Tony Pulis hoping to call time at the Last Chance Saloon

by Diasboro, posted in Uncategorized

Championship 2018-19: Weeks 38-39

Fri 19 Apr – 15:00: Boro v Stoke
Mon 22 Apr – 15:00: Forest v Boro
Sat 27 Apr – 15:00: Boro v Reading

Werdermouth looks ahead to an Easter uprising in the  Championship table…

The bartender at the Last Chance Saloon on Teesside always has a smile for his regulars – indeed some would even say knowing. Although, as closing time approaches on another Championship season, business seems to have been a little brisker than usual with the need for a stiff drink never being more in demand. As Boro entered through those rather creaky swing doors just over a week ago, it seemed they’d only have time for their usual wayward loosener of Single Barrel Reserve before it was chucking out time – though after a few shots have surprisingly hit the spot, it appears the boys are still up for another round.

While some suspect Tony Pulis is probably more of a bitter man rather than one who indulges in spirits (especially when it comes to raising them) – others are still hoping he is perhaps longing for southern comforts. Although, he’s probably not the sort of guy who’s tempted by the fancy colourful cocktails of a whisky liqueur – especially as promotion is no longer the Slam Dunk it was anticipated back in September and has instead become more of a Paradise Punch to the lapsed six-packs of the faithful on the terraces. Indeed, few will be in the mood for happy hour if the season ends up on the rocks and the promotion party is once again put on ice for another year.

Nevertheless, the Boro manager is not quite ready to drown his sorrows and cry into his beer – that’s apparently the job of Steve Gibson, whose harvested tears from another expensive and potentially missed opportunity of a season are once again being prepared to homeopathically water down the complimentary matchday pints. As to whether the cost cutting next season will continue to serve more than a few halves of a somewhat flat and less than stout home brew of no specific gravity is at this point still uncertain – much will depend on whether the Riverside landlord decides to change rather than scrape the barrel this summer.

Still, few who enter the Last Chance Saloon will ever get to raise a glass in celebration – not even one that’s optimistically half full. Tony Pulis has been busy lining his stomach with his carefully controlled stodgy diet as he prepares for a drinking competition with his play-off rivals – although it will be a tough contest against the seasoned campaigners of Big Frank Lampard, Dean ‘Martin’ Smith and Lee ‘Marvin’ Johnston. With hostilities resumed on Good Friday, Boro will be hoping to avoid being left incapacitated under the Championship table – it may likely be more a case of spills rather than thrills as the Boro manager attempts to be the last supper at the play-off bar.

At least Boro have just about recovered from the mother of all hangovers brought on by the six-game bender that left their promotion chances all but in the gutter. Although, with the team still appearing shaky in front of goal, Pulis now has a defensive headache that will take more than a few aspirins to resolve. After George Friend was already ruled out for the season, he was joined by Dani Ayala after he was stretchered off against Hull and taken to hospital with what looked like a serious knee injury. The prognosis for the Spaniard is not good and the ligament damage means he’s not now expected to play again until the beginning of next season. If that wasn’t bad enough, Pulis then announced at his pre-match press conference that Dael Fry has torn his hamstring in training and will be out for three months.

Defensive cover was already down to the bare bones but that just leaves Ryan Shotton and Aden Flint as the club’s only specialist defenders in any of the positions across the backline. Boro have no senior recognised full-backs or centre-backs left and no doubt Paddy McNair will be preparing to fill in again if he can remember where he left his boots. Ordinarily, you would imagine Pulis would opt for a back four in order to cut the risk of losing another one of his three central defensive option – however, with Boro having no full-backs it would seem the manager may have to continue with makeshift wing-backs instead. Howson is likely to get the job on the right and it may be toss-up between Downing and Saville on the left – though it could perhaps be an opportunity for some of the youngsters to step up with the promising Nathan Wood having previously started in the Carabao Cup a possible candidate.

The defensive crisis comes at time when the Boro manager has little room to manoeuvre after also losing his midfield playmaker in Lewis Wing and he’s also been unable to rely on his profligate strikers to provide a safety net. It is yet another burden for Pulis to struggle with and it will no doubt be a heavy cross to bear for a man who seemingly prefers to focus on keeping out the opposition. As the season reaches it climax (anti or otherwise), we are reminded rather appropriately that Easter is a time marked by suffering and redemption – whether it will also be a time for salvation will depend if both the manager and players can atone for their previous sins of falling off the righteous path to the play-offs. So at this time of year, many on Teesside will hope Boro can draw inspiration from that famous story and at least try to look on the bright side of life – though few have been convince that Tony Pulis is indeed the real messiah.

Talking of false profits, Steve Gibson has seemingly come up with a Plan B as his sizeable investment in getting the club back to the promised land starts to falter. The Boro chairman is planning to raise the issue of the compliance of profitability and sustainability rules at next week’s EFL Stakeholders meeting. Gibson has claimed three clubs: Aston Villa, Derby and Sheffield Wednesday are in breach of the rules and should be facing a similar penalty to what Birmingham received – i.e. a nine point deduction. He argues that the clubs have not submitted transparent accounts and that they have circumnavigated the rules by using loopholes. Derby have said to have ‘sold’ their stadium to their owner Mel Morris and then leased it back to register a profit – whereas Villa reportedly made a £50m loss last season that is unlikely to be cancelled out by June after this year’s business dealings.

Gibson believes that the EFL need to enforce their rules before the season ends and not let clubs get the advantage of being in breach of the limits. We know that Wolves easily exceeded the spending rules last season and any subsequent punishment will not worry them now that they have reached the Premier League. Whether the Football League will be minded to hand Villa and Derby points deductions before the season ends is perhaps unlikely – any process that starts now will no doubt be challenged by the clubs and then what would the EFL do about arranging play-offs if either finished in the top six? The Boro chairman has also argued that Boro sold £40m worth of players to ensure they complied with the rules and it’s unfair if other clubs ignore the limits.

In theory MFC could have posted a £61m three-year loss this year (£35m + £13m + £13m) given they can include their allowance from a season in the Premier League – plus we know that Boro have also registered a profit of £18m in their previous two seasons so it would have been almost impossible to be in breach. In addition, the new sustainability rules mean that if a club breaches the £15m lower three-year loss limit it will need to agree a financial plan with the EFL to ensure their debts don’t become unmanageable and they can meet their financial requirements in the coming years – plus there are restrictions on the size of the wage bill relative to annual income. All of which means it’s more complicated to enforce and given provisional accounts are only submitted on 1st March, it means Boro fans (including the chairman) shouldn’t get their hopes up of rivals being deducted points this season.

So Boro must do their talking on the pitch if they are to get ahead of their play-off rivals and Tony Pulis hosts his old club Stoke on Good Friday. It’s been well documented this week that since leaving the Potters, Pulis has never lost a game to them with seven wins and seven draws. Nathan Jones took over the reigns at Stoke in January after replacing Gary Rowett and the former Luton boss has only won 3 of his 16 games since he arrived. It may be something in the air at the Potteries that effects managers but Jones and his team have had problems scoring goals – in fact Stoke have just recently come off the back of four successive 0-0 draws. It may be sign of what is to come at the Riverside but at least the Boro supporters on the terraces will get to see former player Danny Batth prove why they could have done with holding on to his services – especially given the defensive crisis.

Although, it’s hard to see why the recently relegated club have struggled this season as on paper they have quite a few ‘names’ in their side: Sam Vokes, Bojan, Joe Allen, Ryan Shawcross, Ashley Williams, Charlie Adams, Ben Afobe and Jack Butland – perhaps it’s the classic case of thinking that they’re better than the league they’re in. With 52 points on the board they are essentially safe from relegation with nothing really to play for – it’s the kind of game that Boro should win if they start with intent as Stoke will probably lose interest as they mentally plan their summer holidays. Still, at least Pulis may get the odd sensation of hearing some fans at the Riverside singing his praises for a change – albeit from the away end.

Easter Monday sees Boro travel to Nottingham with a chance to gain revenge for the 2-0 defeat at the hands of Aitor Karanka in the earlier fixture at the Riverside. Unfortunately, the Spaniard is no longer at the club after apparently asking to be released from his contract in January – perhaps something the club were expecting as they appointed Martin O’Neil a few days later. The former Irish national coach has also been joined by Roy Keane to keep their bad-cop bad-cop routine – it must be hard for the players to decide who is the most scary or psychologically damaged. Whatever their style, it hasn’t proved to have given Forest the boost they were looking for and the expert analysis from the pair of ITV pundits has only managed to produce five wins from their 15 games in charge. Any play-off hopes have drifted off into mid-table obscurity and the Tricky Trees have just fallen to three-successive defeats and seem like another team looking forward to their summer hols – perhaps another fixture that a focused Boro side could steal three points from.

Should Boro negotiate the Easter fixtures, then the following Saturday appears another less than demanding game against strugglers Reading at the Riverside. Having said that, the Royals have only lost two of their last eight games and indeed have won four of those. However, Portuguese manager José Manuel Martins Teixeira Gomes has fared less well on the road, winning just one of their four away games at bottom club Ipswich. With Reading only four points above a relegation spot, then they will most likely not be dreaming of golden sands and lounging by the pool. The hope on Teesside will be that the Boro players won’t also run onto the pitch in their flip-flops and sun hats – as it will probably have meant there was no Easter uprising and the play-offs will have already been fully booked.

So with three games in a week (or 8 days if you’re not Tony Pulis) then this is the moment of truth for the Boro manager and his team. Although, while the drinks may be flowing in the Last Chance Saloon, the Boro manager has been supping with the devil for most of the season and we won’t know just yet if selling his footballing soul was a price worth paying. However, should Tony somehow manage to turn the season around at the eleventh hour then it’s still not impossible to think the impossible could still happen. Perhaps the footballing gods have sent a message by removing most of the defenders from his team – the problem is that someone will still need to take the chances at the other end if time is not to be called on Boro’s season.

423 thoughts on “Tony Pulis hoping to call time at the Last Chance Saloon”

  3. So looks like McNair in a back three with Howson and Saville as wing-backs – no start again for Downing after he resolved his contract for the third game in a row and a solid looking midfield with the Britt-Fletcher duo up top. A couple of youngsters drafted into the squad with Woods and Spence on the bench to compete with Tav for their 3 minutes.

    Starting XI: Randolph, Howson, Shotton, Flint, McNair, Saville, Mikel, Clayton, Besic, Assombalonga, Fletcher

    Subs: Dimi, Spence, Woods, Downing, Tavernier, Hugill, Gestede

    Prediction: I’ll go 2-0 if Boro score early as Stoke have nothing to play for – goals from Fletcher and Besic.

    So a win will take Boro into the top six after Bristol surprisingly slipped up at home to Reading and drew – hopefully the pressure won’t get to the Boro players!

  4. So even with all the injury problems Tav can’t get a start. At least he’s on the bench, along with young Nathan Wood, so at least Pu’s aware of their existence…

    P.S. Great discussion piece, Werder. 🙂

  5. Well I could barely have got today more wrong. Bristol City only draw and we win to finish the day back in the top six.

    3 straight wins. 3 straight clean sheets. Game on?

    1. It was hard to watch as Boro were just sitting back and clearing their lines – just 7 shots today and only 2 on target.

      Though spare a thought for my nephew, who’s a Leeds supporter for his sins, he’s come over from Australia to catch their last 2 home games in the hope of finally seeing them promoted. They had 36 shots on goal today and played against a 10-man Wigan for nearly 80 minutes – but they also only scored one goal and lost to drop to third!

  7. Cheers Werder another holy awesome article. Clearly all the travelling has not had a sobering effect on your writing skills!

    And, a win to follow. CoB 😎

    1. Cheers OFB, it’s been a very hectic week and it’s not going to calm down for a while with some major projects on the go – I got up at 5.30am just to fit everything in before the game, I probably won’t last long this evening!

  9. Todays bizarre facts, we are second in the form table for the championship over the last threes matches. Dont mention the last six. Three wins, three clean sheets.

    How on earth we are still in with a chance having lost six in a row is beyond me.

    I am a realistic person but dont take a jaundiced view. I honestly believe we are likely to make the play offs. Dont ask me how, it just may well happen.

    Do we deserve to make the play offs? If we finish in the top six of course we do. Those are the rules before the season starts. If we finish 7th or 8th then that will be fair as well.

    As my Derby supporting mate says, that is the Championship.

    Whether it has been pleasing on the eye is another matter and we are off to our friends at Forest. I am not joking when I say some of them would not be upset if we got three points and Derby didn’t get in to the play offs.

    To quote Jimmy Greaves ‘it’s a funny old game!’

    It is that damned hope again!

    1. We are just about grinding out those wins – we probably played better in half of those six games we lost but the opposition didn’t score and Britt has poked a couple in the net.

      I thought Mikel was MOM today but Howson and McNair also played well – though Saville looked out of sorts at left wing-back and I think Downing looked better in that position.

  10. I thought that things improved when Hugil and Tav came onto the field, Hugil because the centre back suddenly found that he could not dispossess Hugil and pound the ball forward(which he had done all afternoon) it mattered because we were looking like conceding a late goal. Tav. of course was faster around the field and getting the ball into some attacking positions.

    1. Sorry Plato but as much as I admire Tav and his potential, he had from my view of the game little by way of positive impact.

      For me Howson, McNair and JOM were the stand out players. Flint had a better game than of late whilst Shotton always seems to have “one of those moments” as part of his game.

      Randolph was as solid as ever and we will be lucky if we can hang onto him next season.

      As Ian has said, “how on earth are we still in with a chance of the play offs”. I would suggest more by chance than design or through managerial impact. 😎

      1. KP
        When Tav came on, we were in full standing around mode, and having to clear a awful lot of balls up field. Stoke had missed three complete knock ins at least.
        Enter Tav. And Hugil and we looked more comfortable, Hugil in particular stopped the ball from coming straight back into our goalmouth, which of course made gave our defenders a rest.

  11. An absolutely brilliant Easter piece Werder. How you can think of a thread and put it together at 5.30 in the morning is beyond belief. Top stuff.

    Unlike the match….great start, great cross, for the second time this season, and a strikers poach. After that all down hill and as Ian said how we are in the top six, only God knows.

    Stoke were poor and we were no better. How Adobe missed with that header, and people complain about Britt.

    I thought Howson, Flint (for one of his few games) and McNair had good games.
    Saville was poor all the match even when he moved inside. Besic once more slowed the game down, and how we miss Wing with his forward play. Very little forward passing and I cannot agree Mikel was one of the better players. SD once more added nothing when he came on, and unfortunately neither did Tav. But in his defence the team were on the back foot and defending deep.

    Let’s see what they do at Forest.

    1. Thanks Pedro, though I did manage to write three paragraphs the previous evening before deciding to sleep on it 😉

      I’d agree that Saville looked uncomfortable at left wing-back – I thought he was left footed but it almost seemed whenever he moved towards the halfway line and was in a position to play with his left foot he decided to turn around and retreat, which put us under pressure. Perhaps he can’t work in the confines of the touchline and needs more space around him.

  12. What a great set of results. Well worth staying up to 2am even if it wasn’t a great game to watch. The result was everything. As someone said we played infinitely better in other games and lost. We’re rapidly running out of players but that’s just the chance for someone to step up.

    The Leeds result has really thrown things up in the air and they now have to beat some tough teams. Even Villa could be pulled back into the fight for sixth . They have Millwall and Leeds next up.

    What a crazy division and, finally, we have a bit of momentum.

    UTB

  13. Werder,

    An excellent read, if belated read, on a Saturday morning. Friday was spent with with the new grandson, as time passes you forget what hard work a new-born is and the sound of them going to sleep is a relief. A bit like the Boro in a way. Right now to watch the highlights.

    How Boro are still in with a chance I do not know, more despite rather than because of. No doubt Mr P will put it all down to meticulous planning and preparation.

    UTB,

    John

    1. Thanks John, I find children are hard work whatever age – they just pose different problems 🙂 We discovered the only way our 8-year old would go to sleep when he was a baby was to turn the hoover on to make him relax – which is something Mrs Werder appears to always try with me when I’m watching the Boro on the laptop…

  14. So Boro are on what is called in footballing circles as a run – or to be more precise a winning run. It’s now possible that Tony and his team about to snatch victory from the broken jaw of defeat and rescue a play-off place after that six-game losing streak. So were Boro worthy winners or was it a case of recovering the will to win? Here’s Redcar Red with his match report and his take on events…

    https://diasboro.club/2019/04/20/boro-1-0-stoke/

  15. Thanks RR for a great match report. An accurate assessment if I ever saw one!!

    As well as getting the result I was very pleased for Mcnair and how he slotted in. I think he has had some unfair criticism this season, even though he has yet to appear in his midfield role, so it was pleasing to see him do well.
    So, onto Forest, a place where I don’t remember us winning very much so hopefully the lads can do the business.
    At least they have given themselves some confidence to do so!

  16. Redcar Red,

    Thank you for your match report, posted with perfect timing, and the excellent reference to ‘perple’. Right, now to watch the highlights in a condition of being fully briefed. Have a good one and let’s all hope and pray Boro can roll away the stone down there at Forest.

    UTB,

    John

  17. RR

    Thank you for a very accurate match report which is how I saw it as well

    I agree with your choice of McNair as MOM and his display will have pleased his watching International manager who was watching him today and was sat close to me

    OFB

  18. Thanks RR for your report on a match which produced three points but very little to shout about. Can’t argue with your MoTM as he was one of the few stand out players.

    So the hope is re-kindled but will it be extinguished at Forest where our record is not good. Teams can’t keep missing chances against us and if we keep presenting opportunities then sooner or later we will get punished.

    I would settle for a point and hope that Wednesday can do the business against Bristol and hope we can win our last two games albeit I still do not believe we are capable of winning the play offs. CoB 😎

  19. Just managed to read RR’s match report properly with my late morning coffee break and it certainly captured that almost lazy summer afternoon feel the game had to it. You would almost of thought both sides had little to play for as the intensity left the moment Britt poked in his 2nd-minute winner.

    I’d agree with RR that it was probably only Besic who added any energy to the team yesterday and was surprised to see him subbed. Perhaps Clayton should be sacrificed in the centre for Saville with Downing playing left wing-back instead. Two essentially defensive midfielders in front of a back-three is in my view a bit excessive – especially as Saville struggled to get forward too.

    Still, the object of the exercise is to bank the points but given Boro, Bristol and Derby all have a +9 goal difference, it would have been useful to try and add a few more goals. It would be typical if Boro missed out on sixth spot due to goals scored!

    1. Werder
      I thought that Clayton came in after the dreaded six pack of defeats?
      If so then please leave him in there, just in case the run was ended due to his efforts.

  20. ofb, I thought you would be interested to know my mate got his early bird season ticket renewed yesterday morning, so there is still hope for you and Redcar Red yet lol.

    Come on BORO.

    1. Interesting!

      The commercial manager cornered Mrs OFB in the ladies toilets yesterday to ask why we hadn’t renewed !

      Sorry forgot to mention the commercial manager is a young lady !

      Just in case you thought that undue pressure was being brought to bear ….

      Mrs OFB said we were thinking about it but the football had been dreadful all season ……

      She knows her stuff Mrs OFB but then I knew she knows a winner when she sees one because she picked me!

      HArrummphh!

      Lest said the better methinks !!

      And no we haven’t renewed…..

      OFB

      1. Me neither, one swallow (or three swallows in this case) doesn’t make a summer.

        The three consecutive victories have been welcome but very far from convincing, in fact fortuitous in the case of the last two. I haven’t seen anything in these last three games to make me think the outcomes have been as a result of shrewd or astute management planning or thinking.

        Bolton as a Club are in total disarray, Hull’s finishing was almost as bad as Assombalonga’s and Stoke’s season bears all the hallmarks of being unable to score in the Bongo. In both the last two games we have been clinging on for the entirety of the second half.

  21. I chuckled at Werder’s prologue to the next 3 matches especially the bit about drinks hoping to lift our spirits. I sure needed that because I’ve already had 4 visits to James Cook Hospital in the last 11 days, the latest being the insertion of a new catheter tube. Usually this function has been performed by district nurses in my home, but my prostate has become so enlarged that last Tuesday they spent nearly an hour on unsuccessful attempts to refit one so was initially sent to A & E where the nurse there had the same problem, so had to be transferred to the Urology Department where they have facilities available should anything go wrong.

    The urologist used to such problems had no difficulty addressing, the problem like a bull at a gate with blood spouting out everywhere. I had to drive back home with extra padding to control the bleeding, but fortunately after bathing the area there was no more bleeding. The added problem though in bathing the area is that I’m already having to have the wound following the removal of the boil in the area just above the penis dressed by district nurses every other day so baths and showers are impossible at the moment, just good strip washes. However the wound is healing nicely and the new catheter working okay, but the last few days haven’t been a barrel of laughs, and I’m certainly not looking forward to having the catheter tube replaced every 12 weeks at James Cook.

    As for Redcar Red’s excellent report I had to smile at his reference to ‘perple sherts’. A good job that the match wasn’t played in a rainstorm or he might have been referring to ‘derty perple sherts’. Mind without being critical I’m wondering if he’s having a bit of fun against those born in Middlesbrough, because I’ve never heard folk born in Redcar using that accent. We probably have our own idiosyncrasies.

    1. Ken,

      That sounds like a painful process, I hope you are feeling a lot better. Incidentally I remember my Grandmother singing me a song when I was little about a ‘derty perple berd, cherping an’ a berping an’ eatin’ derty perple werms’, all in a perfect Burrer raccent.

      All the best,

      UTB,

      John

    2. Ken

      Sounds like watching the Boro isn’t anywhere near as painful as your current dilemma (although it perhaps comes a close second). Like Boro I hope there is much improvement to come and quickly.

      The “Perple” does seem to dilute slightly as you move East from North Ormesby towards Southbank and Grangetown then waters down at Dormanstown and onwards to “Redker” where there are some other locally peculiar twangs.

    3. Ken, thought I was bad enough with the Visits to James Cook lately but you take the biscuit. Hope the probs start to settle down as mine seems to, then let’s get the lads over the line so to finish the season on a high note🎼🎼

  23. Ken
    Sorry to hear of recent problems. Hope everything has settled down after what must have been a painful and worrying process. Hope the wound continues to heal. Best wishes. 😎

  24. I can only second what KP has said. Best wishes to you Ken.

    I also apologise for my absence of late. Busy, and since yesterday, devastating times.

    Derry, Belfast and beyond are in mourning.

  25. I have also been busy in the garden with this lovely weather so haven’t been on here much.

    Thanks to Weder for the excellent piece, just the tonic in these troubled times and not just at Boro.

    RR report was as always a good read and probably the best report- better than the football on display and I remain amazed that we are where we are. Only due to other teams being equally poor really and we really do need to keep our spirits up.

    It really is enough to turn a man to drink, and frequently does!

    Like many others on here, I am disenchanted with what is being served up and have probably been to my last match this season, it is far more entertaining reading this blog, thanks to all contributors and should RR not be the regular reporter next season, then hopefully other people can step into the breach!

    Onto non football matters, Ken I hope that you are recovering well and I do feel for you. Can’t have been great having to drive home after that ordeal. I know that the NHS offer a patient transport service and I would have thought that you qualify to use it. Maybe ask at the hospital?

    Having a catheter and watching Boro are two things that are both a pain at the moment, so you have my sympathy and good wishes.

    Simon, the situation with you is truly appalling and i hope that it is not a return to the troubles. Did you know the journalist?

    Without being too political about it, I do not believe that our politicians fully understand the NI position at all and despite their protestations about the Union, they are not bothered, which sadly could lead to more deaths.

  26. Very strong rumours that I intimated a couple of weeks ago are true !

    Pulis has signed a new contract !!!

    Aaargggh……..

    Let the farce be with you

    OFB

  27. Thanks to both Werder and RR for your usual excellent efforts.

    Really sorry to hear of your health problems, Ken, and I hope you are continuing your recovery apace. If I ever get the chance, allow me to tell you my vasectomy story and about the resultant haematoma. It’ll certainly make you wince. I can laugh about it now, years later, but laughing was the last thing I needed to do at the time! No doubt you feel the same right now. All the best.

    A really poor game yesterday, as RR’s report accurately describes. Still, a win is a win.

    I’m travelling to Forest on Monday. I haven’t got a ticket, but the lady at the Forest ticket office on the phone told me they have ‘loads of Boro tickets left and won’t sell out’, so I can pay on the gate. This truly is a sign of fans’ exasperation with the football we are seeing. Usually, we could expect to take thousands to Nottingham on Easter Monday.

    I’m really hoping that TP doesn’t revert to full Aston Villa/ Swansea mode and play one lone striker. He’s already got his excuses in first, by saying he expects a really tough game. Yes, Tony, we all do, but if we’re to stand any chance of winning we must go ready to attack them, especially as they are on a bad run of defeats themselves.

    Amazingly, we’re back in the play-offs. I don’t know how. And both Bristol City and Derby have tougher run-ins than Boro. And their game in hand is against each other!! It’s the hope that kills you.

  28. OFB

    I hope your sources are mistaken. I think the only way I can stand another season of this tripe is if we somehow, miraculously get promotion!

      1. On the subject of TP being given a new contract, I just thought I would re-post my comments from the 14th of March which were in response to a post from BBD.

        “Not so sure he will be off as he was alluding to three year projects a few weeks ago at his pre-match press conference! 😎☹”

        I would, therefore, not be surprised in the least if this does come about but would be very unhappy! 😎 😔

      2. I wouldn’t worry about being in the top flight next season too much. Villa are on great run of form and looked nailed on to make the play offs. If we come up against them shares in Tena pads for men will go through the roof with shops out of stock for 70 miles around Rockliffe.

  29. Thanks for everyone’s good wishes. Although the wound is healing nicely and the catheter working satisfactorily I feel so exhausted at the moment, but I suppose tiredness can be expected for people with any form of cancer. Today I didn’t manage to get downstairs until almost 2pm. I’m not usually prone to melancholy, but some days I just want to sleep as my energy levels deteriorate, yet other days I feel much better. I suppose it is what it is – having visited hospital so many times I accept there are so many people with more problems than me, so just have to accept my situation. Again, many thanks for people’s concern.

  30. Ken, you sound as if you are coping really well and on your own?
    It cannot be easy but however you appear to be taking it in your stride somewhat.

    My best wishes to you.

  31. Had a great chat with Spike Armstrong and John Craggs on Friday.

    After three goes at him over the past year Spike has agreed to do an In2View!

    Craggsy a gentleman as always simply said yes of course so I will look forward to doing both during the close season

    OFB

      1. I managed to get their autographs for a friends grandson in the programme

        Spike insisting we use his marker pen but then he does have all the gear as he is a Director of a Stationery Company!

        Excuse typos can’t see screen whilst in garden and 26% sunlight bouncing off whilst in costa del Boro

        OFB

  32. Nice one Bob
    How John Craggs was never capped by England is beyond comprehension ,for those who never seen him, he was similar to Walker and Trippier who play now.
    He was very consistent and hardly ever had a poor game, could tackle, quick to support the forwards , overlap and cross, like I said in my opinion , at that time the best right back in the league.
    Ask him Bob if he ever got close to getting capped ,was he on standby, if not ,why not?

    1. GT

      Jim Platt and I asked John on Friday about how close he got to an England cap and he very shyly said that there were some good players around at that time.

      He only came to Boro because David Craig who was a Northern Ireland International was the established player in the position for Newcastle

      A friend of mine who was stood next to me told me afterwards that when John worked in a sport s shop after being involved with Willie Maddrens sport shop, my friend couldn’t pluck up the courage to go and get served by John who was his hero.

      A great player an a very quiet man

      OFB

  33. Family commitments so catching up.

    Best wishes to Ken and I dont want to hear Clive’s story about his vasectomy. What is reading equivalent of fingers in ears and la la?

    Sterling efforts by Werder and RR, one thing Redcar could improve on is more reporting of fast flowing football and goals from the Boro. There must be a reason they are missing from his otherwise excellent reports, I just cant Pu(t) my finger on it.

  34. Thanks RR for the honest alternative match report……unfortuanately the same theme continues even when we win.

    Talking of Mr Pulis and his continuation next season, may be we could have a summer Exmil challenge.
    Who will stay and who will go? Who will not leave and collect their wages? And which positions will we have to fill and which positions do we want to fill.

    I am sure Exmil could come up with a formula for a league of correct guesses.

  35. Feeling much better today, so have been giving my thoughts to the fascinating Championship promotion battle. Let’s start with Norwich City. With 3 successive draws might one think of this is a wobble? Probably not, as they only need 5 more points to be sure of promotion although 4 might do it as their goal difference is 2 better than Sheffield Utd and 8 better than Leeds. However 2 more draws might have them worried as their last match is away to Aston Villa. In the past I always considered them as a 3rd Division club for that is what they where spending the first 14 years years since the Second World War in the 3rd tier. It then took them another 12 years to reach the top tier, since when they have alternated between the top 2 tiers, but never returned to the 3rd.

    Not so for Sheffield Utd and Leeds. The former even spent one season in the 4th tier and 10 in the 3rd tier, 6 of them from 2011 when they always started as one of the favourites to be promoted. But they always seemed to underperform, in fact failing to even reach the playoffs in 4 of those last 6 seasons. Leeds meanwhile started their first season in the 3rd tier in 2007 on minus 15 points and after promotion in 2010 have rarely threatened to return to the Premier League until this season. That’s now 15 successive seasons outside the top tier.

    Nevertheless Leeds and Sheffield Utd seemed to have swapped 2nd and 3rd place almost every week this season, and the twist and turns may not yet be over despite both teams having only 3 games remaining. There doesn’t seem to be any long standing consistency from season to season as to which clubs might contest for promotion. QPR and Hull won playoff finals in 2014 and 2016 respectively; both have since been relegated and never really been in contention for the playoffs since. Ipswich Town and Wigan reached the playoffs in 2014 and 2015 respectively; the former has since been relegated, whilst the latter have also been relegated but jumped back up.

    On the flipside, Huddersfield and Reading were surprise play-off finalists in 2017, and the bookies wouldn’t have had Cardiff and Fulham among contenders for promotion last season. One wonders who they’ll have favourites next season. In this crazy Championship will Boro even yet get promoted this season? Whoever fails to get automatic promotion this be it Leeds or Sheffield Utd, may find it difficult to raise their game for the playoffs so Boro might yet reach the Final. West Brom v Villa seems to be a sure bet for the other Semifinal, a Midlands derby which the former may well win following Villa’s loss to Fulham last year. The recent Championship predictor had a West Brom v Boro final with West Brom winning on a penalty shootout.

    It might be correct in picking the Finalists, but Boro have an excellent record in penalty shootouts albeit in Cup competitions winning 8 of their last 9, the only losing one was against Liverpool and that took 27 penalties. Or am I being over-optimistic? Probably. Do Boro deserve to be promoted?In all honesty, no. Will I rejoice if they do get promoted? You bet I will. Let’s just see what happens!

  36. Many thanks RR and Werder for as always amazing reports and articles. Been busy this week culminating in a weekend at my daughters celebrating her birthday. Got a bad head today somehow !

  39. Following Man City’s 4-3 win over Spurs but losing on away goals, I’ve just become aware of an amazing scoreline in the Northern League Second Division clash between Billingham Town and Redcar Athletic in both teams final league match of the season last Friday night. Now I realise that the standard of football will have been miles away from the aforementioned Champions League match and of little interest to bloggers on this website unless they come from Billingham or Redcar, but the sequence of events went like this:-

    4th minute Billingham score 1-0
    23rd minute Redcar score 1-1
    31st minute Redcar score 1-2
    45th minute Redcar score 1-3
    Half time interval
    49th minute Billingham score 2-3
    68th minute Billingham score 3-3
    86th minute Billingham score 4-3
    88th minute Redcar score 4-4
    89th minute Billingham score 5-4
    97th minute Redcar score 5-5, whereupon the referee blows for full time. The only significance of the result means that Redcar (promoted from the Wearside League last season) finish one point in 7th position ahead of Billingham (relegated from the NL 1st Division last season) in10th position. Probably not much significance for the 173 spectators in attendance, but I bet much more entertaining than the 22,000 plus spectators who have witnessed most of Boro’s recent home matches.

    1. To put the record straight the 5-5 draw was between Billingham Synthonia and Redcar Athletic. I humbly apologise, especially to Billingham Town fans, as their team have actually just been promoted to the NL First Division as Champions. It’s also Synthonia who were relegated last season not Town. It’s a credit though that Billingham can boast having 2 clubs in the Northern League. I wonder if that is the only time that has happened since the 19th century when of course Middlesbrough had 2 teams, Ironopolis and of course the present club.

  40. Houston we have a problem.
    Just watched a town hall fans meeting with the Peterborough Chairman and Ferguson the manager.
    During this Darren the manager was saying how he wanted to manage in the championship again with the club,he wanted to prove himself.
    But what he did say, was that the last time he did with Preston, he was amazed at the money they were on ,and the fact that some of them didnt care if they were picked to play or not,
    Can I say Gestede , others also this unbelievable.

    1. If we take an early lead the home fans will be howling for MON’s head on a plate.

      The atmosphere down there isn’t good with the hoped for rejuvenation effect from O’Neil and Keane having bombed. Its strange how having an outdated Manager and an old Boys mentality isn’t reaping the rewards for them. Can’t possibly think why!

  44. Just before the team is announced I saw the video of the players arriving – Hugill looked happy as did Gestede – Downing and Fletcher looked a bit glum. Does that mean anything – we’ll see shortly…

  45. Well the smiling and glum faces didn’t mean anything (except for Downing) as it’s an unchanged team. So much for Pulis hinting that he would probably need to rotate his ‘tired’ players. Though not sure if I would have gone for Saville at left wing-back.

    Starting XI: Randolph, Howson, Shotton, Flint, McNair, Saville, Mikel, Clayton, Besic, Assombalonga, Fletcher.

    Subs: Dimi, Spence, Wood, Downing, Tavernier, Hugill, Gestede.

    Prediction: Well it could be another nervous 1-0 win again perhaps Britt will score against his old club.

  48. I reckon a draw is on the cards here so that’s me putting the hex on the game.

    Tricky Trees 1 – 1 Teesside Transporters

    I hope that the away support comes home happy, Boro are an in-form team. Whatever that means.

    UTB,

    John

  49. 20 mins gone and we have not managed a shot on goal. Looks like it is only a matter of time before Forest’s intent and quick movement of the ball pays off.

  50. 33 mins first effort from distance from Besic well over the bar. Nothing sticking with the front two and most of our attacks are breaking down before we get near the box.

  54. Currently its an exercise in futility. The front two are totally isolated – let’s ignore Assombalonga’s inability to control the ball – with nobody in support. Mikel and Clayton are deep, which is fine if there is someone else in front of them but Besic is coming back to get the ball in his own half. The only hope is to take off Clayton and bring on Tavernier and push him and/or Besic forward in constant support of the front two. I’d also be tempted to swap Assombalonga for Hugill but that might wait for fifteen minutes. We need to win this!!!

    Also, Shotton was lucky to escape with a yellow.

    UTB

  55. Dreadful poor quality first half that didn’t even deserve a goal – Boro have no ideas once they pass the halfway line and either the ball is overhit or the first touches from Britt is worse than Sunday League player with Fletcher not much better. Lost count the number of times Besic has lost the ball and Saville looks off the pace. Even a triple substitution at half-time wouldn’t be enough but something needs to change – as we know Boro have never won a game if the opposition score first this season so it will need ground-breaking territory to get three points. The only good news is that Bristol are 2-0 down – though Derby still 0-0.

  56. Well the team in red wanted it more.
    Most of our players seem to be new to this level of football. All passes sideways or back, letting a very average side walk all over them.
    And the penalty, well they got a player in the box which is more than we did.
    Which team has the deck chairs out Tony???
    The next forty five will make or break this season.

  57. A good anecdote on Radio Tees. At Forest, Martin O’Neill went in to see Brian Clough and asked him why he was in the second team Cloughie’s response was they didn’t have a third team.

    Made me chuckle.

    1. Good one from Mark Proctor

      Pre match meal players all sat down

      Cloughie walks down the line pointing to players

      You can have chips 🍟
      You can have chips 🍟
      You can have chips 🍟

      Points to Proctor

      “You can have chips 🍟 “

      Proctor says “ no thanks Boss””
      Cloughie says

      “ You can have chips 🍟 you’re not playing “

      OFB

  59. What is it with Shotton these days….he always has a mistake in him, only today he did not get away with it. Well he did in not getting red.

    Otherwise same old. How we go forward next season to be competitive, who knows and even more so with Mr Pulis in charge.

  60. Forgot all about the kick-off until half-time. Not even remotely surprised to find us a goal down when eventually I checked the Beeb’s trext commentary. 🙁 I see Vic’s reporting in hisTwitter feed that there are 1,449 away fans having their emotions put through the wringer! 🙁

    And now it’s 2-0 to Forest… *shakes head*

    1. According to Vic:

      “Randolph currently playing Forest on his own, saving again from one-on-one with Lolley after defence sliced wide open again.”

      Says it’s a shambles. I give up!

    2. This didn’t seem to go through first time round:

      According to Vic:

      “Randolph currently playing Forest on his own, saving again from one-on-one with Lolley after defence sliced wide open again.”

      Calls it a shambles. I give up.

  65. Normal service appears to have been resumed. If this man is still manager next season we’ll be in a relegation dogfight. A team that previously was as poor as Boro on their losing run and they are tearing us to pieces. For the travelling fans and the rest of us exasperating, frustrating and enraging. Does Mr Pulis see his problem or is he already rationalising and apportioning blame.

    UTB,

    John

  66. I decided to go to Tesco with five minutes left only to find Mrs G in the other room. Decided to watch the moss killer work on the lawn, got more pace than our midfield.

  68. I cannot see that any other result was possible, the set up that this manager sticks with match after match is a suicide letter signed sealed and delivered. With a stamp on. Never mind Gibsons wishes, he will have to go,and now.

      1. GHW
        Glad you asked.
        Shall we start with the idea of defending as the be all and end all of your tactics, let’s discus that piece of brilliance shall we?
        The general consensus, that is amongst the crowd(at least my section, upper west stand) is the following and I quote (at length)
        If you stand around in and about your penalty area, then two things follow, as night follows day.
        The opposition take at least ten minutes to work out that if they advance to the half way line, then they can mount an attack by the simple process of giving the ball to their winger who will advance to the front of our box and put the ball in the mixer(our six yard box). Repeat till full time.
        This has two effects ,it works our defence, and we have no outlet to mount an attack, this is not good.
        Even worse is to follow, if the opposition is struggling at the bottom of the league, they sniff an away win, and they’re never going to run out of puff. They have just spent the first half standing on our halfway line (ring any bells?)
        Remind me again, how did the game today go(tactically)?
        We are very short of defenders, so we go for a shutout hhhm!
        They are fielding several young players, so an attackminded set up might have caught them short.
        This match went exactly as the last three went, us under the cosh and them making at least three sitters, only today they did not miss them.
        I have no idea how or why we are pretending to be contenders, but this I do know, if we decide that this man has been unlucky, we are the biggest certainties to go down next season that I have ever seen.
        their faults? Where to begin.
        No speed in the first team, and no intention of using speed(hard lines on Tav.)
        No idea in and around the box, non whatsoever.
        The idea of Britt as a holdup man is bewildering(it’s certainly bewildering to Britt) but then scoring from easy chances gives him problems.
        The team is very meek and mild, easily bullied out of games.
        The team that this man calls his first team is without question the worst team this club has fielded for many years.
        We are curst by this idiotic position we are in, without it he would be gardening in Sandbanks.
        And we will have to dispose of him within three months of the start of next season.

  69. GHW

    And therein lies the problem. We can all come up with alternative line ups but we dont have fast attacking full backs, pacey wide men, pacey and creative midfield players.

    Our strikers couldn’t score in the half time school kids penalty shoot out.

    I dont think TP has got the best out of what he has available but the early season points have kept us in the chase. If we dont make the play offs it is because we would not have been good enough.

    Here is a really worrying thought. As I said, I may think TP hasn’t got the best of what we have but maybe, just maybe, he has got more out of the squad than we think. That is a really worrying thought as we look forward.

    1. TP decimated the squad and made it smaller as he wished. TP shipped out players who didn’t fit his template. TP was here when all the defensive midfielders arrived unbalancing his squad. Players like Hugill, Besic, Flint, Saville etc. were all brought in to the club under TP’s reign. Christie, Fabio, Bamford and others all left under TP. A certain type and style of player was regarded as unwanted whilst others both incumbent and new were deemed more desirable. Paddy dropped for the Play Offs? His Circus, his Monkeys!

  70. Good post Ian and I think you could be right.

    TP is part of the problem but the more the season has gone on the more the revelation that the majority of the squad are at best average Championship players. Randolph and Mikel being the exceptions.

    With the restrictions on finances we are going to struggle to put a squad together to make the top six let alone strong enough to push for promotion next season.

    I think this one is gone given Derby and Bristol’s game in hand and goal difference.

    1. A least Bristol and Derby play against each other on Saturday – Derby are also away to Swansea and their final game is against West Brom. I think if (and it’s a big if) Boro win their last two games they will finish 6th. Then it would probably be Leeds over two legs to see who plays Villa in the final. Given our performances and weaknesses it would be difficult to see Boro going up without a lot of luck. Randolph probably kept the score down below six today and it’s hard to see where the goals will come from any more.

      1. Werder
        The truly frightening thing is the following.
        We play our two remaining games(very badly) and on studying the scores we find that we are in the play offs. Does not matter how, we are taking part.
        By some miracle we find, when the dust has settled that we are in the premier league.
        Can I say at this point, that we, with our glorious Manager at the helm, would be ripped apart both tactically and physically each and every week, nailed on for the lowest ever points total, and a certain comedy best seller from a collection of his statements to the national press.
        Not even nearly good enough is the verdict, and yes, that does include this Manager.
        Never mind any foolish promises made, unmake them now, it must be done, consider it one of the downside of being chairman, but do it.

    2. I do not think, that ultimately the players are probably only average players, and that you can argue against that thought.

      Of course Mr Pulis can and has complained that he has not got what he wants in player terms, but, he has had a reasonable amount of money in Championship terms. Has he (MFC) spent it well. Absolutely not. No argument there in my opinion.

      I will go back to one of Redcar Red’s observations of one Mr Carnie, RB of Sheffield United. A fill for Boro, not deemed good enough last season. This is not RR saying this, just an observation on here. Well he has done OK for Sheff U and that is the point. As have Mr Sharp, McGoldrick, et al.

      Mr Pulis is the failure here as much as his excuses allow.

    3. Is it the players? Is it really the players?

      How many Boro fans would have been thrilled with signing McGoldrick on a free? Or Martin Cranie? I’ve said this many, many times this season. Our squad has it’s flaws. Every squad at this level does. But a number of other manager have acheived far more with less than what Pulis has squandered. We have a good base of players, some youth internationals. A few good additions and we can more than challenge, provided of course that we have the right man in charge…

    4. KP
      I pay no attention to any attacks on the players, they , without any of his imports were top after five games, more importantly, those five games were played in a manner not of the Managers wishes, that is attacking and defending, going ahead and falling behind.
      He ignored our position in the league, trashed our defence without a by your leave,( we got slaughtered) then came his improvement of our attacking methods. Out went Tav.and Wing, plus Fry. In came his choices from the bring and buy sales, and with it the standing around (otherwise known as defending). Awful to watch, dreadful at home, pitiful away. From being a playoff contender as a given, we are now, officially next seasons relegation candidates, and this is true even when it is announced that he is getting his gardening tools for Sandbanks. He has reduced us to this pitiful state where we have no solid backbone, no surefire good things to anchor the team for a stint at the top of this league, no method of play, no striker, no speed, no identity, and all done openly as the Chairman looked on. Our youth are openly denied a place even in a pitiful team, this, as every big club is looking to get them on the pitch.
      He cannot communicate with the press (surely a given in his position) and he talks rubbish, boy does he talk rubbish. The question is? Is he treating the press as idiots, or is it aimed at us?

  72. Prior to kick off in the pre game warm up the Forest players used cones for some training routines.

    This turned out to be a master stroke from Martin O’Neil as Boro’s chosen few put in a very passable impersonation of the aforesaid training implements. In fact they made the cones look good!

    Shambolic would be a good description, if the usual footballing cliche is “ Keystone Cops Defending” then today’s display would only be barely aspiring to reach that level.

    There can be no excuse for professional footballers not even achieving the basic standards of play. Pedestrian would be an understatement, a team comprised of Touché Turtle and Tommy the Tortoise would have run rings around them. They would be outmuscled by wet paper bags!

    In normal circumstances professional pride would kick in, but that shower were bereft of even that. An absolute disgrace.

    Randolph was as usual the only player to come out of it with his integrity intact, another wonder show to keep it down to only three.

  73. But the amazing thing is that we are still in with a chance ( albeit long odds ) of making the play offs. Whilst that is positive, the thought scares the hell,out of me!

    I have said it before that I want Boro to win and do well but this season has been a disappointment and I have almost fallen out of love with the team.

    I agree with GHW that the lack of any professionalism is frankly appalling especially given what they are paid.

    I want to keep the hope but I would not be confident in the playoffs at all. TP would play for a draw and win on penalties!

  74. OFB mentioned rumours of Pulis signing a one-year extension. We then lost six in a row.

    OFB mentions strong rumours that said rumour is indeed true. We lose 3-0.

    Not blaming you OFB but can it not be mentioned again?!

    Today was gutless. Some will blame the players, most will blame the manager. Undoubtedly they are both to blame.

    Shocking and yet no-one is shocked.

  75. I can’t wait for the season to end. The result today was no surprise to me. Couldn’t care less about the play offs.

    Instead of SG having a go at Aston Villa/ Derby and Sheff Wed, he needs to forget about the other clubs problems and desperately put his efforts into his own club to sort out the mess.

  76. I agree absolutely, GHW. Words fail me. Well, no they don’t – I’m going to have a rant.

    That was frankly the most embarrassing performance I can remember from a Boro side. We were outplayed in every department (Randolph aside), out-muscled, out-thought. I’ve never seen such shambolic defending: Forest looked as if they could score every time they attacked, especially in the second half. For the second time this season we’ve made an ordinary team look like Man City. Their fluid, pacy, nippy, skilful forwards simply ran rings round us. Those four adjectives, by the way, could never be applied to Boro this season under Pulis. 3-0 was the least the home side deserved; I counted 4 great saves from Randolph and several more occasions when Forest players created good opportunities in our box.

    I’m gobsmacked by TP’s post-match comments, though why am I surprised? No blame attaches to him, of course. Again, he blames the forwards. Well, there’s obvious justification; between Britt, Fletch, Hugill and Tav, we had not a single shot on target, just a half-deflected effort by Hugill. None of the forwards held the ball up, it was like a hot potato they couldn’t wait to get rid of. Completely ineffectual as a collective all game.

    But Pulis fails to mention the appalling, one-paced, useless midfield. Together, Tav, Howson, JOM, Besic, Savile, Clayton and Downing created not one single chance. Not once did any of our players get behind the Forest defence, in complete contrast to the home side. We put in very few crosses, again in complete contrast.

    And the midfielders failed to do the defensive side of the game too. They were totally overrun and didn’t offer the back three any protection. Throughout the game, Forest were quicker to every ball and I lost count of the times a Forest player would burst free through weak, pitiful, powder-puff tackling.

    The EG’s scores of 3 and 4 for most are too generous. No Boro player apart from Randolph had a good game. This was a collective nightmare, hugely dispiriting. And yet, the manager, whose set-up this was, and who played far too deep and unadventurously for the whole game, doesn’t see fit to accept he may have got it wrong. Again. He can say all he likes that he played more forward type players than ever before, but the way we were set up created zilch.

    We won’t make the play-offs. Derby now have a five goal advantage over us and a game in hand. We’re simply not good enough.

    On our way home last week after the Stoke game, my brother and I discussed who we thought in the present squad might make it in the Premiership. Today’s discussion on the way back was of a different ilk: who is good enough to retain for next season in the Championship? On this evidence, not many. This side needs a complete reboot (up the backside, preferably). And it goes without saying, now, that we also need a new manager with fresh ideas.

    1. Was it worse than the Villa game, Clive?

      Just joking. I saw the match on TV yesterday but somehow I lost interest in the second half. I would have closed the apparatus but my wife kept on saying: “Let’s see the end of it.”

      We never leave a match before the players have left the field. Never. She must have been a bigger Boro fan than me yesterday.

      And Boro still have a chance. But need a miracle now. Up the Boro!

  77. Clive

    I well written rant and one that I tend to agree with. I did not have the pleasure of seeing the game today but just on the BBC stats, we were clearly not at the races to say the least.

    If that is TP’s idea of playing with more attacking intent, God help us when we are playing for a draw.

    I saw the Bristol and Hull games and as you say, we have no pace or creativity and consistently sit back and let teams come at us.That exposes our defensive frailties big style.

    Given our poor goal difference, goals scored and games lost, we should not deserve to be in with a play off chance although it is the hope that gets you.

    I have just discovered that I am away for the play offs which is a blessing in disguise as it will save me the dilemma of deciding to go or not.

    If OFB is right and TP is with us for another season, then something drastic has to change. Is it the players who Re not up for it or is it TP and his motivation skills?

    I cannot accept his comments where he refuses to accept any blame and maybe the players have had enough and decided that the season is over.

    Will I be there next season, probably although not as frequently since It is hard to give up on Boro!

  78. Another thought.

    We post and discuss about TP and whether the players are good enough. Some think they are better than average Championship players, some that they above average.

    The facts are we are in the top eight, that makes the squad better than average. Pure logic. Are the squad good enough to be in an automatic promotion place? No.

    Downing apart, there are few with good Premiership experience, mostly they come from a middling or lower Championship teams. Forget the transfer fees, the players are what they are.

    1. How many Players with Premiership experience do Norwich or Sheffield United have or Leeds for that matter. Compare them with Clubs that came down and struggle to get back up. Premiership experience is not a quality that is required to get out of the Championship, good players do help of course but as Stoke have found out and many others before them its not a given.

      1. Redcar Red

        I wasn’t trying to put Prem experience at the top of the list, it was only a comment. We are above average and that is about it. Not a great squad, unbalanced but so are most squads in this league.

    2. Ian
      We are in the top eight because we have still not completed our fixtures. When that is done we will be at 10 or 12. The reason that we will achieve that will be because Pulis was caught out by the youngsters in the first month. As soon as he realised that they were the problem, he fixed it, he had to get them away from the ground completely, which he did, and unfortunately some opponents were frightened by our top position in the league which got us some points. But his self inflicted problems were going to surface at some time, and boy have they surfaced now.
      It would be very dangerous for us to get into the Prem. At this point under this man because he is a danger to any club he manages and I would fear for us with him in charge.

  79. If Pulis is with us for another season then God help us. He hasn’t got a clue about how to play attacking, attractive football, his motivation skills are non-existent, his team set-up and game strategy skills are prehistoric and, to cap it all, nothing is ever his fault when he speaks to the press after matches.

    His continued employment for next season would also confirm in my mind that Steve Gibson is losing the plot. There have been a number of poor management decisions in the last three years that raise questions about his judgement but retaining the services of Pulis would in my view be a monumental error that would have very damaging consequences for the club.

  80. Ian I think you are wrong in my opinion, if you analyse each individual player. I have never rated Downing even given his EPL experience and his contribution in terms of goals, assists, crosses to players in the box is woeful.
    There are more than enough players with experience of playing with higher (than middling/lower) Championship clubs and some with (limited I accept) experience with EPL clubs.

    The top two clubs tonight are full of the type of players you have said we are full of……middling / lower Championship players. Plus with a fair number of young inexperienced players.

    What they have and we do NOT have, is a good Manager and a decent recruitment team.

  81. I have found a good way to cheer myself up. After reading all the doom and gloom I look at the Leeds result and all the pain seems to disappear

    1. Its not about different players. Pulis has a decent squad, one equally as good as and probably a better one than Chris Wilder and Daniel Farke’s. As has been said on here before “all the right players just not necessarily in the right order”.

      There appears a concerted determination not to attack teams or to try and win games. The scared, negative psychology of having your team browbeaten before they even take the pitch is not down to who is selected but down to the tactics and psychology of the Manager. This has been repeated far to many times this season, Newport, Swansea, Villa (several times) etc. in matches we had a right to at least compete in. Getting beat is part and parcel of football but its the manner and the build up to those defeats of which yesterday was just another one of those games.

      Many of this squad have won promotion previously and others like Mikel, Assombalonga, Randolph etc. should be enhancing what was already here. Undoubtedly there are one or two donkeys but TP has often shown a preference for those players over and above ones with flair and ability who have been shown the door. Can anyone recall a game this season outside of August when he didn’t have his “Men” on board that they actually enjoyed watching?

      1. It feels like since Villa in the playoffs last year we really have gone backwards. We have had too many identical games where we play a decent team in decent form and just fold. Thing is, that had been happening since the Norwich play off but has been happening more and more frequently. All teams freeze sometimes but it seems to have infected our DNA. The only reason Monk Boro didn’t freeze was because the players didn’t know what they were doing anyway.

        Right now it’s hard to know whether it’s a good team bad manager, good individual players but no way to assemble them into a team which plays to their strengths, or basically mediocre players.

        I suspect the answer is somewhere in between. We’re not as bad as the team that lost 6 in a row and not as good as the team that won 3 in a row without conceding. However we have a fatal flaw that is getting worse the longer TP is in charge and that indicates to me that fundamentally this group of players, this manager and this recruiting strategy has reached the end of the line.

        I actually think SG knows this. At the moment, TP seems to be acting like a combination of team manager and chief executive and I reckon that when he talks about the club as a whole he is basically acting as an informal spokesman for SG.

        1. Maybe Pulis acts as a human shield for the chairman and players – I sometimes think that some of the things that he says in post-match interviews are so crass and designed to absolve himself from blame that he must be dropping dead cats on the table to deliberately attract all the criticism.

          Although, I’m struggling to understand the relegation-avoiding tactics in a promotion race and his team selections seem to display a failure to notice what hasn’t worked. Perhaps he is just a somewhat deluded yesterday’s man who doesn’t want to adapt to a changed game – I hope Steve Gibson isn’t about to back him further to remould Boro in his image as he may find the future will not likely bring what he’s hoping for.

      2. Pulis’s greatest achievements have been as an “Underdog”. Struggling to survive against all odds in the Premiership and doing it successfully year after year. Putting a side out in a two legged Play Off game with that same submissive underdog mentality imploded big style. The first game of this season away to Millwall crashed and burnt because of the same mindset until the Kids came on near the end and their youthful enthusiasm changed the game. That continued through August until the International break and all the Summer signings were then complete and TP’s squad was at “full strength”.

        It was after the Leeds away game and that International Break that the “full strength” squad took over from the kids (albeit only a few) and the underdog mentality then fully set in as a tactical blueprint. We have scored 45 goals all season in 44 matches, only Stoke, Bolton and Ipswich have scored fewer (interesting that our recent winning “revival” included two of those sides) in the Championship. That is unacceptable against any measurement or benchmark.

        We have scored 21 goals at home in 22 home games this season, winning 9, losing 6 and drawing 7 games. That is a dire and damning set of statistics for a side with Promotion as its supposed aim. This underdog mindset has permeated to the Players and although nobody will come out and say it right now when he has departed there will be several who will say how much they hated playing under him.

        This summer the club needs an entire clear out in non playing areas and a new team brought in to administrate and manage MFC generally. Simultaneously fresh team management/coaching needs to be put in place to assess and restructure/rebuild from the negative despondent mess that Pulis has created in his own image. I believe what the players have achieved is in spite of the manager and not because of him. Our best results (very few and far between) seemed to coincide when his hand was forced. Just two games left now of this depressing saga and hopefully time will be called.

  83. So after somehow managing three wins on the bounce, Boro’s learners were now back in the play-off driving seat. Tony Pulis was hoping his players would pass their test at the City Ground but he seemingly decided they needed to practice an emergency stop instead.

    One man on the road who was keeping a safe distance from the out-of-control Boro promotional vehicle was Redcar Red. I suspect after the car crash at Forest he may not have been too impressed by what he saw – anyway, here’s the assessment of our Diasboro examiner with his match report…

    https://diasboro.club/2019/04/23/forest-3-0-boro/

    1. Just read my own report this morning, 48 hours? Saturday?

      Clearly the post match “numbing medication” that I self administered via amber coloured fluids confused Good Friday for Easter Saturday. Mind you TP could have played the Easter Bunny up front yesterday and I doubt anyone would have noticed (or cared sadly).

  84. I know we have made some cost cutting this season – sold some players for good price and bought the salary bill down.

    But why did we never replace the injured Soton left back or Danny Batth in January? Now TP admits Boro’s injury problems finally caught up with them as they crashed to a 3-0 defeat at Nottingham Forest.

    But this was expected if we only had about five defenders after January window. Strange.

    Shotton, Flint and the now injured trio of Ayala, Fry and Friend. Have I missed somebody?

    Up the Boro!

  85. In response to RR at 1148, I tend to agree with what you have said. An outsider from another planet looking in would be totally confused that we are aiming for promotion! The tactics are all wrong and The mentality of starting with a point and if we end with a point, then we are no worse off May and it’s a big May, work when staving of relegation but going for it, no way!

    We do not ever go on the offensive and the stats speak for themselves.

    I know I keep repeating myself but the more the season goes on, the more I think that the aim is not to get promoted! I can’t fully reconcile why SG would want that given the riches of the EPL but it looks like that is what TP is aiming for.

    Keep the fans vaguely interested, then lose a few on the trot so that we can’t make it, then win a few to make it look possible when results go against the plan, followed by defeats to avoid promotion.

    If, we make the playoffs, the game plan will be sit back and not win, oh, we did that last year as well! Easy then.

    I have found something better to do on Saturday and it will be the first time that I have not made the effort for the last home of the season for a long time. I can’t be biothered to give the players and staff a so called lap of honour when there has been little honour this season.

    Let’s see what happens shall we in summer but without wholesale changes, I will be joining the list of disaffected fans who will vote with their feet and money.

  86. I recently asked the question if Boro deserved promotion, and I answered my own question by saying probably not. But if they did get promoted would I be happy, and I again answered my own question by saying ‘you bet I would’. Whether I was trying to cheer myself up after a rough period, I don’t know. But I can’t get out of this habit of answering my own questions or talking to myself. I’m even talking to my wife above football, what I did today, etc and she’s been dead 10 years next month. It’s probably my way of coping for her loss, but I doubt she would be interested in some of the things I talk to her about now she’s dead, that I certainly wouldn’t have discussed with her if she was still alive. Perhaps I’m ready for the asylum!

    Looking at things logically would I really be rejoicing if Boro got promoted this season only to hear the same drivel from Tony Pulis? The trouble is I can still see it happening. Beat Reading and Rotherham and I reckon we’re in the playoffs against a Leeds United side who will be so disappointed at not gaining automatic promotion that they’ll now fall like a pack of cards. Villa may well have peaked too soon, and some predictors are expecting West Brom to beat them. Boro have already beaten the Baggies twice this season, but Boro had twice beaten Norwich in the season they beat us in the playoff final, so I guess previous results don’t count. Also Cas had beaten Leeds Rhinos in 8 successive matches including 52-12 at Headingley in 2016 and 66-10 at home the following season, but still lost the Grand Final 6-24 to them when it really mattered.

    After now composing myself, I’m even dreading the prospect of Boro being in the Premier League under Tony Pulis. On reflection I’d rather Boro wait a few years and do a Watford, a Bournemouth, a Southampton or a Leicester, than be an embarrassment and do a Sunderland. Yet most of us are still wanting Boro to reach the playoffs, me included. It’s a bad habit, but it’s hard to resist because we all love the Boro, if not the manager.

    1. Ken

      I know exactly what you mean, it’s a hard habit to break!

      Managers come and go but the club stays constant and As this blog proves, no matter where you live and how far you have travelled from home, or indeed those who have never even called Middlesbrough home but through whatever way they come to follow the Boro, Boro will always be in our blood.

      Try as we, or manager and players, may at times try to shake off the affliction and the hope, we can’t!

      UTB

  87. Thanks RR for your match report which you summed up brilliantly with the comment ” pure Pulis puerile purgatory”.

    The result was not really a surprise as many of us had commented that whilst the team was on a run of three wins they had been far from convincing in those games.

    I also mentioned that if we continued to gift teams chances then sooner or later they would take them. 😎

    1. RR

      Thanks for the report only one more to go!

      Mrs OFB read your report this morning in bed before I was awake and I’ve only got round to reading it!! It shows she’s more interested in what you have to say rather than anything I can offer……………………….

      It must make you so depressed having to write about such a dire performance and your efforts are much appreciated.

      Randolph will be off to a new club and that’s a certainty.

      Saville is just a no hoper for me and I cannot for the life of me see why Pulis wanted him.

      At the Riverside for the last two home games, we have left early, something we have never done since Strachan and we are not looking forward to Saturday,

      A sorry state of affairs really and before anyone says – ah! but you have to be a true Boro fan to really support them, well I’ve supported them for over 53 years throughout Europe and Cup Finals even Hartlepool during liquidation and enough is enough………….

      For it to come to this it’s really a sad state of affairs for me and a lot of other fans who sit next to me won’t be coming back

      All this talk about encouraging season ticket sales doesn’t encourage me!

      Thanks Again RR

      Best Regards

      OFB

  88. Thanks Redcar Red for your alternative take of the Forrest game and the stalwart efforts you have put in this season against the odds of any enjoyment.

    As I have previously said, I would be surprised if Mr Pulis does not lead us next season. Would that be better the Woodgate/Fleming/Downing? the alternative rumour.

    If we continue with the present set up in August that we have now, I could envisage a relegation battle on our hands. We will probably lose our better players, be saddled with those we do not want, or TP does not want, and not be able to attract any decent replacements.

    If by chance the second rumour comes to fruition, then it could even be worse with that lot.
    Unfortuanately I have lost faith somewhat in our saviour Mr Gibson. Too many mistakes to be comfortable with and certainly a lack of direction that is apparent to the great unwashed that do seem to matter any more to MFC.

  89. Thanks again RR. That you have made yourself have to relive through so many disappointing matches this season and never once reported with anything worse than dark humour speaks volumes about the author. If there will be a lap of honour at the Riverside surely it should be you taking it.
    Well I know a couple of us had predicted us losing to Forest in the Exmil challenge, so not really a surprise there. The way the fixtures have fallen we could well finish in 6th and if we do that it will be because over the course of the season we will have deserved it more than just 5 other teams in league. I really hope we do it. Can’t help myself for that. Whatever will be, it will be difficult to have called this a memorable season. All the same COB prove all of us doubters here wrong. Show us you have got some pride in the badge and in yourselves.

  90. Recar Red,

    I’ve just got back to Norfolk from Wetherby collecting my 101 year old mum-in-law from relation and having read your report I reckon she couldn’t have done any worse than our pathetic ‘team’, that sounded like reporting on purgatory. Pulis infected purgatory. Where do bro go from here, well this man in charge down, down, down is the only answer.

    The end of season arrives and our keeper will go particularly if Mr P stays, the best player yesterday it seems. The rest well who knows? With a proper manager I’m sure that they have much more to offer but we’ll never know will we.

    The younger players? I’m sure that they will be looking for a move where they get to a) play more than three minutes or,, b) sit on the bench wondering what they have to do to get a game or c) wonder how badly the ‘regulars’ have to play to be dropped or, d) wonder how Gestede gets picked to lead the line for the last few games.

    Like OFB and a few others I wonder where this is going. Apart from down the tube that is.

    Your report is nothing less than miraculous considering what didn’t go on. I think Mr Pulis is football vampire because he is sucking the lifeblood out of the club.

    UTB,

    John aka Jarsue

  93. Who would have thought before this season started that Stoke City would never be in contention for promotion. The general consensus of opinion was that if any team finished above them, they would finish as Champions. Similarly when Boro beat Sheffield United 3-0 that the Blades were poor and that Boro eased off and probably should have won by a higher margin. Before we played Norwich, even their own supporters thought they were rubbish and would at best finish mid-table. If I remember correctly Stoke, Boro, West Brom, Derby and Leeds were the pundits choices for playoff places, with many thinking that Villa would implode following their financial problems. Furthermore many of us including me thought that the Championship was the lowest in quality for many years, and that if Boro showed only a modicum of improvement from last season the likes of Ayala and Flint would cause have in opponents’ penalty area from set pieces.

    Now we have the situation that Norwich and Sheffield United are almost certainties for automatic promotion. In fact it’s not inconceivable that the latter might even pip Norwich as Champions or that Villa might even finish above West Brom. Division One is showing the same inconsistencies as the Championship with Sunderland, who until recently had lost only 2 league matches, now looking unlikely to be promoted automatically as Barnsley, unbeaten at home all season, seem to be assured of Second place leaving the Mackems and Pompey fighting for promotion via the playoffs.

    Yes, Jimmy Greaves was right when he said that football was a funny old game. But watching Boro this season has been anything but funny, but incredibly two wins for Boro in their remaining fixtures will more than likely see Boro in the playoffs. Surely that’s not too much to ask, or is it?

  96. What is a bother to me is the fact that whilst I read posts I am less inclined to post.

    We are dissecting the entrails of chickens that have come home to roost.

  97. It would take me about a week to write down ,my thought on the state of Boro nation,
    But for anyone who didn’t see the game on Monday.,get this.
    In the first half,after being under the cosh,we finally got a little momentum, we got a corner kick, we sent all the big men up ,along with the strike force.
    Saville went to take the corner, Besic stood about eight yards away, along the side line.
    Instead of aiming for the box,he decides to pass away along the sideline to Besic.
    Besic instead of crossing it, tries to dribble down the left ,past a Forrest player who had now been given the time to close him down, Besic gets close to the goal line ,then attempts to cross it,but doesn’t beat the first man,and they break away almost scoring, a couple of minutes later , Clayton with time gets caught trying to dribble , the ball is easily taken away they break get s penalty, goal scored, I turn the game off, enough was enough.
    Now you can blame Pulis,all you want,I have, but when you have an incompetent group of underachievers , what can you do?
    There is something fundamentally not right , Karanka revealed recently ,we had one of the lowest budgets when we went up, maybe Ramirez wasn’t happy about the fact he wasn’t allowed to double his salary going to Leicester ,
    We get Bamford and Gestede on the cheap ,and didn’t play them,
    Karanka did make money for the club when we sold his signings.
    Then Pulis comes in and says Steve spent too much and the wages are crazy.we have to cut the cloth.
    The place as become a soup opera ?
    So Yes Some blame as to be on the shoulders of Pulis, on the field , but I’m wondering if the squad are wondering about their futures instead of their jobs.
    Roll the names of the actors .

  99. I’ve stopped reading the comments of fans on articles on the Gazette as most of them are just name-calling, point-scoring or using asterisks,etc to attempt to disguise bad language. It obviously gets worse after every Boro defeat or poor performance. Now I find the same thing happening on the Cas Tigers forum just because Cas aren’t playing the fantastic rugby they displayed 2 years ago. Rugby League is a tough sport and Cas have had as many as 8 players injured at a time, some long term injuries. No sooner do some players return from injury than a couple of others get injured. Yet like some Boro fans there are now statements that the club need a clear out at the end of the season. I find that incredible as Cas have punched above their weight in last season and this finishing 3rd last year and at this moment 4th in the league. At least there has been no calling for the coach to be sacked. It is what it is, just ask the supporters of Leeds Rhinos or Wigan Warriors. The sport has just seen the retirement of chief Sky commentator Eddie Hemmings after some 20 years plus service, and it amazes me how many fans call him a muppet, buffoon or even less complimentary nouns.

    What has this got to do with the Boro you might well ask? Well some Boro fans are now calling for Steve Gibson to stand down, and there is certainly a groundswell of opinion that Tony Pulis should be sacked, but very few on the Gazette forum have the intelligence to give their reasons, only repeating the two word statement PULIS OUT. Steve Gibson isn’t infallible and has made some controversial decisions in appointment of managers since Steve McLaren left, and I think the appointment of Tony Pulis was one of his worst. His reputation is based on not conceding goals and keeping possession of the ball, keeping matches tight especially in the first minutes of matches; understandable against the better teams away from home, but boringly inefficient in home matches. Anthony Vickers is now stating that his tactics have become obsolete, and few can argue with that. But do Boro need a total clearout of players if we remain in the Championship or just a change of focus? Most Championship managers think on paper Boro have one of the best squad of players in the division. In my opinion just a change of manager with fresh ideas would be a good starting point, but who to appoint is the leading question.

    1. I don’t think we need a total clearout Ken although in the heat of passion I do sometimes feel like it. The loan players can all be returned and replaced with budget buys. Besic hasn’t done anything to warrant buying him or to even contemplate loaning him again next season. He “creates” at both ends of the pitch but when he is in possession you have no idea what he will do and unfortunately nor do his teammates. Creating attacks and chaos in equal measure is of no use.

      Hugill gives 100% but in reality he is probably worth £1.5 to £2M tops. The likes of say a Jutkiewicz is just as competent in the Championship and we ditched him. There are others out there to be had but as we know our scouting and recruiting leaves a lot to be desired so I wouldn’t hold my breath on finding them which is why and where I would start with a clearout. Mogga seemed to have the knack of finding decent players for peanuts so it is not an unreasonable ask.

      The big question is where is SG is in all this, he surely must see what we see and feel what we feel? If he doesn’t then I’m afraid that the future of the club looks to be set for a return of the Stan Anderson era, up and around the business end but never quite good enough. His extended silence on Club matters isn’t helping the mood and it only fuels the negative speculation that he has indeed given TP more time and simultaneously the Woody rumour grows arms and legs.

      There will be a couple of players from those relegated Championship clubs and those who survived by the skin of their teeth who would regard Boro as a step up. Likewise there will be a few of the ones that miss out in League One who will be of the same opinion. There will of course be others scattered throughout the Leagues but that would be far too difficult for our current scouts to identify seemingly or at least not without their shoes and socks off. The George Friend’s and Grant Leadbitter’s do exist, even the £1M plus Albert Adomah’s are out there but can we find them and if we did would the Dinosaur even play them if he is still here?

      Two games to go and hopefully things will be made clearer but I fear it will be more of the same from the usual suspects repeating what they do so badly but patting each other on the back whilst they dig us in even deeper.

  100. Just a change of focus. Maximum of four new players per window. Or we need minimum of six months to gell as a team.

    What I hope most is that we have learned from the summers with big changes is that it takes more time for the new players to settle in their new houses on the area, their new mates on the pitch and half a year to understand and execute the managers orders. As Monk showed.

    We need evolution and not revolution. We need continuity.

    Up the Boro!

  101. What I intended to convey on my last longwinded blog was the lack of respect shown by some bloggers on both the Cas forum and the Gazette forum if anyone dared to give opinions different to their own. The whole purpose of forums is to share and tolerate the other person’s opinions. It would be pretty boring if everyone had the same opinions. Cas forum has a moderator who seems unable to control some of its bloggers. Werdermouth rarely needs to step in on Diasboro because we all behave like gentlemen to each other, even to the extent of showing concern for other bloggers who might be going through difficult times healthwise and we are also very lucky that Werdermouth took up the reins of this forum when Anthony Vickers had to, or was forced to throw in the towel.

    My main concern now is that Redcar Red may feel that he can’t continue to give us his excellent reports of what he sees on the playing field, or that OFB is unable to give us insights of what is happening behind the scenes, although he does seem to have contacts with many past players so we shall still be able to enjoy his interviews. I can quite understand neither of them wishing to renew their season tickets in the present circumstances.

    I lived through an age when season tickets weren’t deemed a necessity to follow the Boro. Although I rarely missed a home game in my youth (my National Service years being an enforced exception) there were periods in later life when I became more selective in visiting Ayresome Park. Later of course my 3 to 5 months staying in the Algarve each winter meant I got out of the habit of watching the Boro, so I can also understand that watching the Boro is a hard habit to break for many supporters even if one wished to. Nowadays I’m more of an historical statistician of my favourite sports, rather than an avid viewer except when it comes to the Boro or Cas.

    Finally I’m indebted to Grovehillwallah and Werdermouth for sending me two hardback books on “The Title – The Story of the First Division” and “The Deal – Inside the World of a Super Agent”. When I’ve read and digested them, it will provide another source of background knowledge for future references to what is now regarded as the beautiful game, sadly not what Boro fans are enduring under Tony Pulis at the moment. Thanks fellas!

    1. Ken

      Hopefully I (and OFB and many others) will be cheering on a new reinvigorated Boro with a new Manager selecting Players to play to their strengths, attacking Teams and actually trying to win games.

      Who knows I might even see some goals and all at far greater cost than if I had early birded my renewal but making a stand is rarely cost or pain free. My upbringing instilled in me not to tolerate something I don’t agree or believe in. My Father was in the Airborne Division at Pegasus Bridge so my “stand” on Boro doesn’t even remotely compare but his legacy means I don’t and won’t merely accept things I believe to be wrong regardless of their importance or insignificance.

      Hopefully I get most (or at least some) of them right and as a great poet once said “have the sense to know the difference”!

  102. RR
    I admire you sticking to your principles, particularly after what we’ve endured this season.
    As a result of limited financial resources, I had an enforced absence of about 10 years (from a total of 53 to date) which, ironically, coincided with the “Riverside revolution” and was gutted that I could not be there.
    As my circumstances changed, I rejoined the ranks of Season Card (ticket) holders and, being the age I am, I figure I might not be around for many more, hence my early bird renewal. It is more in hope than expectation of better things to come.
    I hope that things do change to the extent that yourself and OFB feel,you want to attend.
    I’m not sure I can survive without your brilliant match reports.
    As my posts are rare these days, I’d like to take this opportunity to thank yourself, Werder and Bob for your dedication to this blog. Also to Ken and Simon for their factual and interesting efforts and to all of the regulars who make this a “must read”.
    Like Ken and Ian, I’ll be hoping Yorkshire can fill the void which is the close season.

  103. I’m not sure if we need evolution or revolution, but i’m pretty sure we need to adopt a style of football andstick to it. Employing managers who buy into it.
    In recent years we’ve had mogga (open and expansive), Karanka (ultra defensive), Monk (open and expansive), Pulis (ultra defensive). The team cant flourish if every two seasons the style of football changes.
    SG needs to decide which we’re going for (I vote for open and expansive) and stick with it. If Pulis goes and a more attack minded manager is employed we the fans will have to accept I think another championship season after next season because changing the type of players, the squad mentality and culture and footballing style cant be done successfully, I don’t believe in one season.

    Ian – as you may have noticed, I got there sometime ago.

    1. We may need a giant meteor to strike Rockliffe to wipe out the dinosaurs before evolution can properly take place. Although I thought Boro had adopted a style of football a couple of years ago and stuck to it – unfortunately it wasn’t very good style of football…

  104. No shortage of feeds on Saturday.

    beIN ConnectTURKEY
    beIN Sports MENA 12 HD
    beIN Sports NZ 2 HD
    mio Sports 1
    Nova Sport (bulgaria) / HD
    Sportdigital TV HD
    SportKlub 5 (croatia)
    SportKlub 5 (serbia)
    SportKlub 5 (slovenia)
    Stöd 2 Sport 3

  105. Well hello there again, Bloggers! Good to see that Ken is still Fighting the Good Fight (that was the Church Lads’ Brigade hymn sung at Friday night parades at All Saints Church Parish Hall) though not so good to read about catheters and the like. I hope that things are now much improved, Ken. And good to see OFB is still doing his stuff and RR – though a note of concern over the possibility he may NOT be reporting next season – and others who continue to pound the keypad. But it all goes to show that, even if I have been remiss for some time, there are plenty of others contributing to, and probably even more reading, this Blog.

    I guess in recent months many have posted negative comments about the football served up by our “heroes”. Probably well deserved! It really has been a depressing way to spend an afternoon/evening. Despite which it is still possible to qualify for the play-offs! What an odd division.

    It is one thing to see your team lose regularly, but quite another to see the team losing in such an abject, negative, hopeless way. And, without going on about it, I’m tired of all the comments like “We were disappointed, but we’ve now got 6, 5, 4 Cup Finals left this season to get into the Play Offs” (when, in reality, the club’s senior team hasn’t won 6 Cup Finals in 130 years let alone 6 in a row!).

    But I am still here. I still support the club. I will still be there next year. I might grumble – let’s be honest, I WILL grumble – on those weekends when I am away with my wife and friends and realise I have to come back to watch a match which I may not have been looking forward to. Too often I have returned wondering why I wasted the time. But there is always the hope that THIS WEEK, maybe just THIS week, things will go well.

    Just a few thoughts…..
    (a). I heard the Norwich City squad cost a total of £5M. If that is true, for clearly the best team in the division (1) that is the approximate value of Britt’s left leg and (2) can we swap their acquisitions team for ours?
    (b). Why is it that our club consistently appears to find it necessary to pay over the odds for players (both in terms of purchase price and wages)?
    (c). Does anyone else find it weird that footballers can come out with stuff like “several of us had a bad day at the office today” or “we just couldn’t get into gear” etc? Can you imagine a surgeon saying “Sorry he died but too many of us in theatre just couldn’t get out of second gear today”……or “Just couldn’t get ‘up’ for it today – can’t really explain it, it just sometimes happens”?

    Keep up the Faith!

    1. Forever Dormo,

      The surgeon speaks.

      I’m sorry I didn’t like the music on the car radio coming to work and my team had a bad night on the sherry so I’m afraid you’ve all lost the will to win and you won’t score many goals.

      The midfield won’t know forwards from backwards, they’ll be confused and pass sideways all the time. Crosses won’t be able to get past the first defender and the long throws will go to the opposition and anyone who could score goals before he got to Boro won’t know what the goal looks like. I’m sorry but that’s just the way it is. Bad news I know.

      What? It’s always been like that all of this season? That’s not such a bad day at the office. Nothing has changed then? Brilliant. Not such a bad day at the office despite the attacking transplant and scoring failing totally.

      Crikey, that was close.

      UTB,

      John

  106. The worrying thing is, we are all telling ourselves that what we are feeling is just typical fans reaction to a few bad results.
    Not true!
    We are in something more serious than that.
    Our Chairman has gone walkabout after making the blunder of blunders.
    That would be consigning our club to the mercy of probably the worst Manager in Britain, and I do not say that lightly.
    None of this would matter normally, because, however reluctantly, the club Chairman would bravely step up to the mark and do his duty, with a few standard regrets, and it would be, problem solved, hail to the new chief.
    This is what must be done, great job, public acclaim, but when you suffer disaster upon disaster, fail all and every criteria upon which every Manager is judged, then evolution (at least as it applies to football clubs) demands that it is brought to an end, it is not merciful to prolong suffering, get him gone and do not waste your tears, or at least save them for your own fans, who have done all the suffering this season.
    You will notice that no mention of his failings is evident in this missive.
    There is a reason for that.
    There is no need to detail them, for once, all fans are in agreement(a rarity) about his charge sheet, surely the longest charge sheet in football, and not a single factor in his favour, a complete washout, scoring zero (pretty much like England in the Eurovision song contest) although that was more entertaining (probably the girls costumes)

      1. OFB
        The entire EFL affair was doomed from the off (no blame to SG) if once the league keeled over and applied sanctions for overspends the whole of football would be in chaos, all the leagues would be won by the poorest loosingest club, simply because they had no money and no overspend(no one would lend them money)
        Like a lot of rules it is simplistic and an attempt to keep out any super rich man who fancies having fun with his cash.
        The result is Man Utd complain that an owner with a fortune of 100 billion, is breaking some strange rule by buying the worlds best player, and paying him super money. (no, me neither )

    1. Perhaps he got wind that the Championship clubs were preparing to reject his proposal for greater transparency of their finances. It’s hardly surprising as what Gibson was suggesting was external accountants would scrutinise their accounts to see if they were using loopholes to comply with EFL profitability and sustainability rules.

      Since nearly all Championship clubs operate at a loss and a quite a few have wealthy owners looking to break into the Premier League – why indeed would they want people digging into their accounts to try and find the tricks they may be using to comply – especially as the penalty may be points deductions or a transfer embargo.

      I suspect a few smaller clubs were sympathetic but those who want to maximise their spending will have no interest in further transparency – remember this is a football world that still works with undisclosed transfer fees and details of contracts are shrouded in complicated add-ons and agents fees.

  109. Thank you RR once again for a true and honest report. I always, after a boro game look forward to your excellent views on the game.

    I met today a friend and ex colleague who was celebrating her 66th birthday, has been watching boro since she was 10 years old. Through gritted teeth told me that she has renewed her season ticket but states that this year has been the worst football she has witnessed. No fan of TP and hopes finally he won’t be here next season. Also, very disappointed that SG has been very quiet and as the club is in turmoil, expected some sort of response from the chairman.

    1. Nigel
      If you think it is the league position then you are on the wrong wavelength.
      The anger is generated by a Manager who has dismantled a team and club who should be at ease playing in the top four of this league.
      Forget who did what, he started the season with a group of players who were o.k. Money in the bank, and an expectation of a pleasant season.
      At this moment we are in the following position.
      No money, a team unfit for purpose, good young players who should have played 25 matches, with no idea what their future is or where.
      On observable form we are one of the favourites for relegation next season.
      Every chance that this one man disaster will be here next season.
      To ignore the golden rule that you fire a manager who fails, is to say that you know better than all other clubs(an unlikely thing ).
      Finally, worse is to come, because this person keeps dropping hints that he is here to reorganise the club from top to bottom.
      HELP!!!

  111. I think the disappointment this year has been the way we have played and the poor performances and the inabaility of our manager to make any improvements.

    I have said it before that I am broadly happy with a promotion push every year ending in glorious failure providing that we are playing entertaining football and scoring goals.

    TP is the polar opposite of what I like to see which is where my despondency comes from and in the absence of winning games, I get cheesed off.

    I have never expected us to be an EPL fixture as we are only a small town in Europe with a relatively small catchment area. I did not enjoy the AK season in the top flight one bit, I get no enjoyment from watching other teams play us off the park every week.

    Does that mean that I am not a proper fan/supporter? I don’t actually care, Boro will always be my team whether I am being an active attendee or watching from a distance. When I lived a long way away and was less interested I would always make sure I saw at least one game a season either home or away.

    For the last 15 seasons, I have probably averaged 10 home games a season, this year I have been to 7 games and if TP carries on next season that will be the absolute max I would guess and maybe less. But I would still follow on this blog.

    This blog is such a great thing thanks to all the regular article writers and every body else who contributes.

    UTB

  112. Boro Becky’s Dad – I’m pretty much in agreement with you. Although I think any manager would have struggled to improve what we have. The problem started back in August when we didn’t replace Traore or indeed buy any creative players, this problem was then exasperated by Braithwaite throwing his toys out of the pram. That left us with one or two decent championship strikers, a couple of very inexperienced attacking midfielders and a load of good championship defenders/midfielders who collectively form the structure of a decent team but lack creativity.
    Consequently we have struggled to score and have relied on our defensive qualities to keep us in the top six, however constantly relying on not conceding takes its toll mentally I believe and we saw the impact of this with six defeats in a row which has in all probability killed our season.
    TP and his style isn’t the reason we’ve come up short this season, ongoing poor recruitment has done that, but TP’s style is a hard watch, which becomes close to unbearable when the team isn’t as successful as we want/expect, ie chasing promotion.
    When Karanka was here, most of us could live with his style as it brought us the success we wanted. (Although I agree the Prem season was truly awful).
    The problem is combine an ultra cautious coach with poor performances and results and you have a recipe for disaster.
    I hope TP moves on this summer, I’ll be surprised if he doesn’t, but more importantly for me I hope SG decides what style of football he wants, appoints the appropriate manager and sticks to that style come hell or high water.
    Maybe we also need a Director of Football to give us some continuity and a decent/sustainable recruitment policy.
    No championship team can justify buying an untested bloke from a foreign league and pay him an alleged £60k/week, its shear madness.

  114. BBD

    We may be only a small town in Europe but should we not be looking to achieve more than 1 or 2 seasons at best in the EPL and then years in the Championship. If the likes of Bournemeouth, Burnley and even Watford can produce a model which enables them to maintain EPL status then why not us?

    I think that we have a big enough fan base and given the right circumstances will turn out week in and week out to roar the team on providing they have something to shout about. Sadly that has not been the case for a number of seasons. 😎☹

    1. KP
      Burnley at 82,000 has the lowest population of any other Premier League Club and a catchment area in competition with the likes of Blackburn (despite the fierce rivalry between the two clubs) and Accrington, but is not far away from clubs in the Greater Manchester Region, yet have usually recruited well and on a small budget. Indeed when they won their 2nd First Division title in 1960 a lot of their recruitment was done in the North East and in County Durham particularly. They also have probably the lowest budget in the Premier League, so in my opinion have got the basics right. They may not be one of the most attractive of teams to watch, but certainly many steps above the present Boro team.

  115. Thank goodness BBC Peebies is back on. It just goes to show that if you were the last pick in the playground you could aspire to a career as an MP.

  116. Nigel

    We discussed at length on here the departures last August, some think TP couldn’t get Bamford out of the door fast enough, I now think it was money. TP was not overly pleased with Paddy’s agent at the time but the way Steve Gibson has come out and talked about cutting our cloth and selling Ben, Adama and Paddy puts TP’s constant references about Steve’s money in to a context of prudence.

    When we won at Derby last season, the Rams fans said we didn’t play like a Pulis team. The difference was we had some pace and skill in the team. Adama and Bamford were big losses to the squad.

    Some think Gestede is a Pulis player, Pulis doesn’t seem to think so, he tended to use him as a plan C when passing didn’t work. He prefers Hugill as the battering ram.

    TP has come a cropper the same way as AK did. Solid foundations are fine but when there is little pace and flair up front you stagnate, even worse when you have no full backs and the treatment room has your best centre backs in it.

    I hope TP leaves but who will replace him?

    1. I guess my point was that if we are to be in the Premiership then I would want us to be competitive not cannon fodder!

      We were up there from 98 to 08 and with the exception of relegation season were competitive with plenty to cheer about and beating the big clubs. Yes we had some big name players in the squad.

      I remember seeing us beat Man City 8 1 at the end of the 07/08 season and look where the two clubs are now. I appreciate that the city players may have be disheartened wiTh Sven and nothing to play for still.

      City have then had a lot of money invested and can afford and attract the top players. Will Boro be able to do that I wonder? Yes, we did with Robson and to a lesser degree McClaren but now?

      The difference now is that a serious amount of money is required and I am not sure SG wants to spend what is required. And who can blame him given the money he has put into the club and still has invested.

      I agree that it is not meant to be easy although the money side means that the football is almost secondary and that the paying fans are well down the pecking order. For example, is Manchester United a football club or a global brand?

      Anyway, let’s see what occurs over the next few weeks and months! It is only football after all and that in the overall scheme of things, there are bigger issues.

      1. I don’t think “serious” money needs to be spent. Mogga’s buys were the backbone of AK’s success. I believe Norwich spent something like £5M on their squad while Chris Wilder went to local scrap yards and bring and buy sales, cobbling a few bits and pieces together out of sticky tape and washing up bottles for his squad.

        That is probably one of the few areas that I fully agree with TP on that the Boro fees and salaries are ludicrous and stupid, they are absolutely mental, pure barking mad for this level. I gamble that Norwich and Sheffield United’s playing staff outgoings are probably well under 40% of Boro’s. In fact I wouldn’t be surprised if they were that combined!

  118. OK, I’ve just prepared for publishing the latest very interesting In2views article and this time it’s a two-for-the-price-of-one special with OFB having a chat with a husband and wife who both have had a long association with Boro.

    So here are the In2views of former Boro defender Frank Spraggon and his wife Linda who is also the daughter of man who spent many years at the club…

    https://diasboro.club/2019/04/25/in2views-the-spraggons/

  121. Well, OFB, that’s your best yet- and probably the longest (I know it was a doubler!!).
    We know Linda and Frank reasonably well, and I could visualise them doing their interviews the way you have portrayed them. Well done. Brilliant!
    Cheers
    Tractor Man

  123. Thanks, OFB really liked that in2view I was working in Leeds in 1963 and when we played Bradford Park Avenue in a league cup match at their home ground all the Boro lads on the building site went to see the game. We got a 2-2 draw Peacock got the 2 goals. So Frank must have played in the replay which we lost 2-3

  124. Your best yet, OFB. My sister worked with one of Shep’s daughters at C&A I think. She’s quite a bit older than me so my memories are a bit vague but I’m pretty sure she told me her colleagues Dad was Shep.

  127. Thanks for the interview OFB, a very good read.

    Frank Spraggon and John Craggs, there were two good full backs and that promotion team was the one I that still remember fondly.

    The mistake that Big Jack made (as Spike Armstrong mentioned in his book) was that he didn’t refresh some of the older players after a couple of years in division 1 which saw our form tail off.

    Still happy memories of the West Ham game and the Sheffield Wednesday game – 8 Some Reelers as the Big Un had it I think! I will have an old copy of that somewhere.

  128. What a thoroughly good read that was OFB and what an absolute delight the Spraggons seem to be. A big thank you to you and to the. And to Frank especially, for having been a key part of the team that gave so many of us so many good memories.

    1. Automatic word changing has afflicted my comment 🙁.
      I tried to type “A big thank you to you and to the Spraggons and to Frank especially…”

  129. What a great ‘two for the price of one’ interview of Frank and his wife, who I must admit I hadn’t realised was Shep’s daughter. What struck me was the camaraderie between the Boro players at that time, and the fondness of the Boro fans at that time towards the team in the Jack Charlton era. That’s the reason I gave extra coverage of the promotion season in my historical review of Boro because it was also well within the memories, and still is, of many of the bloggers on Diasboro. What I remember most was the tentative start to the season with emphasis on getting the defence right, but once Jack did that the team showed greater confidence and scored many goals. They even showed their prowess in the First Division with three successive 3-0 home wins in 7 days against Ipswich, Leicester and Birmingham in the early days of December in 1974.

    Just a couple of amendments though. I was at the FA Cup game against West Ham who fielded their 3 World Cup stars which Boro won 2-1 not 1-0, and in the promotion season the defeat at Forest was 1-5 not 0-5, and Bob I didn’t even have to look up those scores, so etched in my memory were they. My memory might be better than Frank’s, but hey ho, who really cares because I think it’s the best interview you’ve done so far, and that takes some doing. Well done, Bob, I really enjoyed the read.

    1. Ken

      Many thanks and thanks for the postscript to add to the story

      I really enjoyed talking to them and hopefully this came through in the Interview.

      I see them quite often and we alsolive near them in Marton as well, a lovely couple

      I sent a copy of the Interview to them tonight and they loved it.

      OFB

  130. On another subject, I’ve just been watching ‘The Importance of being Oscar Wilde’ in which he claimed that to be successful in life, one should have names of five letters as in Oscar, Wilde and even Jesus. Well Smith has five letters, but maybe I should have called myself Kenny. No I really hated that, so that’s probably why I was only half successful in life.

    1. It is rumoured #dcfc invited #boro owner Steve Gibson to scrutinise their accounts in private, when he first voiced doubts over the club’s compliance with the EFL’s financial rules.
      Apparently the invite was declined last month. Derby remain adamant they are fully compliant.

      OFB

  132. Lovely chat with the Spraggons OFB, really enjoyable.

    I think the point about Jack’s team, as Ken also touches on, is that it was very much a bonding of players, who while they clearly didn’t all hit the pub together very night, basically had each other’s backs and seemed genuinely fond of each other at the time and still today. It’s a big part of why we remember them so well.

    Success aside, it’s also what, fans want most, that feeling of equity and belonging and pride that such sides give out. Bruce Rioch managed this also and it is the stamp of a strong and healthy side. Liverpool at their peak, Forest in the late 70s, the class of ’92, the Invincibles and even (I hate to say it) Jose’s first Chelsea team.

    It’s such togetherness that drives a side on and is wholly absent from this current Boro outfit. While I really disliked AK from his mid term on, that pulling together was a feature also of his debut season.

    We will have a bright future again but it will mean starting again to do so. And if that means the kids, low spends and a few years not pushing for promotion but underpinned by a collective and fear free ethos, then bring it on.

    1. That’s a good post Richard. For me that is more than anything why so many are feeling disenchanted. That’s how so many of the other “also rans” in the game do so well, currently Burnley, Wolves, Crystal Palace, Watford et al.
      It’s up to the manager to create the environment where that sense of togetherness can flourish, but it’s up to each individual to help build it. Sadly not enough of the current crop seem to care enough and the management has failed to create the right environment.
      The manager is the easy target and probably deserves the negative opinion a lot of us have, but the players, the first team squad, are all just as culpable for how dire some of the performances have been this last few seasons.

  133. Many thanks OFB for another great read. I always like your line of questions which makes it even more interesting. As a scot though I didn’t like the bit Mrs S mentioned Scotland getting beat 9-3 (only joking) but the goalkeeper Frank Haffey was never ever seen again after the defeat !

    2. Braveheart, keep quiet about Frank Haffey, someone from recruitment might be reading this with a £5M bid and £40K a week offer lined up already! At 80 years old he would probably sound like a snip to Gill and Bausor and Co.

    2. Just about to post the same thing Braveheart. I read the opening sentence and didn’t read any more:

      “Adam Clayton says Tony Pulis is one of the best bosses in the business when it comes to pre-match team talks and ensuring his players are raring and ready to go”.

      My thoughts were then what the heck happens in the five minutes from walking out of the changing rooms to shaking hands, lining up and kicking off?

      “Raring and ready to go”, yer jokin arnt yer!

      1. Redcar Red,

        He must be talking about some alternate reality. Or he’s been hypnotised and brainwashed.

        If Mr Pulis is able to do that just how good are the managers of the opposition teams? As has been said on this blog before, you couldn’t make it up.

        UTB,

        John

      2. I read an article about Mr Neville, manager of the England Lionesses team where he was asked if he went into the dressing room before the match. His response was that he didn’t since he had given his team talk earlier on and if he needed to give a last minute pep talk then he hadn’t done his job properly. He merely waited in the tunnel and shook their hands with a good luck as they went onto the pitch.

        I would add that also that the players aren’t doing their job either if they need a last minute pep talk to gee them up. Mind you, many of them clearly have the memory of a fish so perhaps they do need constant bits of paper telling them what to do!

      3. RR

        Confession to make …….

        I’ve renewed my season card today and Mrs OFB as well.

        But …

        We’re moving to the other side of the ground back into our original location

        So it’s a feeling of mixed fortunes 🔮!!

        But at least we’re back next season

        OFB

      4. OFB

        What can I say I’m black affronted in the extreme, what’s next foam hands? I notice that you discretely slipped it in in between posts hoping the sin would be overlooked.

        I have no desire to return to Jurassic Park next Season, absolutely none whatsoever, in fact I’m glad there are only two punishments left now until the slow motion nightmare ends.

        My biggest fear is if Bristol and Derby screw up and we actually make the Play Offs and the dire despondency its dragged out for even longer. My only amusement is the fact that everyone including TP knows that we now have to win these last two games. I can just picture him Googling “win” in a frantic panic this afternoon trying to figure out the meaning of the word.

        “Deb’s love, what does win actually mean, is it when you draw twice as ‘ard”?

        1. RR

          Whoops !

          Sorry about that but how else am I supposed to spend my Saturday Afternoon? Shopping ?

          No it’s got to be my Boro not Pulis Boro my Boro your Boro our Boro !

          We have to support our club through Liquidation, Relegation and Promotion .

          UTB

          OFB

      5. OFB

        You could spend it meditating but all that fast paced excitement may be too much for the system after watching Pulisball. I would suggest that if you did consider it, ease yourself very gently into meditating and probably only after taking medical advice. Your heart rate may increase significantly compared to watching another pass back.

        Sit eyes closed and legs crossed thinking about another clean sheet, much cheaper and a lot more exciting and entertaining. Failing that you could always take up painting, don’t worry about your artistic ability the enjoyment is in watching it dry.

        1. RR

          Let’s just say I’ve cut my budget to match the quality of the football offered as entertainment!

          Think about that whilst I meditate on how much I’ve saved 💰 💴

          OFB

        2. RR

          When things were good I devoured all the articles on Boro all the twitter and match press videos and post match videos and analysis .

          Now the only reports I read are yours and no press conferences or news snipetts from Clayton et al. I’ve truly hit rock bottom with Pulis.

          I mean to think of it when we’re retired and enjoying life we have a Multi million £ Manager in his sixties, a coach in his seventies. Millionaire players in their twenties and who’s paying for it ????

          Is it too late to cancel I wonder ??????

          OFB

  135. The Clayton comment is a bit like when you don’t want to slate your boss in case they take it out on you in other ways! So you end up being really nice to protect yourself and your job.

    Does he know that TP is staying and he doesn’t want to be cast aside in summer?

    1. BBD

      That same thought had occurred to me but didn’t want to countenance putting it in print for fear of angering the Gods and it becoming a reality.

      Referencing Richards excellent post above maybe SG just needs to curtail his excesses and look to crack or even initially scratch the league before trying to smash it. Aesop’s fable of a race between unequal partners the Tortoise and the Hare comes to mind. To get the fans on side with that however needs a plan and a plan that is communicated so we all (or at least most) buy into it and expectations are managed.

      Instead of wanting instant Promotion, reduce the squad to a certain age and acquiring only players with a sell on value whilst retaining say for arguments sake (Goalkeepers aside) three “senior” pros (e.g. Friend, Mikel and Downing just for sake of illustration). Build a “Band of Brothers mentality” and improve by two or three players max per season never spending more that say £3M with a wage ceiling in place.

      Put simply we buy the George Saville’s at £300K and sell for £8M or get promoted with them keeping the club stable and getting a double benefit rather then the current reverse trend. Everything within the club will be built around a structure (hopefully not TP’s) including the template for the style of play. This way it ensures the viability of MFC long after SG is gone.

      Or alternatively throw some more toys out of the Perambulator, forget all that long term planing stuff and tell us that since the EFL and the Clubs don’t appear to be bothered about Financial Fair Play (or its latest title) we are going to remortgage the Riverside and Rockliffe and do a Tony Blair on the Championship next season blasting everything before us to smithereens (and Bolton here we come).

      1. RR

        Your plan sounds eminently sensible which is where it falls down! Just joking of course.

        There was something I read only today that said it takes 5 years to build a team that works well together and is successful. How many reboots have we had over the last 5 years? 3 at least so no wonder we are where we are.

        I would accept that plan as a way to see progress in the long run although these days nothing is ever looked at for the long term.

        I am of the opinion that SG is looking to reduce his involvement in the club in some shape or form and if, as is in reality likely, we don’t get promotion this year, then there will be a cloth cutting exercise.

        Which is where your plan would pay dividends………..

        We shall see what happens.

  136. Seems like the consensus is coming round to the long term plan idea, whereas the previous philosophy is phased out and firm foundations are put in place.

    Sounds pretty much like the task SG has set the manager. Like all reversals of past policy, the initial transformation takes time and often is bitter to take and breeds resentment, but Rome wasn’t built in a day. ( yes I know Cloughie said, “ that’s because I wasn’t on that job”).

    Baby steps.

      1. Dinosaur fossils are usually found embedded in rock and hopefully that is where they will stay, buried for another 65 Million years. Thankfully there are no Cretaceous rock strata from that period underpinning the Riverside, or at least not yet.

  138. I think there are no shortage of posters who frequent this blog that are familiar with the process of change management. It is a given that MFC have been on the wrong course for some time and that change has to happen.

    With all aspects of managing change, the fundamentals are always the same. Within the club itself it is pretty straightforward, those who embrace the process will find it easier but sadly those who resist it will inevitably become casualties and will depart.

    The difference for MFC is that they have to convince the supporters that they are on the right track. Obviously this is by far the most difficult part of the whole process for them. To get individuals to buy into it they need to convey a coherent and positive plan to them.

    Unfortunately due to the secrecy endemic in football clubs there is still an us and them mentality. How the club can hope to bring the fans along with them without stating their intentions is quite frankly an insurmountable hurdle. It’s imperative that a line of communication is established between the hierarchy at MFC and the grass roots supporters. Without that it will be doomed to failure.

    This current vacuum of silence from the Chairman will inevitably be filled with dissent from the fans, and some will stop going to games. It’s time for SG to make his intentions clear if he has any hopes of getting the fans to stick with the club in this transition period.

    Clearly it’s time for Mr Gibson to make a State of the Boro address.

    Over to you Steve………

    1. Fully agree GHW

      My worry is that the plan may be of the Baldrick variety if indeed one actually does exist. Assuming it does and I accept that there will likely be two versions, a going up one and a staying put one it needs to be comprehensive and I would expect serious changes and a major root and branch overhaul. This was supposed to happen back in 2013 from memory and in the immortal words of Diana Ross “I’m still waiting”.

      2. RR

        Or in the words of Elton John “I’m still standing

        Or alternatively in the words of the sally doodles “Salvation Army for Jarkko benefit!”

        “Come and join us !

        OFB

      3. RR
        In a strange way reverse logic should apply (but only with this club and this manager)
        If these people are seriously wasting their time wondering what to do if they gain promotion, then I am sorry but they are fantasists, we as fans depend on the club being run by hard realists, and it is extremely worrying to hear them discussing playing in the prem. With this Manager next season,(and the ducking and weaving going on, playing for time and the end of the season, persuades me that the unbelievable is going to happen, this person is going to complete his demolition job on our club) we will make our way out of this league, but it will be downwards.

    2. GHW
      It seems to me, that the more we demand that the club begin acting like a well organised club, then the more we demand that they devise a series of actions which are logical, easily understood, and carried out until the desired result is arrived at.
      Hear comes reality.
      If you are going to search for the right sort of players, and you succeed in signing them. You must still react to events as they occur.
      You win several matches by playing well, but the players are not the players you signed to do the job, that is unfortunate but you must follow success and leave out your chosen heroes, no doubt their time will come but not yet.
      Some young free pick up enters the club, and shoots the lights out, you do not read him a public lecture on how difficult football is (it isn’t, as a matter of fact, except to your signings) you thank god, and play him.
      I liked the story of the signing of Souness. England trainer asks the England players if they know any decent young midfielder(aloud, in public, in the dressing room) two Spurs players jump up and shout ‘ Graham Souness’ the rest is history.
      A well run club would have had a list of possibles for all positions just in case a problem arrises, or a chance to get a good fee for one of their players arises.

  139. As a Second Tier Club club Boro have only twice during my lifetime finished a season by scoring less than a goal a game, in 1983/84 when they scored 41 and finished 17th and the following season when they also scored 41 and finished 19th. This could conceivably happen again this season as Boro have scored a measly 43 so far in their 44 matches. I remember the chants in the 60’s when the Ayresome Angels used to sing ‘all we are saying is give us a goal’.

    Well goals haven’t always been so scarce, so I’ve compiled Boro’s record wins against the 39 clubs we have met 50 times or more in League matches, and where Boro have several wins against the same team, I’ve only recorded the most recent winning margin, all matches of course only in my lifetime:-

    Arsenal 5-0 at home May 1980, 3-0 away Apr 2001
    Aston Villa 6-0 home Dec 1948, 2-0 away Nov 2003
    Barnsley 5-0 at home Apr 1994, 4-1 away Aug 1993
    Birmingham 3-0 home Dec 1974, 3-0 away Aug 2005
    Blackburn 4-1 at home Jan 1970, 7-1 away Nov 1947
    Blackpool 5-1 at home Apr 1952, 5-0 away Dec 1946
    Bolton at 5-0 home in Oct 1948, 3-0 away Sep 2017
    Bristol City 6-3 at home Feb 1960, 4-0 away Jan 2011
    Burnley 5-0 at home in Sep 1951, 3-0 away Dec 1994
    Cardiff City 3-0 at home Nov1973, 3-0 away May 2011
    Charlton 7-3 at home Dec 1959, 5-2 away May 1993
    Chelsea 7-2 at home Dec 1978, 2-1 away Mar 1975 *
    Derby 6-1 at home in Mar 1997, 7-1 away Aug 1959
    Everton 4-0 at home in Aug 1950, 2-0 away May 2000
    Fulham 3-0 at home in Feb 1987, 4-0 away Mar 1974
    Grimsby 6-0 at home in Sep 1963, 5-0 away Nov 1947
    Huddersfield 8-0 home Sep 1950, 4-1 away Oct 1987
    Hull City 5-1 at home in Apr 1956, 4-2 away Apr 2011
    Ipswich 5-2 at home in Nov 1957, 3-0 away Sep 1975
    Leeds Utd 4-1 at home Aug 1992, 3-0 away Jan 2004
    Leicester 6-0 at home in Sep 1990, 3-0 away Apr 2001
    Liverpool 4-1 at home in Feb 1950, 2-0 away Mar 1976
    Man.City 8-1 at home May 2008, 1-0 away Sep 2000 #
    Man.Utd 5-0 at home in Apr 1953, 3-2 away Feb 2004
    Newcastle 4-1 at home May 1990, 4-2 away Jan 1978
    Norwich 6-1 at home in Oct 1980, 3-1 away Nov 1997
    Nottm Forest 3-0 home Dec 2014, 4-0 away Nov 1956
    Notts County 4-0 home Apr 1974, 3-1 away Mar 1955
    Portsmouth 4-0 at home Dec 1994, 4-1 away May 1953
    Preston 5-0 at home in Nov 1967, 4-2 away Apr 1974
    Sheff.Utd 6-0 at home in Apr 1988, 3-0 away Oct 1984
    Sheff.Wed 8-0 at home Apr 1973, 3-1 away Aug 2015
    Southampton 5-0 home Sep 1960, 3-0 away Aug 1964
    Stoke City 3-0 at home Sep 1975, 5-2 away Dec 1959
    Sunderland 4-1 at home Oct 1993, 3-0 away Jan 2006
    Tottenham 5-1 at home May 2003, 3-0 away Sep 2002
    West Brom 4-0 at home Apr 2005, 4-0 away Mar 1974
    West Ham 6-0 at home Oct 1954, 2-0 away Oct 1977
    Wolves 4-0 at home in Apr 1952, 4-2 away Mar 1954

    * Boro have only beaten Chelsea once away from home since the Second World War and only 5 times ever.
    # Boro have beaten Man.City 1-0 five times away from home since the Second World War, but did win 6-1 at Maine Road in March 1938, so technically in my lifetime although I was only 7 weeks old at the time.

    Of course Boro did beat Brighton 9-0 in August 1958, but we have only played each other 40 times. This remains Boro’s biggest win, but Boro did beat Sheffield United 10-3 at home in November 1933 but well before I was born. Incidentally the attendance that day was only 6,461, the lowest of the season until the last match of the season when a mere 4,758 watched Boro beat Leicester 4-1. Yet that same season a crowd of 40,882 watched Boro lose a Cup replay at home to Sunderland.

    In these depressing times as far as Boro are concerned, I hope some of these matches rekindle happier times. I cannot remember how many of those home matches I saw, probably most of them, but the only away match of those that I did see was the 4-0 win at Forest as I was stationed at Hereford at the time. I went with a couple of RAF pals and was thrilled to watch Brian Clough score a 🎩.

    1. Whilst in the mood for researching statistics, of the 95 clubs Boro have met in League matches there are only 16 that Boro have met 100 times or more:-

      Liverpool 136 (120 in the top tier, 16 in the 2nd)
      Derby County 136 (80 in the top tier, 56 in the 2nd)
      Aston Villa 132 (114 in the top tier, 18 in the 2nd)
      Sunderland 132 (98 in the top tier, 34 in the 2nd)
      Blackburn 122 (80 in the top tier, 42 in the 2nd)
      Arsenal 120 (all in the top tier)
      Bolton 120 (84 in the top tier, 34 in the 2nd, 2 in the 3rd)
      Man. City 116 (100 in the top tier, 16 in the 2nd)
      Newcastle 116 (96 in the top tier, 20 in the 2nd)
      Everton 114 (all in the top tier)
      Chelsea 106 (92 in the top tier, 14 in the 2nd)
      Birmingham 106 (66 in the top tier, 40 in the 2nd)
      Man. Utd 104 (96 in the top tier, 8 in the 2nd)
      Portsmouth 104 (50 in the top tier, 54 in the 2nd)
      Sheff. Utd 102 (64 in the top tier, 38 in the 2nd)
      Sheff. Wed 100 (64 in the top tier, 36 in the 2nd)

      Apart from Southend who Boro have met only 6 times, Rotherham (who of course Boro meet next week) are the only club where Boro’s away record exceeds their home record against them mainly due to 6 consecutive wins at Millmoor from 1956 to 1962. Maybe a good omen?

  140. It’s all “ifs and buts” whereas I am quite happy to wait until the end of the season, playoffs or not to see what transpires. Will TP still be there, will SG still be there, who knows but what I do know is I will still be there (God willing).

    Come on BORO.

    1. If Boro win their last two matches, I think they’ll make the playoffs. However unfortunately I can’t see that happening. A goalless draw at best today, but realistically a 0-1 defeat. Come on Boro and prove me wrong. 😀 or ☹️

  142. Been travelling, so just to say belated thanks to OFB for his excellent double bill interview with the Spraggons.

    Hoping that this afternoons, one of GHW’s predictions comes true. That would nice. Too late, but nice.

  143. An intriguing afternoon in prospect, with eyes on Bristol hosting Derby as well as Boro playing Reading.

    We will be scratching our heads whatever happens because we may well be wondering how we ended up with such a disappointing season or how on earth we are still in with a chance.

    Our hopes are pinned on us winning and Bristol drawing with Derby.

    I wonder if our fortunes will improve when OFB changes seats. Will that mean we no longer get interviews?

    2. Ian

      Werder has two still In the pot.

      I have two to write up

      I also have a ccntact list for a further twenty so far ….

      That should see us through the next season and a bit

      That’s if Diasboro still want them of course ….

      Thanks to everyone for your kind responses

      OFB

  144. GHW kindly provided the stream information below:
    No shortage of feeds on Saturday.

    beIN ConnectTURKEY
    beIN Sports MENA 12 HD
    beIN Sports NZ 2 HD
    mio Sports 1
    Nova Sport (bulgaria) / HD
    Sportdigital TV HD
    SportKlub 5 (croatia)
    SportKlub 5 (serbia)
    SportKlub 5 (slovenia)
    Stöd 2 Sport 3

    Anyone know which ones are realiable and free? Or is it a case of trial and error?

    Don’t want to click on something which will infect my laptop with ransomeware/malware/virusware or any other tableware! 😎

    2. VIP Box is usually good but s faff on to get it going. Wait until the game is starting. It will keep loading another page, but that is just an ad, ignore them and just keep going to the main page. Eventually it will play

  145. Well, I have decided that I am washing my hair today rather than “celebrate” what may or may not be the last home game of the season!

    I can’t generate enough enthusiasm for a 7 or 8 hour round trip plus the price of the fuel and ticket to see the players have a lap of honour which in view view is not really deserved. It is still amazing that we have a chance of the playoffs but as Huddersfield proved, you can go up without scoring a goal in the playofff. Totally bizarre but that is where we are.

    I still can’t help myself though and will be hoping for a Boro victory and for Derby and Bristol to draw. However, my sensible head says, Derby will win and we will play out a bore draw with TP playing for a point to stay in the league.

    There have been many times this season when I feel that TP has forgotten that the aim of the game should be to win and be promoted, unless he bonus depends on not getting promoted! That must be the only reason for his selections, tactics and general modus operandi.

    Anyway, we travel in hope rather than expectation so I will say

    Boys in Red 1
    Boys in Blue 0

    And

    FLDC 2
    Brizzol City 2

    UTB

  146. After publishing OFB’s great in2views piece with the Spraggons, I’ve been pretty much full-on with projects the last couple of days and have only just discovered MFC are not streaming the Reading game today – so looks like it will have to be a dodgy stream.

    Not sure who decided Boro v Reading would be a good choice for a live broadcast but I suspect they’ve not seen many games at the Riverside this season. Obviously, they know that Tony Pulis will be selecting a team to go all out to reduce the goal difference with Derby – whether we’ll get to see a 6 or 7 nil victory in the final home game may depend on yet another rousing motivational pre-match speech from Tony like what Adam Clayton recently suggested was the norm.

    Although, I think I’d prefer Bristol City to thrash Derby on the grounds that they’ve got two tricky away games to finish the season and can’t see them winning both – plus it would mean whatever happens in the midweek games in hand, it will go down to the final game.

  147. So the team today that’s going to knock in the six goals sees a surprise return of Lewis Wing in place of our other play-maker Clayton – though it looks like Pulis has persisted with Saville at left wing-back for some unknown reason.

    Randolph, Howson, Shotton, Flint, McNair, Saville, Besic, Wing, Mikel, Assombalonga, Fletcher

    Subs: Dimi, Wood, Clayton, Downing, Tavernier, Hugill, Gestede.

  149. I’m not saying the inclusion of Wing was either a risky or late decision but the photo of him on the MFC Twitter feed seems to show him arriving at the Riverside with what looks like a box containing a pair of hernia briefs – no joke! (You can see the image larger by right-clicking and selecting open in new tab)

    Wing

  151. We now need goals as well as victories in these last two games. Wonder if TP is aware of that or even knows how to send a team out to score goals. Surprised at Wings inclusion, just hope it pays off for all concerned.

  156. Finally, Boro are playing on the front foot. They were really unlucky to be one down and showed the guts to fight black and take the lead. Lewis Wing playing in close support of the front two makes a big difference and Howson is great down the right but the big change is Saville who is having a stormer. He’s basically an attacking player who has been shoehorned into a more defensive system. Now, with the leash off, he suddenly looks like a class player. Is it sacrilege to say that I’m beginning to have some doubts about Mikel, he does seem to get caught with the ball more than one would like.

    Anyway, I hope that they go on and complete a good win. Then it’s in the lap of the gods as to what happens in other games but it’s good to see the team having shots, hitting the post and scoring goals.

    UTB

    1. Selwynoz, thought that about Mikel for a few games now. In equal measures, shields the ball well, nicks it and then goes and gives it away or a loose pass. In fact I thought our passing was poor in the first 20 minutes or so when we looked really nervous.

  157. Well a little gung ho, especially with Besic and Shotton determined to give the ball away. Besic is so Jekyll and Hyde, great passes forward then followed by a pirouette and a back pass into trouble. Frustrating or what?

    Great to see Wing back and the difference he makes, although Howson is having a stormer. I do not think he will get that space in the second 45. Also if anybody thinks Britt cannot score when given the ball in front of him, it once more disproves that theory. I have never seen some many good balls into the box in a previous match, never mind 45 minutes.

    Have to be careful at the back though, Reading could still have a goal or two in them.

  158. Well that first half was a bit of a roller-coaster – I feared the worst when Reading scored and Boro hit the post twice – especially as Boro have never won when conceding the first goal. Wing has shown what has been lacking in recent games but Boro have been careless in their own half and nearly let Reading in a few times. Howson and McNair have looked good again but Shotton and Flint looking a bit error prone. Besic his usual accident waiting to happen but is at least trying to get the ball forward after spinning 360 degrees. Boro must win this game but with Derby currently ahead at Bristol it is still out of our hands.

  159. The second half was pretty much the pattern of the season with Boro sitting deep and inviting the opposition to try and attempt to score – everyone worked hard but it could have easily gone wrong. So three points and still in with a chance of a top six but with Derby winning they now just need to win one of their last two games – though away to Swansea and home to West Brom are not certs. Boro can have no complaints if they end up outside the play-offs as there have been far too many missed opportunities this season.

    1. Weder

      Pretty much what I was thinking to post! The last few minutes were very nervy and thought that the ref might have given a penalty at one stage! Some last ditch defending and it would have been typical Boro to concede.

      Will Derby manage to lose both games and Boro win their last game? Who knows and the fact that we are reliant on that is down to some pretty poor games at home and despite what excuse TP comes up with, I know where I lay the blame………..

      I am sure somebody will be able to parody his final press conference better than I can!

  160. At this stage of the season Derby are getting the luck we dont deserve.

    Followed their game via BBC and Kammy’s reports on Sky. Bristol were very unlucky but that is the way in football. It does not even up over the season, it might over several seasons but over one? No chance.

    Do FLDC deserve to be in the play offs? If they finish 6th yes they do. If we finish 7th or 8th that is where we deserve to be

    Just not good enough throughout the club but it isn’t over until it is over, If Derby dont win at Swansea then it is a frantic last day so all is not lost.

    Well done to the Blades, I suspect Villa will get through the play offs.

    1. It just shows what you can do with a young but experienced manager, young players and not a lot of money on new signings!

      Mmm, what have we been doing wrong?

  161. How did we end up defending for our lives?
    By going on the defensive, that’s how.
    This fellow is never going to change, not much idea at all, with Wing playing forward lots of chances, three hit posts.
    With Wing playing in his own half, nil chances, miss the bleedin obvious? No problem to this man.
    Thank goodness he will be gone when the season is over, we have suffered enough.
    His inglorious losing streak of six did for us, well and truly, there was no coming back from that. And so it will prove next weekend.

    2. Plato, I would put my last Euro on Mr Pulis being here in charge next season.

      Why, because it is the easiest choice for Mr Gibson to make.

      1. If TP is still here he will be gone by the first International Break.

        Today was merely a stay of fan execution purely because on paper the players still have a mathematical chance so the fans held back. Had we been out of any hope of the Play Offs or had we imploded after the Reading goal there were banners and a few choices songs just lying in wait in the stands.

        If SG is too blind to see or too arrogant and oblivious to it then fine, its his toy and he can do what he wants with it. Problem is the rot is spreading and its not just TP the fans are unhappy with.

  163. Yes, Pulis lost the six matches in a row, but today (and the two matches prior to Forest) the players won the matches. Simple.

    Pitty that Pulis plaed alone at Nottingham 🙁

    Up the Boro!

    1. Pulis and his tactics have lost the season and along with it the goodwill of the fans.

      Comments leaving the ground today and the “lap of celebration” to a three quarters empty Stadium spoke volumes.

  164. I was feeling reasonably cheerful (for a grumpy old git) until I saw OFB’s post above. On the fair assumption that OFB is right I am now grumpy in the extreme but worse, depressed and totally apathetic about what happens next season if Pulis is in charge.

    He has driven out of me my 60 years of emotional attachment to the Boro, my enthusiasm for match days and any lingering hope that I might see Boro playing attractive winning football in the near future. If he stays I shall give next season a miss, his continued appointment being confirmation for me that the management of the club, starting at the top with the Chairman, have totally lost the plot.

    1. Sorry to have been the bearer of this alleged bad news

      I must admit that when I and a few others were told by a good source we too were dispirited.

      It’s still not black and white but it made me pleased that I made the decision to renew and wait and see what happens

      OFB

      1. For the first time ever I didn’t wait to see the lap of honour by the players and i was not the only one.

        The ground was very sparse and it was quite embarrassing really

        No way were over 22000 fans there today !

        Wing made a huge difference today As it allowed Howson some more room and he had an excellent first half

        Hit the post four times but the game was saved by Randolph. I can see him away during the close season

        OFB

  165. With regards to Mr Pulis, as I have just said, I really believe he will be here next season. (as much as I would prefer somebody else) .

    And as for RR thinking he will be gone by the first International Break, well personally and unfortuanately I also believe Mr Gibson will just bury his head in the sand come what may.

  166. The fickle nature of football fans will meant that should we get to the play off final there will be a clamor for the tickets from all those fans that have not seen a game all season or have been calling for the head of TP.

    Should that miracle of biblical proportions occur, then I for one would be seriously considering whether to wash my hair again that day!

    Does that make me a lesser supporter or not? Shall we have a poll of those who would be making the trip?

    I will declare my hand as a maybe dependant on whether either of the offspring were coming to share the driving.

    I didn’t go today as I felt that any celebration was not justified and would rather spend my hard earned pension on other things!

  167. Let’s assume that Derby draw at Swansea. They would then need to beat West Brom who would have very little incentive to even risk their best players, let alone give it their best. I’m not optimistic.

    We should probably wait until its officially over but it will soon be time to start thinking of who should stay and who might go. For me the big pluses have been Randolph, Howson and Wing. Fry, is improving steadily and i still believe in Saville, just not as a left back. I’d definitely keep McNair and Ayala and Flint can always do a job in the Championship as probably can Clayton andShotton as solid squad players. I’m assuming Mikel will leave.

    I’m not sure about Fletcher and Assombalonga. Maybe they need to be seen with proper service. I’m not at all sure that Besic is the answer to any of our questions. He can be excellent but he plays too deep and doesn’t last a full game. Another Wing on the left instead is the type of player who would give us better balance. Maybe that’s where Saville ends up or someone really pacy such as Tavernier. In any case we need to add pace going forward and add depth/cover/quality to the left side. You can then add in the best of the youngsters and there’s the making of a decent team if they can just be set up to attack rather than not concede. I’m not sure that Pulis can do that but wouldn’t be surprised to see him given the chance.

    Foe me this season has been a missed opportunity which could so easily have been different if we had been able to bring in some extra pace. The inability to do that across two windows is the real failing and it would be good to know the real story of why that happened.

    UTB

    1. As I posted earlier Selwynoz, we could have an Exmil type challenge on who will stay, who will go, who will not go, who we want.

      I believe someone will pick up Randolf. So a new goalkeeper? I would agree more or less about the players you mentioned. Shotton and Clayton only as squad players. The loanees are not good enough. Mikel will go elsewhere.

      We need two new FB’s. Mr Pulis will want defenders first, attackers second, so there lays a problem. Or we could bring in a winger for the right side. But we still need a Ramirez type player with more pace than we have.

      Up front, Britt will score you 20 goals if given the right service. Fletcher as a squad player as we would take too big a hit trying to move him on. Gestede not good enough and will probably just see out the next season picking up his wages.
      So we will need a decent forward loaned in as we will not be able to afford to buy one at the cost of them these days.

      1. I still think we can let all the loanees go back, let Downing and Braithwaite go, assume Mikel will go too, and just bring in a couple of very pacey wingbacks.

        Yes, if we’re aiming for the top two next year then we’ll need a fair bit more but I think the plan will be to reign in the costs but stay competitive. That is achievable with just a couple of signings and a host of outgoings for me.

      2. I agree with all that Selwyn and Pedro but regardless of the hit there are a few that we need to move out. They are taking up squad space and their contribution is not viable. Fletcher needs to go at a knockdown price probably with a sell on clause just in case, Gestede needs to be paid up and shipped out, Downing and Mikel will be off the wage bill and not worth retaining. Then the loans can go back and there are none that I would be in a hurry to either take on or return.

        There are a couple of others like Britt that I’m not bothered if they stay or go but the ones Selwyn has highlighted are largely the ones to build around. The biggest problem is off the pitch and what happens there, hopefully more than just a few will depart.

    2. selwynoz, WBA could avoid Villa in the playoffs until the final so it would be in their interest to beat Derby and they may prefer to have Boro in the playoffs instead of Derby, therefore they may have something to play for, also if Derby do make it, it would be a physiological boost to beat them rather than lose.

      Come on BORO.

  168. So Boro managed two firsts against Reading – it was the first time that they’ve finally won a game at the Riverside this season when the opposition have scored – plus it was the first time that Boro have won a game this season (home and away) after the opposition have scored first.

    OK, it’s probably a bit late for Boro to become the come-back kids and perhaps it’s all a too little too late as the team’s play-off hopes now hang by a prematurely greying Frank Lampard hair.

    Anyway, one man who is still deciding on whether to come back is Redcar Red and here is his view on that last home game victory…

    https://diasboro.club/2019/04/28/boro-2-1-reading/

  169. Thanks RR for your season long consistently excellent match reports. Your lengthy and detailed description of yesterday’s second half perfectly sums up the disappointments of the whole campaign. It’s mixed emotions now as we go into the last week of the season as typical Boro leaves us hanging tantalisingly the thread that is Swansea v FLDC. Can the impossible happen and we still be in with a chance if can beat Rotherham by at least 6 clear goals. So, even though my sensible head says that’s it this year and there is no way we will make into 6th place next weekend, a tiny little bit of my heart clings on in the unlikely expectation of a miracle.

  170. Let’s not kid ourselves we beat Reading who are battling relegation and they were the better team. We had 38% possesion and 0% entertainment. Spending the whole second half defending is pathetic.
    If he is manager next season and more of the same it will not end well. Just what I want to watch a team of giants who score one goal and then defend for the rest of the match. Worst season at home for a long time.

    1. Had we not won yesterday and therefore still had a slim Play Off chance it would not have ended very well in the Stands. Its best described as a boil that needs to be lanced.

      Should we scrape into the Play Offs the tactics required to win are not what has been on display all season under Pulis. A defeatist mindset and mentality has permeated through the side now which is no use when you have to roll your sleeves up and scrap.

      There are sides at the top of the Championship that want to win and when they play you can see what it means to them and their supporters. They are all in it together and share a common passion, a belief, an eagerness, drive, hope, glory. That passion is totally and completely absent from the Riverside thanks to the negative dross which has ground down both the players and fans alike.

      Karanka’s football was methodical and dour but there was a collective that the players and a lot (not all) of the fans bought into. Think back to the home games against Brentford that play off night and then the game again against Brighton. There was excitement and hope in the Riverside on those occasions. The atmosphere yesterday when a Play Off spot still beckoned was flatter than a pre season friendly and the second half summed up everything there is about Tony Pulis and football. It has sucked the heart and soul out of the fanbase. If we do make the play offs the home tie will be a non event like it was against Villa and I despair even thinking about the away tie.

      1. RR

        It was strange wasn’t it the lack of atmosphere?

        It was like an end of season game with nothing to play for.

        Typical Boro performance for the second half hanging on to win and a save from Randolph at the very end to secure the points.

        I would keep Fletcher I think there is still a player in there to be developed. Mikel has been drawn down to our level and looks worse and worse in each game and I wouldn’t sign him again even if he was remotely interested.

        Saville still doesn’t impress me and for the money I think we could have signed a better player.

        No one expects to be back at the Riverside again this season including quite a few ex players! The only one who expressed hope was Jeff Winter! Let’s face it what do we ex retired referees know about football eh ?

        OFB

  171. Thanks RR for an excellent report on another underwhelming Boro performance.

    I agree that Howson and Wing were the standout performers with the ever dependable Randolph at the back.

    I would prefer next season that we recruit some proper full backs and play Howson and Saville in their true positions. In the right set up they will be far more effective and influential.

    I don’t see Derby bottling it this year and they will clinch sixth spot which will save us from further agony. That is until TP’s future is announced! 😎

    1. I think Saville has a part to play but not as a defender. He gets into the box and tries to make something happen so you can see how he got those goals for Millwall. As a LB the lads a ponderous liability.

      Likewise McNair, these last few games have given him a chance and again I think there is something there but in midfield. I’d be happy with Wing, Saville, McNair, Clayton and Tav filling those slots in the middle of the park next season. Four of them score goals which is why we will never see it under the current regime.

  172. Thanks RR for another cracking honest report. I watched the game on a stream and would say that Reading deserved a point. The second half was awful for Boro. Hope it is not true what ofb says that TP will be here next season.
    We need a young new manager with modern fresh ideas and the will to play attacking football and not the dismal football we have been served up by TP.

  174. Redcar Red

    Thanks for your efforts to produce entertaining reports, it is much appreciated.

    Selwynoz

    I agree with a lot of what you say, I think I would stretch the two windows failing to get pacey players back a few more.

    A Derby win at Swansea could end the pain but knowing us we would go to Rotherham and win comfortably only for the Baggies to win as well and Derby go up on goal difference.

    It is painful.

  175. There are some interesting videos from AV in the top right hand corner, one with the inflatable Dinosaur that created entertainment for the opening ten minutes or so and also the end of season “walk of appreciation”. Its the only time I haven’t stayed at the end of the season to applaud the players. Looks like there were even less than my original guesstimate numbers contained in the match report.

  176. If we do lose Randolph then the Reading keeper yesterday would be a good shout as replacement, on loan from Arsenal and wants a full time move so he can play as no’1

    OFB

  177. I’m afraid I fail to see what all the fuss is about with young Tavernier. He’s hardly set the fans on fire in his last two appearances. In fairness to Besic, he has the ability to create, but unfortunately for him those around him seem unable to find enough space to warrant a pass, hence his continual circular movement. On the rare occasions someone does find space he invariably finds them.

    1. GHW
      If you persist in bringing on your attacking wide player late in the game when you have surrendered your (very rare) complete dominance of said opponents and are playing in your own half with a quite splendid Wing confined to the halfway line, and the ball in the air for long spells(they were better than us in the air) then it makes sense to be disappointed, this man is committing the same blunders match after match, the crowd in my area of the ground go bananas when he makes his substitutions (too late, but what can you do?) and leaves Britt on the pitch, yes, that would help.

    2. Do you think that bringing him on late in the game when the team are struggling is a fair way of assessing Tav or any other player for that matter?

      Tav has shown enough flashes of good play this season to warrant a run of 4 or 5 consecutive starts, particularly given our attacking struggles. He may rise to the challenge, he may not be up to it yet. The point is we don’t know because he’s been jettisoned from the side even after his goal scoring performances earlier in the season.

  178. Redcar Red,

    Another honest and fair assessment of the game yesterday. Thank you. Yet again we get in front, amazingly, take off the attacking threat(!) and try to defend the lead. Does he ever learn? It’s like football version of Groundhog Day. I loved the dinosaur too.

    Next season if there isn’t change there’ll be an virtually empty stadium and revolution in the air.

    UTB,

    John

  179. Many thenks Redcar Red for the match report which hopefully will lead to the playoff match reports!

    I thought the referee was very poor and made some strange decisions regarding the fouls on Britt.

    Here’s to Wembley!

    Beryl

    1. My heart hopes you are right Marie but my head says otherwise.

      The Ref seemed to be detached from what was going on around him with both benches going mental over his decisions.

  180. A thought. Vardy has scored 9 in 10 games since Puel left as Leicester manager. He had a similar run after Ranieri left.

    Is twice a coincidence? Discuss.

    Make that 10 in 10.

    1. Ian
      What Manager would fail to field Vardy, given the chance.
      It proves that Managers are capable of ignoring the bleedin obvious, see also Pulis re. Wing and Tav and also Fry. There is no foolishness beyond any manager, hence the colossal rate of sackings in the game. I suppose the true foolishness is that of the chairmen who give their latest idiot one or two years before putting their boot in the appropriate place, cue a great sigh of relief from fans, only for said chairman to repeat said foolishness. Ring any bells?

  181. This club as ran into a real problem ,the last thing it needs is a young inexperienced manager .
    We have an old squad going south, and watching the u23s recently ,today infact on utube v Newcastle , its even worse nothing at all ,on that team . nothing!
    So for anyone who thinks things are going to change,in my opinion isn’t looking at the facts.
    I’m disappointed like everyone , but to blame Pulis for all of this is not right,
    We can’t dominate and attack because we don’t have the talent Howson even alluded to it,
    Madison yesterday defended recruitment ,saying they have watched 800 players and work hard, that doesn’t mean that have ability to recognise one, if you keep getting it wrong ,what does it say?
    Change manager OK, expect a long season next time though.
    My opinion , COB

  182. An honest read RR on your alternative match report.
    Thought that at last the team had put themselves on the front foot, only to be disappointed by a poor second 45.

    The biggest positive was the return of Wing and seeing what we had missed. If he had not of been injured no doubt we would have made the play offs. But no more I think.
    As for looking at 800 players, you need to know what you are looking at, looking for and their value when it comes to bidding. We have failed somewhat in that area irrispective of Maddisons comments. He cannot say anything else can he.

    Again I cannot comment on the under 23’s but certainly Wing and Fry are good enough to be first 11 picks. Tav to be fair has only played when the going has been tough and not for many minutes. So we will have to wait on him. I also do not think our loanees are pulling up stumps at their temporary clubs.
    Lots will depend on Mr Gibson and his largesse.

    1. 800 players and they uncover Flint, Saville, McNair etc. Players already established and well known at this level who cost 200% their true value. Wood for trees comes to mind!

  183. Thanks, RR, for this match report and all your previous match reports. Good reads.

    Now for a little extract…

    “It could and probably should have been five or six… The manner of this victory and along with the league table who knows it may even sway the minds of a few players and their agents that perhaps the Riverside is the place to be…”

    That was two games in, when we recorded what would be our biggest win of the season… against an outfit who have now secured promotion with a game to spare. Five points ahead of a supposedly top squad with a pedigree foreign coach, who, to be fair, may still get promoted anyway. And you wouldn’t bet against it.

    What’s happened to us? And when we *did* reach 91 points (1997-98) and 89 points (2015-16) it seemed more a case of that it was what we should have achieved with those resources. As if money alone is the answer, something Farke, Wilder and their clubs have skilfully debunked.

    At least in Ireland and Northern Ireland, we learn to embrace the positives when our national teams actually achieve them. Repeatedly lamenting the might-have-beens and should-have-beens instead of treating them as progress or a learning experience – which they should be, because every team loses at some point, as that is how it is – now *that* would be something.

    Apologies for the passion. I just had to let it out.

    (I’ve spent quite a bit of last week hurting over something else entirely, which I will talk about later.)

  184. An aside.

    I remember when I went to my first Derry City match. 2006, vs. PSG. The atmosphere was electric.

    Stephen Kenny’s tactics, the quality of the football, even the lack of goals (it finished 0-0, by the way) didn’t matter. What mattered, and this applies to any ground that’s even at least three-quarters full, so long as it’s noisy enough, was this: the experience.

    You genuinely didn’t know how the game was going to go. You were hooked. You watched on with admiration as our small club in the corner of Northern Ireland bravely battled with a European giant. You met like minded people, both lovers of the game and passive observers, in a manner far removed from the ugly, rampant, ranting on message boards and social media which melts down and dissects everything at what’s perceived to be the worst of times.

    Where did that go?

    1. I think the occasion does add a lot to the atmosphere. Derry v. PSG was essentially their Final. Probably the biggest game Derry had played since they departed Brandywell all those years ago and virtually went out of existence. Indeed it was probably a bigger occasion than any game in the history of Brandywell (or certainly in living memory).

      I recall Glentoran being “robbed” at the Oval in Belfast v. Benfica (including Eusebio) and drawing 1-1. They then went to the Stadium of Light (the original one) and drew 0-0 in the second leg going out on away goals and for Benfica to carry on before losing to Best, Charlton, Law and Co. at Wembley in the Final in ’68.

      Like that Steaua night they live on in the minds of fans forever and no doubt the fondness becomes a little more embellished over the years. Urban myth has it that Glentoran was the only Club to prevent Benfica from scoring at their home ground. It was possibly and probably only in the European Cup for that season but try telling that to anyone in East Belfast over 60 something.

      Which goes to show that when its great Football is memorable, in fact unforgettable. The passion, the joy, the excitement, the agony and the ecstasy.

  185. Thank you RR. “City ‘Til I Die, City ‘Til I Die…”

    And I joined in. That’s what you don’t forget.

    By contrast, no one was starting up chants around me at the East Stand in the Riverside. That’s where I’ve been for all my games. I was too young for Ayresome.

  186. You can feel the frustration in the posts. The problem is that the solution isn’t easy.

    Sack Pulis and all will be well. Sack the recruitment team and suddenly we will buy a load of Deli Alli’s. Sack the manager and let Woodie and co run the club, Get another manager in and play the kids, sell everyone one and rely on income. Get Gibson to sell the club to get another owner – gosh that has gone well elsewhere..

    I honestly dont have a clue.

    1. Ian….well I can only hope that the only person that does matter in all these decisions, does have a clue about what’s needed and does know what he is going to do to achieve better entertainment next season.

    2. When you change things there are three possible outcomes, they get worse, they stay the same or they get better. Its never a guarantee as we know for the best part of the last ten years.

      Being kind things have arguably stayed the same under TP in terms of league achievement compared to Monk although I doubt that Monk would have survived a 6 game losing streak let alone the standard of football. The last Boro goal I saw up close and personal in the North Stand was the penalty against Millwall back in January.

      Crucially there are currently no signs or reasons for optimism. TP interviews are now just becoming more ridiculous with each week spreading blame and accountability. This week Wing has been a great breakthrough this season, so good he was only played until his “men” arrived then dropped like a bad smell for 4 months and he then went on to claim that Fry has had a breakthrough season or something along those lines. What is really worrying is the fear that he actually believes what he is saying.

      How worse could it actually get and is it a gamble worth taking versus more of the same?

    3. Ian
      Lovely letter, but, please, football has a rich and vibrant history, which can be used as a guide.
      Right now, every day (or week) teams that are suffering dreadful results (and many other reasons) fire their Manager, yes, they fire their manager.
      For a person who always posts well reasoned opinions on this forum, it is bad news that you of all posters can support a manager who has failed on a grand scale, and compounded his offence by talking rubbish to the world.
      Any consideration of the art of firing managers would be extremely puzzled by such an open and shut example of failure.
      This failure is in every aspect of the art of managing.
      first pick the wrong team to start the season, be forced to bring on subs in the first match, and save the game.
      Hit the top, with same subs playing (Decent football, fearless attacking)
      Take a wrecking ball to that team, dispatch the winners to oblivion.
      Cue end of football, end of pleasure, end of prospects of promotion.
      Refusal to contemplate return of the winners to the team.
      Several entries in the hall of shame, Villa, Wrexham, Forrest, I could go on.
      The verbal rubbish continues, the national press love him, you could not invent this stuff, it’s priceless.
      Watford on upward trend, fear no one, in Prem.
      Have had four managers in three seasons(non of them came close to this fool for incompetence).
      Rogers finished second in the Prem, got sacked by Liverpool
      Sheff utd second in champ fired the manager for failing to win at home(draw)
      I think that i’m saying that the manager is the one supreme being who can trash all your dreams, by the simple fact of not having a clue re. Buying, selling, fielding the correct players in the correct formation, setting the tone (collosall) motivation, man management (non existent)
      We will, by a effort of will, stop trying to work out why Wing was dropped permanently, and Tav. Is still being brought on to help with the desperate defending, that would be for three minutes at the end.

  187. I think it is the results against the expectation that is the worry we have had since January. Actually we have played much more entertaining football since we (or Tony) discovered Flecther and started to play two up-front.

    Even four out of the six lost matches were decent to watch but the results were awfull.

    So it was the same on Saturday. The first 45 min were some of the best football we have seen under Pulis since Traore left for Wolves.

    But the second half was terrible to watch. I don’t think it is all down to TP that we play so deep and defend as we did on Saturday. I think Randoph was demanding our team to play higher all the time.

    I think it is a phycological thing – especially at the Riverside we get nervous in the second half.

    Well, do we have a stream for the Swansea vs. Derby match on Wednesday? Ok, Bristol still have a chance mathematically to catch up but Derby have the edge now.

    Up the Boro!

      1. Disgraceful conduct by Bamford !

        If he had still been a Boro player and had done that I would have been ashamed of him !

        Hopefully the FA will take action to cut this kind of play acting out!

        OFB

  189. Something for OFB to exploit his wisdom.

    I know TV replays give different views of incidents but I watched a bit of Goals on Sunday where Kammy and Teddy Sheringham discussed a couple of challenges in the box.

    It was interesting listening to the two ex footballers talking about the defenders poor positioning, in both cases the attacker had got goal side of their marker and in both cases the defender had their arms around the attacker preventing him going.for the ball.

    They talked about the idea that the positioningwas a give away to the officials, the only way a defender could stop the attacker was grab him.

    VAR would probably have resulted in penalties. Teddy expressed the hope ex footballers could sit with the VAR official to assist.

    Any thoughts on that Bob in light of your experience?

    1. Ian

      What people sometimes forget is that there are three officials a referee and two assistants who can communicate with each other if one spots an infringement.

      All referees start their careers in the lower leagues and are shown how to position themselves to spot infringements in the penalty area.

      Officials then progress as assistant referees and how to work as a team and now of course we have a fourth official who is a senior referee who can replace the referee if he (or she!) is injured.

      I would repeat that all of them are in constant communication which is sometimes forgotten by tv commentators who although they might be ex players quite often they do not know the laws of the game.

      VAR brings a new aspect to refereeing and another team away from the pitch evaluating every decision made. It’s interesting that I’ve spoken to a few ex Premiership referees and they are not in favour of VAR.

      Why?

      They think that it reduces the impact of the referee in the middle to have an omnipresent who can change decisions. It will also lead to players asking for VAR to be used for every decision and can cause more controversy.

      VAR Will come of that there is no doubt and whilst it has worked in some sports the undisciplined players in football will abuse it.

      OFB

      1. On another refereeing matter the game between Villa and Leeds where Leeds scored a goal after a Villa player went down and all the team stopped except the “goal scorer” the ref wa within his right to allow the goal. I and a couple of my ex colleagues would probably stopped the game before he shot at goal and booked the “injured player” but that’s another story.

        The decision to let Villa score an unchallenged goal was a sporting one which was not agreed by all the Leeds players who were unhappy with the decision.

        One thing that may happen as a result of this is that it may stop players feigning injuries to prevent a team scoring when they are in an attacking position.

        The player who feigned injury at The Boro on Saturday was disgraceful and Besic shouldn’t have kicked the ball out of play !

        Ungentlemanly conduct by the “injured” player deserves a caution!

        OFB

      2. Thanks, I didn’t comment one way or the other but I was interested to read your views on the discussion.

        The balance between video evidence and live officiating is a difficult issue.

      3. The behaviour of the Leeds players once again lived up to the “dirty Leeds” label. Klich, Bamford and Jansson in particular didn’t enhance their individual and collective reputations yet their taskmaster Manager Bielsa surprisingly was sporting and earned respect.

        The psychology of it all though was interesting for me. We all know Paddy and supposedly being too soft but what struck me was their desire to win at all and any cost. That determination, desire, passion, drive and psyche wasn’t pretty or done the game any good but compared to us being a goal down and Besic knocking the ball out sums up for me what has been lacking from watching this Boro squad all season.

        I never really felt that Boro this season really wanted to win a game. Of course they wanted to win that’s a no brainer but I mean that fire in the belly was missing. That hunger, that steely eyed determination that will drive them through brick walls. It was missing during the Villa Play Off games and hasn’t been seen since. With Leeds yesterday it overflowed and exploded but at least you couldn’t doubt if they wanted it or not.

        To answer the obvious question which will likely follow up this post, it’s a No, I don’t think for whatever reason Boro were really up for it this season.

      4. Players can’t ask for VAR. If they do it’s a bookable offence. The referee also doesn’t ask for it. He is notified by his earpiece if a decision needs to be referred to VAR.

        1. Look again at the players with two hands that mimic a square screen …

          That what I mean and it will happen again and again

          It’s just my point of view

          OFB

  190. Derby fans are getting twitchy, I have had a couple say they dont think they will win either game they have left. I guess there is a bit of self defence in case they are let down again.

    I think we can all understand that stance.

  191. A belated thank you to RR for the report. How you manage to do it amazes me but I guess it is probably that the excitement is such that you have time to compose your thoughts
    ! It is not like you are constantly celebrating goals!

    We will all miss your reports next season when you take a well deserved self enforced sabbatical.

    I saw the stream of the second half and really couldn’t believe it, I did think we would concede to finally finish of the season in style.

    I was also somewhat bemused by TP saying words to the effect of well done to the lads, we have kept up the pressure on Derby! No Tony, we haven’t, we have fallen out of the playoff position, went on a run of 7 games where we managed the grand total of one, yes one point including home defeats and a capitulation against Forest. If that is his idea of keeping the pressure up, I wouldn’t like to see it when he wasn’t keeping the pressure up!!

    As it looks like we will not be in the playoffs, then I do fear for next season if, as the rumours have it, TP stays on in charge.

  192. If refs in the Prem were instructed to give a yellow for mimic of a var and were surrounded by 6 players two of whom had previously been booked would the ref book 4 and send 2 off ? I dont think so ..

    OFB

    1. I suppose you could give the managers the right to ask for a review maybe one in each half but you would end up with tactical reviews or numpties who would burn their reviews – Stuart Broad and Shan Watson in cricket are prime examples.

      It would get very messy.

    2. If they want to stop it, yes. Unfortunately it’s the same for fouls in the box during corners and free kicks and the resultant incessant blocking and shirt pulling, if they awarded a lot more penalties it would soon put a stop to it.

    3. But he bl**dy well should.

      My gripe had always been that players are allowed to get away with things. Spy the rules exactly as they are written and yes, there will be a huge surge of bookings and spendings off. But you know, after a week or two, once the players and the managers understand that zero tolerance means zero tolerance, the number of offences will plummet.

    4. I’m totally opposed to VAR. Let the referee make his decision good or bad. It’s infuriating in both codes of Rugby and is too time consuming. Also one shouldn’t have different rules for Premier League matches as opposed to all other Divisions, also it’s unfair in rugby matches just because they’re televised. Leave it for tennis and cricket. As for injuries, feigned or otherwise, again let the officials make the decision. Surely it’s up to the referee to determine whether to stop play, and not obligatory for a player of the opposing team to kick the ball into touch. It’s a different matter if it’s one of his own team mates.

  193. Thanks for that, RR. I agree with just about every word.

    My mate pointed out that we have walked away from the Riverside after the last 3 games, having won but still feeling dissatisfied. In short the diet leaves us unfulfilled, still hungry.

    I will now go back and look at others’ comments when I have time.

  194. GHW…do you really believe that the powers to be, not sure who rules on the Referees position on things, would back the Ref’s 100% when the big clubs shout and spout?

    Rules are rules and as you same, pulling the shirt off a players back generally results in a free kick against the victim.

    Over the years the referees have never been given the correct help and backing against the players and more than them the team Manager. Ferguson was the ultimate figure and his team followed him.

    I think things have improved, but certainly not enough in the Refs favour unfortuanately.

  195. Just seen the Bamford incident fully. That is absolutely shocking, he should be suspended and a match added for bringing the game into disrepute!!

    1. That depends Ian.

      If we reach the Play Offs and face Villa then he has done us a favour by getting El Ghazi suspended. If we meet Leeds however then I’m in absolute full agreement with you that he should be suspended for at least three games. Mind you he’s rubbish so it shouldn’t matter to us. 🙂

  196. Whilst we’re on the subject, why on Earth were changes made to the offside law? As I understand it the old law was that a player was offside if he received the ball with less than two players between him and the opposing goalline whether interfering with play or not, not if he was level with the last defender or not. I would be in favour though of having 4 linesmen on the touchline, 2 on each side of the halfway line as the pace of the game is much faster nowadays, well it is for most teams Boro excepted.

  197. I’ve just watched the Sky highlights. Now, what is that bloody awful music that seems to start whenever Boro score? Not often admittedly but would you want to score and be heralded by that din?

    It’s enough to put anyone off scoring, so ,Mr Pulis, kick whoever it is that plays it down the stairs and watch the goals flow. Just let the crowd make the atmosphere please.

    Right, problem sorted,

    UTB,

    John

  198. OFB wrote: ‘If refs in the Prem were instructed to give a yellow for mimic of a var and were surrounded by 6 players two of whom had previously been booked would the ref book 4 and send 2 off ? I dont think so ..’

    Refs absolutely should. Nor do I understand why a tackle in the first minute is frequently considered less worthy of a red or yellow card than one later in the game. If an offence is committed then it should be punished accordingly. I understand refs need discretion to decide wether an offence has taken place, but once a decision has been made then appropriate action should be taken and the team suffer the consequences.

    Arbitrary decision making such as balancing one poor decision with another, or not giving out a second yellow as to ‘not to spoil the spectacle’ bring the game into disrepute.

    If refs are instructed to give a yellow for mimicking VAR then they should. If this means half a dozen players are sent off and the game abandoned, then fine. Let the players and club reap the consequences of their behaviour.

    In the real world of course were this to happen, the Prem or FA would sanction the ref whose livelihood would suffer, while Manchelskiarsepoolcity would receive a nonsensical fine and the law would be changed sharpish.

    1. Chris

      Common sense doesn’t seem to enter the world of football unfortunately

      A good post and one I agree with

      When Jeff Winter was in his retirement season he tried to referee sensibly without dishing out cards

      The assessor say in the stands saw things differently and criticised Jeff for some common sense decisions

      I gave Jeff my views on Saturdays referee to which Jeff replied “no can moment !”

      OFB

    2. I had to google BAME, in my day it was simply called equal opportunity which encompassed everyone from all walks of life or so I thought (not that it was remotely effective). Now it looks like reverse discrimination for the sake of it just to tick a box sadly whilst still having or hiding the same prejudices. People are people full stop regardless of their background, gender, religion etc.

      Its 2019 and if employers are blocking people for any reason other than pure ability to perform the task then the law should come down on them like a ton of bricks. The more of these groups required the more barriers and divisions in my opinion, it seems to me BAME exists sadly because the law isn’t enforced and by default hasn’t/isn’t going to solve the problem. Very sad state of affairs that we have to have these separate identity groups in an era where diversity should be embraced rather than resented, “all” should be welcome full stop.

      On that note I see that MFC are setting up an LGBT supporters group today which I fully support, but isn’t it sad that people cant see past someone’s skin colour, religion or gender preferences in everyday life so that these types of groups are totally unnecessary. Good luck to Darlo and I hope they find a cracking new manager regardless of where they are from or what faith they profess to follow or not.

      1. Completely agree RR.

        Unfortunately when stipulations are made it can have the reverse effect on those chosen to fulfill the roles, setting their cause back.

        The vast majority of people are indifferent to the, gender, ethnicity or whatever the description. These rules are put in place to repel the Neanderthals who will never change, regardless of any guidelines.

        1. GHW

          I have to confess that my attitudes have changed as I’ve got older and when asked what Film I’ve enjoyed recently I replied

          “Pride”

          Look it up I f you’re not familiar with it

          OFB

      2. What a coup it would be for Darlo if they should employ the best qualified woman out there. They would be guaranteed reams of free publicity and could go a long way to rejuvenating a once proud club.

      3. If they did GHW they would probably be accused of doing it for publicity purposes rather than genuine intent, damned if they do and damned if they don’t. It would however bring them to the fore and attract far more media interest and probably support with it. They would probably be guaranteed a permanent spot on BBC news every morning.

  200. As long as Derby don’t win at Swansea tomorrow night Boro have an outside chance of taking that 6th place. However if Derby win even by only one goal there’s no way that Boro could overturn an 8 goal difference in the final matches as that is what would be required considering Derby have already scored 18 more goals than Boro so far this season. Therefore it’s immaterial whether Derby draw or lose tomorrow as long as they don’t win. The fact is Boro must beat Rotherham and Derby must not win another match be it against Swansea or West Brom. In that case Boro would finish 3, 2 or 1 point above the Rams. Goal difference is only relevant if Boro and Derby finish equal on points and there is no way that that will happen given such a disparity in the goalscoring records of the two teams.

  201. OK, as another rambling season draws to a close so indeed do mine as Boro supporters hope that by the time we reach Sunday there is still something to play for. Whatever happens in the next few days (or weeks should we somehow scrape into a play-off place) it promises to be a summer of change. Few still believe Tony Pulis is the man to take the club forward but in reality the only view that counts is that of the man rules the roost and wears the crown on Teesside. So here is my discussion blog article for what is likely the last week of the season…

    https://diasboro.club/2019/04/30/2018-19-week-40-not-a-man-for-all-seasons/

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