confidence and belief since Tav’s arrival and that crucial killer second goal.
Ipswich had a close effort with Roberts heading a Kenlock cross wide but at the other end Wing forced Gerken to replicate Randolph’s earlier save with his legs as Boro were still knocking. Ayala went off for Danny Batth on ninety minutes and in added time another Friend cross saw Hugill meet it with Gerken flying full stretch to claw it out. Literally within seconds Friend himself had a header just over. The game and three points along with it came to a conclusion just as Boro were about to take yet another corner.
The game was dire in the first half, improved from a Boro perspective in the second and when Tav came on we played our best football. Friend was solid and put in some immense challenges and got some good crosses in. Howson was lively and alert down the right and caused problems and Wing was playing intelligent balls for Howson to both run into and onto instead of those dull midfield passes to standing targets. MOM for me was Howson but Randolph kept us in it and Friend was impressive, Wing was a breath of fresh thinking and Tav scored again!
It was also interesting to see Lambert select Kenlock in favour of supposed alleged Boro target Knudsen as the lad done well. Three points won but apart from the last twenty minutes a less than impressive performance. Given the back drop at 3.00pm it was never likely to have been a classic.