| Pos. 21st (14 pts) | SUNDAY 24 NOVEMBER 2019 | Pos. 14th (23 pts) | ||
| Boro | 2-2 | Hull City | ||
| Tavernier (7) Fletcher (26) ▮ Johnson (37) |
37% 10(5) 3 10 |
POSSESSION SHOTS (on target) CORNERS FOULS |
63% 12(4) 9 16 |
Bowen (71, 75) |
Johnson loses more than sparkle!
The build up to this one saw Hull fans take the view that if their season is to mean something and they would challenge for the Play Offs then lowly Boro is exactly the sort of team they should be looking to take three points from on their travels. Conversely Boro fans fearing relegation were thinking that Hull at home followed by Barnsley in midweek could be the turning point of their season. Suffice to say a draw would satisfy no one and a defeat would bring both sets of cynics out in droves.
The local Humberside press were pinning hope on Boro having four first teamers unavailable, Shotton, Browne, Saville and Gestede. Clearly their awareness of this Boro squad didn’t go deep enough to know that whilst they saw it as a definite weakness in Woodgate’s planning Boro fans saw it as a 50% reprieve. A half full/half empty scenario if ever there was one. The guarantee that neither Gestede or the underwhelming Saville would be appearing on a bench near the Riverside anytime soon was a relief to many.
Team news saw Friend again unavailable with Dijksteel coming in for him. The conundrum was the likelihood of McNair dropping back into defence or perhaps Dijksteel would form the right side of three CB’s? McCann had brought back Tom Eaves to lead his attack with Bowen and Grosicki either side of him. Ayala was wearing the captain’s armband and Randolph had managed to get through his International break without further injury. The subs bench saw Clayton as the only recognisable “first team” Boro player with the rest made up from the Academy plus Bola.
The Riverside was sparsely populated with many perhaps choosing the comfort of the armchair over the wet, grey Tees drizzle. Ref Jeremy Simpson blew for Hull to kick off with the visitors adorned in a strange sickly Teal Blue attire. In a move which caught most out Howson appeared as the Right sided CB in the back three. An early second minute Boro free kick launched from the right wing saw Fry get his head to the cross from the edge of the box but Long in the Hull goal was never troubled. Hull broke immediately with Bowen flying down their right and getting a cross into the danger zone which was tipped away by Randolph. A quick fire Boro clearance saw Britt marginally offside in the fourth minute as he nearly broke from the half way line in a lively and enterprising start from Boro.
A short corner from Hull in the fifth minute was dealt with by Fry and as the ball was cleared outside of the box a foul in Boro’s favour effectively ended any threat from the Visitors. Boro cleared the ball up to the other end which was in turn badly cleared back out with Fletcher nodding the ball down to McNair who ran with Dijksteel accompanying him, cutting the ball back across the box with Assombalonga running into the Hull box but Tav was already in-situ to take a touch and then stroke the ball calmly home to put Boro one up in the seventh minute and lance the Riverside pressure boil. A Home goal was a welcoming rare sight for the hardy souls in the South Stand starved of such delights.
Boro’s confidence was clearly boosted to the extent that we witnessed a long-range Wing strike a minute later which went well wide. The next five to ten minutes saw Boro continue to pass the ball around with Dijksteel looking fresh and Fletcher and Assombalonga looking connected and even joined up in their thinking. So far Hull hadn’t exploited the height weakness in Boro’s back three and a good break on seventeen minutes saw Johnson find Fletcher on the half way line who advanced and played in Britt who took it down the left and cut it back to the supporting McNair whose effort shall we say wasn’t up to his usual high season standards but it was good stuff from Boro.
A long penetrative overhead ball saw Britt take it down but two attentive Tiger defenders managed to thwart him from adding a second with the ball going out for a corner despite optimistic penalty claims from the South Stand. Without taking too much from Boro’s efforts Hull looked decidedly flat and lacking ideas so far and indeed were very scrappy in possession often inviting trouble. A strong McNair challenge in the twenty second minute allowed him to brush off the attentions of a Hull midfielder, break forward, slide the ball out to Fletcher on the right wing, cutting inside to shoot but with the ball just sailing over.
Two minutes later McNair and then found Dijksteel in the same position who statically sent in a cross which was inches away from meeting Britt’s head. Amazing what a bit of confidence can do and that confidence was at maximum level when Johnson played it out of defence to Britt, taking it wide, read Fletcher’s run into the box and tee’d it up perfectly for Fletch to tap it past the despairing Long and rounding him slide the ball home with aplomb. Two nil up on twenty-seven minutes at home was as good as it has got for Boro in 2019.
A solo Bowen run saw him drive through the Boro defence as a warning that the game was still far from won, he was picked off by Wing tracking back toe poking it to Randolph to clear in what was the first real Hull threat of the half. Dijksteel was then taken out as he dribbled down the right flank. The resulting Free Kick was sent in by McNair to the far post with Ayala muscling out his Hull adversary for the Ref to bow for a foul as his header was saved by Long anyway. Another brilliant Britt powering run found Johnson whose curving shot was palmed away for a Corner which was eventually punched clear but the whistle went for some bizarre reason for a Hull Free Kick for a supposed imaginary infringement on Long.
Six minutes before half time and just as everything was looking perfect on Teesside Johnson launched himself into a knee-high challenge in the Hull half with no danger or threat whatsoever and received an inevitable straight Red Card for his ill-disciplined indulgence. Ridiculous in the extreme not to mention reckless.
The restart saw Boro regain possession, McNair broke and looked to have been brought down (albeit easily) on the edge of the Hull box with the Ref ignoring Boro appeals which added to the emotive state in the Stadium. Hull turned to the attack as they now threatened the Boro goal in numbers with the Riverside atmosphere now sounding like the Alamo. Every Teal Blue passage of play jeered and boo’d especially unfairly I thought on Lichaj with the Ref receiving vitriol for his perceived double whammy to Boro in as many minutes. In fairness to the Ref I think Paddy went down too easily and Marvin’s boot was half way up Tigers Captain Eric Lichaj’s leg regardless of whether he reached the ball or not.
A pressure reducing Johnny Howson break out found Tavernier who ran the length of the left hand touchline filling in for the now absent Johnson, took on half the Hull side but eventually ran out of options when outnumbered and surrounded. It showed intent and that Hull still had to be aware of a Boro threat on the break as the first half came to an end.
As first half’s go it was probably the best Riverside Boro performance since the Home game against Sheffield Utd last season. That rash lunge from Johnson however had changed the script completely with the question now being asked could this fragile Boro side galvanise themselves and fend the Tigers off in the second half.
Ashley Fletcher paid the price at half time for Johnson as he didn’t come out having gone off for Adam Clayton to come on to try and hang onto the two goal lead leaving Britt as a sole Striker. Reshuffled Boro looked to have gone 441 with Howson on the Right and Tav at Left Back and Ayala and Fry in between. The opening five minutes saw Boro pegged back adopting a “lets hang on to what we have” strategy inviting Hull to attack at will. The only early Tiger threat being a long cross met by Eaves that was glanced well wide of Randolph’s goal. Two minutes after that however Dael Fry had to be attentive to get in a last-ditch challenge on Bowen in the Boro six-yard box as slowly the pressure from the visitors started to mount.
Britt won a Free Kick to momentarily ease the pressure but Clayton was then booked for seemingly time wasting when lining up the kick in what seemed like a ridiculous piece of over officiating from the Ref who up to that point had called most things correctly. Britt then won another Free Kick which was cleverly chipped over the Hull defence for Britt to collect and cause a few seconds of Hull hearts in mouths as he twisted and turned their defence. The ineffective Lopez and Elder then went off with Batty and Bowler coming on as McCann made a double change on fifty-eight minutes. Hull now pushed even further up and a packed Boro box saw some hectic nervy defending with Grosicki now becoming an influence on the game. It was a straightforward case of attack versus defence now. Pressure was growing and ten-man Boro were looking more desperate in their defending, barely holding on as Howson made a last ditch block and hoofed clearance. In the next phase Dijksteel broke in a rare Boro offensive foray, de Wijs professionally tangled with the Boro Dutch Right Back come attacking Midfielder taking a yellow for his challenge.
Wing lifted the resultant set piece in far post for Ayala to head back to Paddy whose shot was blocked and the ensuing ball saw a Tav corner who received it back and hit a drive which Long done well to block rather than save with both arms. Boro needed that fillip of hope if for no other reason than to provide some much needed relief. Randolph then had to be alert form a left footed Bowler effort after an Eaves knock down with seventy minutes approaching. Then the inevitable happened, an innocuous ball to Bowen saw him run through the middle of the Boro half and hit a long range effort which curved inside Randolph’s far post. Two One and toilet paper was feverishly being restocked in the concourses!
Tav responded with a sprint and cross come shot after the restart as Boro needed to find a way to get back into this and hang on for the last quarter hour which thus far in the half looked very unlikely. Four minutes later and it was Bowen again who outjumped Tav at the far post from a di Wijs header to smash it home on the edge of the six-yard box. Two Two!
Hull now looked to get at Boro even more, confident they could take all three points with impunity. Boro’s’ defensive tactics had by now imploded big style, no outlet meant that Hull could push on with no real fear of conceding. Inviting Hull to attack in the second half hadn’t worked as the Tigers had no need to hold players back in their own half apart from Britt’s two minders. Personally, I would have left Fletcher on and put him out wide and kept the shape at the back intact but sitting back so deep was now the ultimate cause of our own undoing.
Ten minutes of normal time to cling onto a point that should have been comfortably three or worse as nerves were noisily jangling around the Riverside apart from the away corner were despair had now turned to effervescent optimism. A Launched clearance from Long after a wasted Boro Free Kick saw Bowen burst clear from the half way line with Howson chasing back doggedly and doing just enough to prevent his Hat Trick. A sliced clearance from a by now unplayable Bowen cross from Ayala on eighty-three minutes nearly saw an own goal but fortunately for the first time in the second half fortune was on Boro’s side as it spun out for a corner.
Balls were now being reined in on the Boro Box with no end in sight. Ayala was heading clear as Randolph was forced to punch out another Hull corner which came straight back at us. Three minutes now remained as Boro were clung on, solely reliant on Randolph’s long punts upfield for mercy which was short lived as nothing stuck. Boro were routinely carved open again as Grosicki won a corner which was delivered just onto the “D” then volleyed in but blocked by a fellow Teal shirt as eighty-nine minutes now ticked slowly by. Three minutes added time came up on the Fourth Officials Board as Britt was adjudged to have manhandled a Hull defender. McNair was bundled to the ground near the dug outs for a late Boro Free Kick. The big lads went up for Boro but the ball was headed clear all too easily but fortunately falling to Dijksteel. Unbelievably started to dribble in circles and in doing so losing possession instead of playing the ball out wide or back into the Hull danger zone. Hull broke as a consequence and but for more desperate last ditch defending Boro would have come away with nothing.
A brilliant opening thirty-seven minutes from Boro up until the mindless moronic needless challenge from Johnson. The second half tactics handed the initiative to Hull and in my opinion done nothing to help ourselves. Clayton didn’t add anything to the team and in truth sitting deep caused us problems. We needed energy and pace as an outlet and for that reason Fletcher should have remained. As much as I can compliment our Coaches for the first half the second half was a tactical nightmare but not all of the blame for that was in the dug out, the majority of it resided much further up in the perhaps too comfy padded West Stand seats for leaving a rookie Coach with zero alternative options at his disposal. Today wasn’t about one Summer this had been in the making for a few years now.
Two undoubted points dropped this afternoon which could prove to be the most expensive sending off at the Riverside in its history. We can have no complaints about the Red Card but having a bench full of inexperienced kids, a slow-mo midfielder and a poor summer signing who ironically was signed as a Left Back tells the real story of MFC that I doubt you will read about elsewhere. That solitary point was enough to claw us out of the relegation trapdoor on Goal Difference but how much will those ninety minutes have taken out of the players physically and emotionally?
Britt was the Boro MOM in the first half, in a second half however where we asked no questions at all it is best forgotten about very quickly but Howson was worthy of a mention for running his heart out. No wins in ten now and when you are down at the wrong end of the table the only luck you get is bad luck. Wednesday night sees the only two sides in the Championship with such a run meet at the Riverside in what is now a relegation dog fight in November.