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Championship	TUESDAY 13 AUGUST 2019			League Two
Boro		2-2 (PENS 2-4)	Crewe
Fletcher (75) Bola (90+1)	65% 15(3) 6 14	POSSESSION SHOTS (on target) CORNERS FOULS	35% 10(3) 4 4	Porter (42) Kirk (45+1)

Crewsin in the Carabao

Third time lucky for Boro or so they hoped tonight. Crewe Manager David Artell’s kind words about Boro in the build-up to the Carabao Cup first round tie would maybe extend to providing us with our first win of the season. It was anticipated that Woodgate would rotate his squad and those who had signed recently along with those who had been mere onlookers would get a chance to get 90 minutes under their belts and in doing stake a claim for a start at Blackburn on Saturday.

When the line-ups were announced only Clayts had survived from the previous two starting elevens with Pears and Walker getting the nod for their first team starting debuts along with newbies Dijksteel, Browne and Bola. The good news was that George Friend was deemed fit but there was still no sign of Dael Fry. Other notable starts were given to Walker and Wood with Liddle on the bench. Meanwhile Artell had made just three changes from his Crewe side that had faced Oldham at the weekend.

The game started at a fairly steady pace with the first real action coming on five minutes from a Walker attempt from the left at Richards in the Crewe goal after being set up by Saville. A set piece opportunity from a Crewe free kick saw Dale rise to meet a header leaving Saville for dead but somehow missed when scoring seemed easier. That was an early let off and warning for lacklustre Boro with less than ten minutes gone.

The game had a surreal atmosphere with only the West Stand open and the small away section on the opposite side of the Riverside. This may have affected the tempo but Boro just didn’t have that same level of intensity as they had when they had started their two previous games. A ball launched by youngster Wood at the back saw Browne set off but as was our problem on Saturday the linesman’s flag went up to pull things back. Come fifteen minutes Crewe had looked comfortable and far from out of their depth at the deserted Riverside. A corner from the Railwaymen was cleared out of the Boro box and saw Tavernier set off but the final ball was intercepted and Crewe were back in possession again, pushing forward as the game now looked to break sweat albeit barely.

On twenty minutes Woodgate was barking instructions. His charges just didn’t have that energy or intensity that was supposed to be the trademark of this season. The Boro performance this far into the game was like the atmosphere, fairly flat and uninspiring. Gestede put a ball across the Crewe goal mouth on just over twenty minutes but Walker was too far behind to get close enough to it. An overlapping run from the Crewe LB played a ball into our box requiring Woods to clear it out for a corner. Thirty minutes in and the most interesting talking point from a Boro perspective was Adam Clayton’s new haircut which was less Gender neutral than of late.

Our right and left backs Dijksteel and Bola seemed to be keeping things tight rather than the Howson and Coulson cavalier style of charging up field. Walker had a chance that came back out to Saville who couldn’t get a shot away and then Browne was next to have a go but it all ended in a free kick to Crewe and typified how the evening was going for Boro. Browne and Pickering were getting involved in their own personal duel with a few niggly exchanges between the two which didn’t reflect what was going on elsewhere on the pitch. A Bola run down the left played in Tavernier whose strike hit a defender for Boro’s first corner on thirty-five minutes. The corner ended with a Gestede attempt on goal. Crewe broke up the pitch from that corner with Porter who couldn’t beat the two red shirts closing in on him but his theatrical dive was ignored by the Ref.

So far despite the ten changes Boro looked like they had picked up where they had left off in the second half against Brentford. Dale then had a good chance for the visitors which was cleared by Saville as Crewe were clearly more than equal to their Championship opposition and growing in confidence.

Forty minutes was approaching and a few cans of WD40 wouldn’t have gone amiss based on what was on display thus far into the contest. The signs were all there that lacklustre Boro would be lucky not to find themselves undone. Crewe racked up their third corner realising their opponents were far from Championship class tonight. They worked a good passage of play the through the middle of the pitch and a ball across the face of Pears’ goal saw Chris Porter head in. That one goal advantage was no less than they deserved as Boro just simply looked disinterested and second rate with nobody coming out of that first half with any credit.

The goal boosted Crewe’s self-belief and with it Boro were starting recriminations between themselves as frustration grew between Saville and Gestede. To rub salt in the wounds the League Two opponents then counter attacked in the second minute of added time and as Dale skinned Bola Charlie Kirk was the grateful recipient to put the visitors two up as the Boro bench cut a very forlorn and hopeless sight. Ref Mike Salisbury blew for the half time break to a crescendo of boos from the scant Boro attendees which in reality will like as not have been the real die hards. A team full of strangers with absolutely no game plan or if there was one it looked like the eleven on the pitch had been on their phones and iPads during the team talk instead of paying attention. Nobody looked like they had a clue of who was supposed to be where or doing what throughout that half.

The second half commenced unsurprisingly with the arrival of Assombalonga and McNair to try and rescue Boro faces that resembled their shirt colour. For the second game running at the Riverside the opposition Managers tactics had unpicked and dissected Boro. Clayton and Walker were the two to make way but in truth you could have picked any two from those outfield ten. Boro were still looking pretty flat and devoid of structure and belief as the malaise of the first half continued. As frustrations built up Saville found his way into the Referee’s book and then the West Stand found reason to cheer when Gestede’s number came up on the board morphing to jeers and boos as he trudged off after another less than impressive outing. Ashley Fletcher came on in his place with the major task of trying to polish that last third!

McNair flew an effort wide and then was the provider after a run for Fletcher who curled his effort past Richards to make it 1-2 and provide slender hope. Wood came on for Crewe to try and stem the late Boro fightback and cling onto their solitary goal advantage. Britt had a twenty-yard effort but the trajectory was consistent with his penalties. Lowry then came off for Crewe with Jones replacing him with ten minutes remaining. Fletcher who along with McNair had injected some drive since arriving then turned provider for Tavernier whose shot was blocked.

Another chance for Browne called the Crewe Keeper Dave Richards into action as Boro were knocking and Crewe were now seemingly content to hold onto what they had. Richards again had to clean up from Tavernier with just two minutes remaining. Four minutes were added for Boro to save what little self esteem they had and as soon as the fourth officials board had gone down Marc Bola calmly hit a fizzed Fletcher ball to equalise through a crowded box. There was no time for celebrating as McNair was forced to intercept and break up a Crewe offensive immediately from the restart. Those remaining minutes were manic as Boro looked to push home their ascendancy but the whistle sounded for full time and penalties.

With the Players huddled together penalty responsibilities were being allocated as both Keepers focussed their thoughts. First off up stepped Chris Porter to put Crewe one up, Britt up next for Boro, stuttered and of course missed (who’d have guessed it), Green put the next one past Pears to make it two nil, Fletcher sent his to the left and low to pull one back. The next one went past Pears for 3-1, McNair placed his confidently into the top left giving Richards no chance, 3-2. Jones then drove his down the middle as Pears dived to his right for 4-2. Then came Browne for Boro and needing to score his weak, tame effort was easily saved by Dave Richards. That was it, Crewe deservedly went through into the next round draw and another few lessons hopefully learnt albeit many of them predictable and played out true to form. MOM for Boro was a joint one between McNair and Fletcher who rescued the evening if only for a short while.

Championship 2019-20: Weeks 3-4

Tue 13 Aug – 19:45: Boro v Crewe (EFL Cup)
Sat 17 Aug – 15:00: Blackburn v Boro
Tue 20 Aug – 19:45: Boro v Wigan
Sat 24 Aug – 15:00: Boro v Millwall

Jonathan Woodgate had proclaimed before the season started it was going to be an exciting time to be a Boro supporter as he promised to bring back entertainment to the Riverside. Indeed, the first home game against Brentford started as advertised with more energy and action on display in the first 45 minutes than most had witnessed since the introduction of the free pre-match pint, which most had presumed was normally designed to numb the senses before the football had. However, when it comes to describing entertainment, perhaps that angry influential retro Modfather himself, Mr P Weller, summed it up rather succinctly in his early eighties single with the line “Lights going out and a kick in the balls – I say that’s entertainment.” While that rather dark and painful view of entertainment may not fit most sane individual’s aspirations, it certainly summed up the narrative of Boro faithful at the final whistle on Saturday.

Somewhat surprisingly, the Pavlovian boos instinctively rang out from the terraces as a one-nil home defeat was not what many had been expecting after the goal-fest at Luton. It was as the Jam classic had intimated, a low blow in the tender regions. Some maybe saw it as confirmation of their fears that an inexperienced head coach with fairly inexperienced squad were going to struggle to deliver. It perhaps always was going to be the preserve of a significant section at the Riverside who had always believed Woodgate’s appointment represented down-sizing dressed up as a new way forward – the promise of jam tomorrow is never going to please the impatient who believe losing is poor entertainment in whatever form it manifests itself.

Nevertheless, patience is what will be required and it may be time the Boro faithful accept that Woodgate’s attempt to introduce a new philosophy of high energy football will not be without its risks and setbacks. In truth, it’s a work in progress and the new coaching team will be learning on the job as they discover what the players and indeed themselves are capable of – or even incapable. Although, the transfer window demonstrated that the plan to switch to young hungry players wasn’t necessarily by design but in reality a plan that financial restraints have forced upon the club.

As the summer business concluded without any significant expenditure – under £2.5m was spent on just four players Mejias (Free), Bola (around £100k), Browne (around £250k) and Dijksteel (£2m). That was more than easily balanced by the sales of Flint (£4m) and Braithwaite (around £5m) with Shotton almost departing on deadline day for £1.6m too. Players are still essentially being sold to lower the wage bill and probably help raise funds to pay for it now that parachute payments have ended. The pig has been let out of the bag as the worst kept secret on Teesside has revealed Boro have run out of funds to blow on players.

A reality which can be neatly summarised by the dour stock phrase of one local former central defender and former manager, which has this week been rebooted by another local former central defender and the newly appointed head coach: “it is what it is”. The articulation of acceptance that Teesside’s famous sons are powerless to resist invoking, which will no doubt become a post-match sound-bite contest between the two as they pick over the bones of contention after this weekend’s encounter between Mogga’s Rovers and Woody’s young pups.

The heady days of Steve Gibson blowing the big boys out of the water with his big-name captures belong to a different age – this is now a chairman of financial compliance who now points the finger at those who try to spend more than they are allowed. The aspiration to join the elite has become a lot harder to finesse as the world of football continues to reward players with higher and more ridiculous contracts and pay transfer fees that seemingly make no financial sense. At the top end, these deals are often financed on ambitiously extrapolated image rights earnings that simply hand more and more power to the ‘superstar’ players and their poker-faced smug agents. At some point clubs will realise a model based on shifting a plethora of globally merchandised shirts bearing their prized asset’s name on the back just increases the power of the player at their expense. Even fickle supporters won’t buy a shirt with the name of someone who has declared they don’t want to play for the club any longer. They have them over barrel and there will be few laughs from bank manager – not if you were planning to sell merchandise to pay the bills.

Still, despite the less than frenetic transfer activity, which appeared to fall short of what Woodgate had been expecting his recruitment team were going to deliver, Boro have almost discovered three new signings by default. Few would have thought Marvin Johnson would have re-emerged as a first choice attacking threat after looking favourite for a summer exit, the peripheral Paddy McNair has also finally been given a chance to prove he is the dynamic midfielder that the club apparently signed before versatility consigned him to the bench and youngster Hayden Coulsen has forced his way into the team with displays of energy and determination.

Woodgate admitted his squad looked thin but he still hasn’t given much pitch time to the new recruits of Bola, Browne and Dijksteel. With Fry and Friend set to return from injury too, he will soon have around 18 players to choose from for his starting eleven. Fry will no doubt return in defence but it’s hard to see where club captain Friend will find a starting place – perhaps he will take on the role that Leadbitter did and mainly be an influence in the dressing room. Number one target Dijksteel has actually only played a handful of games at right-back – probably less than Howson – so it will be interested to see how he fares in the role at Championship level. Likewise, Bola is an unknown quantity after stepping up a division – they will join their Boro academy counterparts in vying for pitch time.

The aim of the new management team is to develop the players through new coaching techniques and not just the young players. We learned in a recent interview to the press that Robbie Keane is man who gained an advantage as a striker by being able to visualise his surroundings and then holding this image in his head. OK, some techniques work better than others with players and he may need to tweak any advice he perhaps gave for penalties in imagining the goal was bigger and the keeper smaller. It seems the goal was not quite as big as Britt had visualised after he attempted to blast the ball under the crossbar of one with unfeasibly large dimensions.

Undeterred by this setback, no doubt Keane as we speak is persisting in teaching the Boro strikers how to hold a mental image of their surroundings. “OK, now try to visualise who’s behind you Britt” – “I can’t imagine there’s anyone behind me boss.” Robbie impatiently responded: “No that was last season we’ve changed the fecking system now – so who’s behind you?” Britt ponders the question: “Is it the crowd?” “Now steady on big fella, I tink you fecking getting way ahead of yer self. OK, one last time, who’s behind you?” Britt squints hard and makes a guess: “Is it Clayts?” A rather exasperated Keane explodes: “No it’s not fecking Clayts – he’s still in front of defence! Anyway, training’s over now and there’s nobody fecking behind you Eejit. Get off the pitch.” Note: Robbie Keane is available for pantomime bookings in December.

While it may be this kind of passing on of knowledge that could improve the performances of the more experienced players – it will be the ability to bring through youngsters that will determine whether the Woodgate project ultimately succeeds. Getting down with the kids, or should I say ‘kidz’, is what Boro will hopefully be all about as they aim to supersede the older, more expensive players on Boro’s books. Clearly if you want to relate to the youth then you will need to speak their language. The older supporters among you will be occasionally baffled by the words and indeed the gratuitous ignoring of spelling that the social media generation communicate with. Thankfully, there are some easy shortcuts that can get you by and this can be demonstrated through how some young artists name their tunes.

Now some may be thinking that simply swapping the letter ‘s’ for a ‘z’ wouldn’t fool many but I was reassured to discover that’s all there is to it. Miley Cyrus, her of transition from innocent family entertainment as Hannah Montana to wannabe bad girl of pop, infamous ‘twerker’ and singer of the hit ‘Wrecking Ball’ (incidentally, no relation to the earlier Paul Weller line referenced) made the headlines in the summer with some rather sad news. She announced on Instagram with a video of her herself holding her pet pig over her shoulder as it was fed an apple that it had died. “Very sad to say… my dear friend Pig Pig [as she rather imaginatively named it] has passed away…. I will miss u always.” She apparently adopted Pig Pig in August 2014 following the death of her pet dog Floyd (possibly also known as Dog Dog), which inspired her 2015 album ‘Miley Cyrus and Her Dead Petz’ – can you see what she did there with the spelling? The album contained a special written tribute entitled ‘The Floyd Song (Sunrise)’, which she wrote while on the ‘Bangerz Tour’ (did you notice that spelling again) and closed with ‘Twinkle Song’, dedicated to her friend’s dead cat.

While such creativity is something most can only aspire to, those of you that have not already been moved to download her album may be wondering what ‘Bangerz’ means. Thankfully, her Atlanta-bred hip-hop producer, Mike Will (also known rather surprising as Michael Williams) can explain. “The whole album was bangers, and that’s actually how she came up with the title,” Williams says. “Everybody was like, ‘Yo, so how’s your album sounding?’ And we were just saying, ‘We got all bangers.’ ” – hopefully that has cleared up the mystery. Incidentally, it was perhaps a little insensitive by the Independent online newspaper to run the story of the death of Pig Pig alongside their lifestyle piece with the headline ‘How to prepare your BBQ for a sizzling summer’ – still I suppose all pigs eventually become Bangerz in the end. Maybe we should reflect the next time we hear Pig Pig Bag.

Anyway, talking of hungry players, Boro’s new signings will get a chance to show their appetite for the club in the first round of the Carabao Cup on Tuesday – with expected starts for Bola, Browne and Dijksteel, plus likely season bows for Tavernier and Wood and some game time for George Friend, Saville and Gestede. While big Rudy will be surrounded by youngsters, he should remember that getting down with the kids shouldn’t involve getting into any rowz – when it comes to mixing misplaced shooting and trendy spellíng, row-z is still row-z in any language.

Hopefully the Woodgate project will see some more energetic games in the next few weeks – the Carabao Cup encounter with Crewe is quickly followed with a trip to Mogga’s Blackburn and then come back-to-back home games against Wigan and Millwall. I suspect Boro will need to deliver a couple of wins to take the pressure off and then we’ll be up and running. It’s still too early to decide if this will be a season that sees the club competing at the top end of the table and preferably not languishing too close to our current 18th spot. As Woodgate and his team go in search of footballing Nirvana, at least the faithful should expect an exciting journey with a more youthful blend that certainly smells like teen spirit – Teesside awaits “Here we are now, entertain us!”

Pos. 18th= (1pt)	SATURDAY 10 AUGUST 2019			Pos. 14th= (3pt)
Boro		0-1	Brentford
	53% 14(5) 7 10	POSSESSION SHOTS (on target) CORNERS FOULS	47% 9(2) 3 17	Watkins (54)

Two Halves and Half not!

After breaking a pre-war record last season with a win Brentford returned to Teesside to take on some familiar Boro faces but one with a new look and an entirely different proposition as Jonathan Woodgate made his Riverside bow as Manager. Budget Boro had George Friend considered to be close to a return and new arrival Anfernee Dijksteel pushing for a first start as RB. The Bees had been busy during the Summer having shipped out a few themselves and the possibility of a first outing for Ecuadorian winger Jel Valencia and defender Dominic Thompson. Striker Bryan Mbeumo was awaiting International clearance and Said Benrahma’s match fitness was questionable.

Boro had managed a point at newly promoted Luton Town last Friday night in a helter skelter highly entertaining game that thrilled and frustrated in equal measure but it at least delivered 6 goals and nobody walking out before the end. Brentford had travelled to Birmingham and absolutely bombarded them but somehow managed to lose that one 1-0. The likelihood was that this afternoon would see an entertaining game with like as not plenty of goals based on Brentford’s pedigree despite the loss of their talismanic Striker Neal Maupay and Woodgate’s Boro side.

The Boro line-up was unchanged with only Dijksteel coming in on the bench in place of Wood. Thomas Frank also kept faith in his Brentford charges going with the same again with neither of Valncia or Thompson on show but Mbeumo made the bench. The pre-match Boro warm ups were certainly more intensive than previous with the players well and truly put through their paces by Robbie Keane and Leo Percovich. That intensity seemed to pay off as Boro came out of the traps flying, harrying, chasing and closing down but despite that it was Brentford who nearly capitalised as early as seventeen seconds as Shotton won GHW’s prize by becoming the player who had fans reaching for their “Typical Boro” phrase books after a gaffe in the box. He did in fairness make up for it with an outstretched block a few minutes later but still looked far from comfortable in that left CB role.

Boro produced possibly the most exciting forty-five minutes seen at the Riverside in a very long time. Pressed back in their own half Brentford struggled to get their normal passing game going because as soon as the ball was rolled out a manic red shirt was closing them down, snapping into a tackle not giving a second’s respite. As the relentless wave of red shirts just kept advancing Brentford were clearly ruffled and none more so than visiting keeper Raya who was looking like a clanger was just waiting to happen. Coulson was lively down the left despite being on the receiving end of a few battering’s from Dalsgaard. The youngster did lose the ball once or twice but was tenacious in his recovery and inevitably winning back possession on almost every occasion.

On the opposite side of defence Howson looked comfortable and composed and Johnson was again proving to be a useful outlet and caused problems down the right flank including a wonderful strike that had Raya flying across his goalmouth to palm away an effort. But for a momentary lapse in the first half when he tried to dribble his way out of trouble losing possession on the edge of his own box when a simple two-yard pass would have sufficed

Marvin once again looked the part. Indeed, it was difficult to be seriously critical of any Red shirt in those opening 45 minutes apart from those minor failings mentioned above.

Recovering from his early wobble Shotton launched a clearance up field that set Fletcher free who latched onto the ball superbly and played in Paddy McNair but his effort was a little too enthusiastic, still very promising signs and the excitement was building. Ten minutes in and it was all Boro, Brentford looked like they didn’t know what had hit them as the red tide just kept on rising and in truth it looked like something had to break Boro’s way soon. Fast, slick interpassing moves which at times were almost breath-taking had become the norm as Boro were not so much knocking on the Bee’s door but wouldn’t let them out of the living room into the hallway.

On the quarter hour mark Lewis Wing had a free kick that curled over the wall but had too much on it and it sailed over the bar not dipping in time despite the South Stand trying to suck it in. Twenty five minutes in and the pressure finally burst as Brentford were rustled and corralled into giving away a silly corner and with Raya still inexplicably out of his box near the corner flag Marvin Johnson seized the moment, floated in a quick corner which had Raya struggling to get back in position and outstretched, tipping the ball into his own unguarded box targeted by the advancing Ashley Fletcher who was blocked off by Jeanvier who managed to head it into his own gaping net.

The euphoria which broke out at the goal was soon ended by the Linesman waving his little flag convinced he had seen something which nobody else had seen in the stadium. Why it was ruled out I have no idea but robbery would have been too kind a word and those “Typical Boro” phrase books were back out again with a few Teesside truisms hurled in the direction of the Keeper, the Linesman and the Ref for the rest of the first half.

Just three minutes later and Paddy McNair was at it again with another effort in a performance which was his best to date in a Boro shirt. He was one of the main protagonists in being a thorn in Brentford’s side. How Boro were not in front was not for the lack of application or indeed effort of which there was plenty on display but purely down to a miscarriage of justice. Undeterred Boro kept up the relentless pace and when it looked dangerous Howson was alert to a Brentford attack with the ex-Leeds man crunching into Henry to win back the ball yet again.

With just under ten minutes to half time Fletcher was again the victim of the gentleman running the West Stand touchline as he flagged furiously after Ashley believed that he had put Boro into the lead. This time it was presumably for a very fine offside but again the slenderest of margins if indeed it was the correct call. Determined not to give up the chase Johnson won the ball back nipping in to sweep the ball away from Pinnock unleash a shot from the edge of the box requiring Raya to save from our reborn right-wing revelation.

With seconds remaining Britt broke into the box and pulled his shot across Raya’s goalmouth that was teasing and inviting to be prodded home but Fletcher was just two strides behind to turn it in as Raya’s goal once again led a charmed life. The half time whistle sounded shortly after to a rousing round of applause that was well deserved and a far departure from the jeers and boos which had tainted the end of the Pulis purgatory.

No changes at half time as Boro came out first, waiting for their opponents, determined to finish off the job they had started. The fairy tale however ended at that point. The sheer exhaustive impact of running and chasing like a pack of Jack Russell’s for 45 minutes looked to have emptied Boro’s collective batteries. The visitors clearly hadn’t read the script and instead pushed further up, closed Boro down not letting us settle into that aggressive domination again. The Bees were now buzzing and indeed had Randolph fully engaged for the first time this afternoon in the opening minutes of the half. Boro needed to clear their heads and get back into gear but their tank was looking ominously empty. Now it was Brentford’s turn to chase and snuff out with Boro struggling to impose themselves in anything like the fashion they had in the first half.

We were starting to look ragged and disjointed, as great and as exciting as we had been in the first half, we looked the total opposite now. Disjointed, disorganised and lacking structure. This defending malarkey certainly didn’t fit the home side and Thomas Frank and his side now knew it. Dark clouds had gathered overhead at half time giving those in the lower seats of the stands an unseasonal shower but those clouds were still overhead and added to the distinct mood change and but for an outstretched Coulson block it could have been 0-1.

Coulson and Howson were being kept busy trying to stem the attacks down the flanks but we were now looking decidedly susceptible all over and a headed Bee’s clearance over the head of Shotton sent Canos clear, one flick, cheeky toe poke and quick cross from him to the unmarked Watkins at the far side of the box and we were one down. That certainly wasn’t written in the script and you could literally sense the air hissing out of the Boro balloon as that early optimism and swashbuckling bravado was now replaced with “Typical Boro” foreboding.

What ensued was punch drunk Boro trying to somehow get back into the game but clearly the new plan hasn’t yet evolved to the point of what to do when you go behind and the opposition have shut up shop. The reality was that we never really looked like getting back into it and those exertions in the first half had clearly been at a huge cost. There was endeavour and willingness but the speed and agility required to reproduce those opening 45 minutes of attacking deluge had been sapped and that sucker punch had flattened belief. Brentford had reshuffled into a defensive diamond content to see what Boro could do if they didn’t commit themselves; confident their slender lead would be enough to see the game out.

Out of ideas and with only a quarter of an hour left Woodgate brought on some fresh legs in the form of Browne and Dijksteel. The tired looking Johnson and Clayton went off with Howson moving up the wing and Dijksteel behind him at RB with Browne in a No.10 type role trying to pull strings but Brentford were defending with ease knowing Boro had to commit whilst they could stand back keeping things tight. Dijksteel looked comfortable on the ball but much of it was recycling as Boro tried to find a gap in the Brentford rearguard. The ex-Charlton lad did manage to get a couple of balls into the packed Bee’s box one enabling Britt to get a shot off but there was no power in it and easily collected by Raya.

At this stage we looked distinctly ragged with little structure or tactics on display to speak of. Woodgate’s last throw of the dice was Rudy Gestede being brought on for Fletcher. The predictability of such a substitution was clearly obvious to those sat around me. What on earth was the strategy of all this high tempo closing down stuff when it had been abandoned in favour of hoof it to the big lad even if the big lad in question had failed to deliver on numerous occasions. Out of the striking options he had removing Fletcher was strange as he had been one of our better performers and on the day the most likely to score.

The obvious one to hook for me was Britt who looked a few yards off the pace, possibly protecting that calf strain from midweek. Britt’s reactions and movements seemed several degrees behind Fletcher all afternoon. Eccentric substitution aside after that whatever the game plan was it never materialised in any discernible shape or form. Frank and Brentford had been putting their own Subs on to eat into the clock and manage the game out with ease. The contrast between the two halves were black and white, chalk and cheese.

What is clear is that running around for forty-five minutes may be great entertainment but the fitness levels required to do that for the full ninety are probably impossible to achieve. Britt didn’t look to fit into this system any easier than he did to Pulisball. Entertainment alone will only get the Boro management team so far and without some much-needed tactical nous and underpinning this could be a long hard season ahead. No doubt there will be days when we do go in two up at half time, in the ascendency and taking pressure off in the second half but the ability to organise and defend looks like a work in progress at the moment. Considering the inherited DNA and starting point of this squad it is a mild cause for concern that so much has seemingly been sacrificed in that regard.

MOM for me was Howson closely followed by Fletcher, McNair and Coulson for their endeavours. A Penalty miss last week and one poor Official today and the table could look so very different but the League tables don’t have a column for that so its on to Blackburn next week and hopes of a more balanced, measured approach.

Pos. 12th= (1pt)	FRIDAY 2 AUGUST 2019			Pos. 12th= (1pt)
Luton		3-3	Boro
Bradley (14) Cranie (24) Collins (85)	50% 12(4) 8 14	POSSESSION SHOTS (on target) CORNERS FOULS	50% 17(8) 11 20	Fletcher (7) Assombalonga (37) Wing (68)

Mad Tea-Time Party at the Hatters

This season’s inaugural Championship fixture rewarded Boro with a Friday night trip down to sunny Kenilworth Road to face newly promoted Luton. Both sides had new Managers in the dugout, Woodgate for Boro and former Boro Academy Coach Graeme Jones for the Hatters. Pre-match predictions seemed unable to identify a clear favourite with home and away wins along with draws evenly spread amongst punters and expert predictors alike. Luton had momentum from last season’s promotion charge whilst Boro had relieved themselves of their managerial millstone from around their necks.

Injury wise Woodgate was sweating over Randolph, Friend and Fry with the latter certain to miss out and the first two highly questionable. The line-up saw Randolph return in goal but Friend and Fry missing with young Coulson deservedly getting a start at LB. Ayala and Shotton were the only two fit senior CB’s with Ayala as Captain for the evening. Howson took up the RB slot in a 433. Wing, Clayton and McNair were the middle three with Johnson, Assombalonga and Fletcher as the front three adorned in the new White away shirt, White shorts and Red socks. Luton had what can only be described as a dog’s dinner of a kit with a red (blood orange?) shirt with white sleeves, navy trim and Navy shorts and white socks. Jones gave five new signings an airing with ex Boro men Martin Crainie at RB and Jacob Butterfield on the bench. Boro’s two new boys Browne and Bola were on the bench along with Pears, Wood, Tav, Saville and Gestede.

Boro got forward quickly with a corner in the opening minute which was hit low and scrappily cleared by Luton. The tempo was certainly more active from Boro but looked a bit frenetic with Coulson earning the early tussles with confident and silky skills. A fourth minute shot from Fletcher was deflected out but the Ref awarded a goal kick for the home side as the ball covered more yards in those opening minutes than in the full 90 of a Pulis match. Johnson did well holding the ball up against two defenders using upper body strength allowing Wing to nip in and win a corner. Johnson then delivered said corner which was cleared back out to him and Marvin lofted in a perfect cross into the middle of the box where Fletcher rose to head home to put Boro ahead.

Boro broke immediately after the restart and Johnson playing on the right was again involved in the build-up which saw Clayts break out and Wing launch a rocket shot straight at Sluga making his debut tonight in the Hatters goal. A Luton corner was cleared out as they pushed for an equaliser but Boro broke again and a slick Johnson pass had just too much on it for Britt bursting through. Luton were now starting to clear their heads and won a succession of frustrating fee kicks which had Clayton heading clear a weak 13th minute effort for a throw in. Just a minute beforehand Ayala had to head out to concede a corner to clear a fierce cross into Randolph’s box.

On the quarter hour Coulson blocked a McManaman cross to concede a corner. The Shinnie taken corner was initially headed clear but came straight back in which was headed out by Ayala but straight to Sonny Bradley who launched a volley from twenty yards out leaving Randolph no chance, 1-1 and going gung ho instead of taking the sting out of the game had cost Boro their slender lead. Johnson had another chance then McNair saw a long-range speculative effort go out for a corner. Johnson sent it in and out it went for another corner which Wing delivered but Luton then broke with McManaman wrestling Coulson out of the way as the game was literally end to end, kick and rush football.

A cross was hastily headed out by Ayala for a corner but the incoming corner was inevitably headed in by a climbing Crainie over Johnson to head the Hatters 2-1 in front. Taking an early lead was great but the naivety afterwards in Boro leaving themselves wide open was telling and the tide had turned with 25 minutes gone and the visitors now looking distinctly nervy. A 26th minute Shinnie free kick had too much on it as Crainie once again went up to try and net a second in quick succession. Boro’s swashbuckling style was now in contrast to Luton who were composing themselves, settling in, albeit with perhaps misplaced confidence. At this stage the game looked like there would be plenty of more goals in it. Boro were scrapping their way back into this but relying on long balls up to Britt to make a trademark run which were being cleaned up with ease by the new look Luton defence.

A right-wing Lewis Wing cross looked to be met by Britt but the Ref adjudged Britt to have dragged down his opposing number as the ball was cleared off the line by the Keeper Sluga. McManaman won another free kick off Coulson, Shinnie floated in another dangerous ball which fortunately was cleared but only to concede another free kick on the opposite flank. Shinnie once again took it but this time short to Tunnicliffe who complicated the move by pausing and with the impetus lost it was eventually stopped courtesy of a free kick to Boro who then hoofed it up field and straight out of play on the left touchline. On 35 minutes Coulson beat two men on a mazy run finding Johnson on the opposite edge of the box who in turn curled in a wicked left foot shot that had Sluga stretching at the far top corner. After his goalkeeping heroics he then bizarrely rolled the ball out but inside his own box to a defender being closed down by Johnson which as a consequence ended up with a poor pass to another Luton defender which was well read and intercepted by Fletcher feeding Britt who daisy cut his shot that squirmed underneath Sluga at his near post to make it 2-2 on 37 minutes.

Two minutes later and McManaman then met a cross but skewed his shot wide with Randolph breathing a sigh of relief as the hectic nature showed no signs of easing off. Just before that Fletcher was booked for taking out Crainie in the build-up. Boro were now getting back into the game with confidence levels boosted by that equaliser but the half was still ending with crazy end-to-end frantic football. McNair was hauled down by Mpanzu for a yellow. Wing took the free kick from 30 yards out and won a corner for his effort on the left which he took himself, which in turn eventually went out for a throw and then immediately a right-sided corner that Johnson took but was cleared and then hit well over for the first half to end all square.

If you managed to keep up with all that and it made some sense then congratulations because the game itself was that action packed one blink and you missed a shot or a free kick in between. That half was manic, as entertaining as it will undoubtedly have been for the neutrals and Sky viewers both sets of fans will probably be requiring several changes of underwear after those kick a goal rush 45 minutes.

The second half started with screams from the local Mark Page over the tannoy and Boro now kicking towards the travelling army with Coulson immediately sending two balls into the Luton box. As had been par for the game thus far Luton then broke and a powerful Shinnie corner was unintentionally headed clear by his own player, Collins. Three minutes into the half and Collins was once again in the mix meeting a cross with his hand to almost take the lead but instead earning himself a yellow card. Another warning shot to Boro to calm things down if one was needed. A Howson break to Johnson saw a clever lofted dink to McNair who then lobbed the ball onto Sluga’s crossbar as the mad nature of this game continued unabated. On 53 minutes Lewis Wing launched a trademark long range rocket but it sailed well over into the red away end.

Boro were chasing and harrying, closing down quickly in the opposition half and then Luton broke with McManaman again with Howson tracking and chasing Collins into the Boro box to head clear. The resulting corner ended in chaotic defending and clearances and a fierce drive coming in towards the packed box with justifiable home claims for a penalty as Wing brought down Potts.

Luton were now turning the screw on a less than convincing Boro defensive display. Yet another Shinnie corner was headed clear by Clayton and eventually the phase of play ended with a calming Boro goal kick during which Butterfield came on for Lee. Wing was then booked on 60 minutes for a block which that man Shinie once more tee’d up from 40 yards out which was headed clear by Ayala and hoofed 100 yards from danger by Howson. Boro were up next with two Coulson crosses in quick succession drawing the ooh’s and aah’s from the away end. A Wing shot was then deflected out for a corner as Boro kept up the pressure. The Luton substitution seemed to have perversely worked in Boro’s favour as with Jones switching his side around and they now looked a little lost.

An over hit Johnson corner on 66 minutes allowed a momentary opportunity for all involved to catch a breath. A series of impressive inter-passing between Howson, McNair and Johnson then set Howson off on a run into the box laying it off for Wing who ripped the back out of Sluga’s net from the edge of the 18 yard box, 3-2 to Boro. Cornick then came on for Shinnie as Jones tweaked his set up yet again.

Browne was then readied by Boro for Marvin Johnson on 70 minutes. Browne quickly became involved in two slick moves and should have won a free kick on the goal line but the ball came back out, collected by Wing who drove another shot in low but it went wide. McNair then played Wing in but the ball this time just had a few inches too much pace.

Danger man McManaman then thankfully went off as Luton were now trying to desperately get something out of this game with 15 minutes remaining. Browne then performed a backwards reverse nutmeg on Potts to win a free kick near the corner flag, which was taken by Wing but was headed clear. A quick interception saw Browne played through to win a corner delivered in by Wing, headed by Ayala and cleared off the line by Sluga. Luton immediately broke and Randolph had to be sharp to meet a cross to keep the slender lead intact then we witnessed a break from Boro, a clever ball flicked through to Britt, unmarked, clean in on goal, just six yards out with only Sluga to beat but he fluffed his lines. It was harder to miss than score! As the ball yo-yo’ed back into the Luton half from that miss a late tackle by Crainie on Coulson saw a penalty to Boro on 81 minutes.

Phew, this was taking some keeping up with! Britt steadied himself (perhaps too much) and took his Penalty which probably landed in Linthorpe Road. This was Britt back to the default Britt we all know; give him a slim chance and he scores, give him time to think and pick his spot with a simple tap in and he misses. He nearly made amends a second (OK maybe three) later when he barged through forcing Sluga to just nick the ball off his foot, this was now becoming the footballing definition of madness.

A Luton free kick was half cleared but they came straight back at Boro as we failed to clear our lines and a poor white shirted decision to loop a backwards header set up Potts (I think) who evaded and coolly rounded a spread-eagled Howson and a despairing Wing in the box to feed Collins to fire the home side level, 3-3 with just single digit minutes remaining. Saville then came on for McNair as this game still looked to have plenty of twists and turns left in the dying moments. Two minutes now remaining and Luton were turning the screw as balls fizzed across Randolph’s box. At the other end Fletcher was bundled through by Britt but his near post shot was dealt with by Sluga with only seconds now of normal time remaining.

Four additional minutes went up as a Coulson cross was over hit. Two minutes remaining of added time and Randolph pulled off a worldie reactionary save which Coulson was then called upon to bravely block the follow up shot. When the dust cleared and bodies counted Dan Potts was laid prostrate with what looked like a dislocated shoulder and no remaining subs for Jones. Potts came back on, one armed, determined to stay and fight till the death. A Luton corner was cleared out to the wincing Potts who played in Butterfield for a wasted cross out for a Boro throw. Luton had been unbeaten since March 2018 at home and tonight was to be no different as the whistle went having deservedly earned their draw.

A crazy, indeed manic game which had more shots than we probably saw all last season from Boro. Britt’s glaring misses aside Boro should have shown more experience and professionalism when they took the lead. No disrespect to Luton but there are far more capable sides in this division, playing with no regard to managing the game or seeing it out will result in some seriously heavy defeats if this continues as exciting as it undoubtedly was. Unarguably plenty of positives and 10/10 for entertainment but Britt’s misses and schoolboy defending cost us all three points tonight. Plenty for the optimists to savour but tactically we can’t go through a season being so open and soft centred. Had it not been for Randolph’s last minute save we would have lost tonight despite scoring three goals. MOM for Boro was Johnson with very worthy mentions for McNair, Howson and Coulson.

 

Championship 2019-20: Weeks 1-2

Fri  2 Aug – 19:45: Luton v Boro
Thu  8 Aug – 17:00: Transfer Window Closes
Sat 10 Aug – 15:00: Boro v Brentford

It’s still July, the kids on Teesside have barely packed away their school books, some are even anticipating the start of the Ashes series, while others have only just stopped watching a Columbian clad in inimitable pre-obesity-epidemic yellow lycra ride his bike expertly into Paris and the newspapers are running out of superlatives to describe the latest record-breaking heatwave that certain world leaders still claim is a Chinese hoax.

However, it’s time to put down that pint of Pimms with its five-a-day portion of fruit plus the rather annoying eye-poking mini-parasol and reach for your mood-enhancing Bovril inhaler. Yes, we must gird our loins (or indeed anything else in need of restraining) in preparation for the start of the mentally-scarring football season that some may once recall heralded the imminent arrival of autumnal sunshine and the simultaneous deflating of both paddling pools and dreams. Sadly, the requirement to shoehorn in plethora of international breaks and still play around 50 gamed means we must put summer relaxation to one side and once again exchange safe words with our families as we begin the journey of self-inflicted torture that being Boro supporter is all about.

Nevertheless, it’s not altogether an unusual experience in early August for many on Teesside to be getting into the party mood as they head to Luton – though admittedly it’s normally to hop on an Easyjet flight to Mallorca rather than expecting an uneasy evening on the terraces hoping their team is ready for take-off and not further delayed. With the loss of parachute payments, it’s possible this season could well be the last call to board the top-flight as our budget appears to be well and truly in the no frills category. It used to be that there were normally no baggage restrictions for players wishing to travel club class at Boro but it looks like many of those are gradually being ushered towards the departure lounge as there is no longer room for expensive passengers.

Indeed, following the end-of-season exits of Messrs Downing, Hugill, Besic and Mikel, our man Flint is now no longer ours and the long-running soap opera that was Martin Braithwaite has finally seen him written out of the script. It would have been daft to seriously expect the club’s highest earner would remain on the payroll given his previous desire to want out and despite all the media feeding that the Dane was “the best player in training by a country mile” and that “his attitude has been fantastic” it wasn’t long before this barely credible positive vibe changed when Woodgate explained his absence from the Heidenheim trip by saying “he’s had a sickness and diarrhoea bug” and followed up the classic throwing a sickie excuse by concluding “We pay Martin’s wages at the end of the day. He said to me he wants to be here, I can only take him at face value, but I’m not daft.” Perhaps ‘face value’ was quite an appropriate turn of phrase as in the end his market value was only half the price Boro paid as he returned to Leganés to join his Spanish tummy and former Saints boss Pellegrino – though who could blame him for opting for life in Madrid and playing in La Liga instead of going through the motions (incidentally not another tummy bug reference) on Teesside in the hard slog that is the Championship.

At least we learned this summer that it was not the club’s fault that some players had previously joined on big transfers and lucrative contracts. Apparently, the club’s hierarchy claim that they may have been duped by former manager Garry Monk and his agent James Featherstone into paying more than necessary for players – arguing in one case that the club paid West Ham £3.5m more for Ashley Fletcher than they should have as Monk knew the Hammers valued him at just £3m when he was Leeds manager. Although, it seems odd that the Boro recruitment team were reliant on the manager for valuations of players – surely this what a chief executive should be deciding as this seems akin to simply signing blank cheques to please your manager. Perhaps we could just diplomatically say that a lesson has been learned – though the subsequent signing of Saville for ten times his valuation of just 12 months earlier would suggest otherwise.

Anyway, this summer the club has hardly (as the new prime minister would say) ‘spaffed up the wall’ any money whatsoever. So far just the free transfer of keeper Tomás Mejías, an undisclosed fee for left-back Marc Bola from Blackpool who has previously been valued at around £100 grand and seemingly a bargain for the pacey Marcus Browne with some London papers reporting an initial fee of only £200 grand – perhaps West Ham have taken pity over the Fletcher deal or even maybe were politely told by Boro to make amends. With still over a week to go before the transfer deadline, few are expecting to see Gibson’s cash being splashed anywhere near a wall by Boro but there hasn’t really been much in the way of demands from impatient supporters to make big (or even moderate) signings either.

It’s as if the faithful have bought into the notion that there is no money even after seeing potentially close to £60m raised in sales during the last 12 months with Gibson, Adama, Bamford, Flint and Braithwaite – perhaps there really isn’t as the wage bill sucked it all up. Boro have possibly entered a phase of what is technically known as ‘managed decline’, it’s an acceptance of the reality of the situation while trying to give an impression that it’s some kind of plan to get more for less. OK, some may believe you can have a better team by slashing costs and spending a lot less than your rivals but that would seem to fly in the face of the fact that success in football is normally bought.

Although, many clubs (including Boro) have proven over the years that success can not be bought – especially as most find it difficult to distinguish between price and value. Despite constant promises not to be held to ransom, it seems the mechanics of the transfer window ultimately encourage supposedly successful businessmen owners to make strange and random financial decisions. It’s like entering a casino with a determination not to spend more than you had decided but then getting caught up in the fervour to win and then making risky gambles until your pockets are emptied. The example of Boro paying £6.5m for Fletcher, along with a lucrative contract, without seemingly putting too much serious work into calculating his actual value was some admission. It essentially means clubs can be persuaded to believe that any price is a good one – it’s an emperor’s new clothes market, a bubble nobody thinks will burst. Someone, somewhere will always pay the price before shortly discovering the goods weren’t as advertised and can’t easily be shifted.

It’s not that Boro have somehow wised up and will now operate on a sensible financial strategy – it’s more that they no longer have the money to gamble it away. Jonathan Woodgate was most likely appointed because he wasn’t going to demand the club spend money – it’s not the same job that Garry Monk was mistakenly trusted with. The question is whether energy, hunger and enthusiasm can overcome the financial handicap. It’s hard to quantify how much money the club have overpaid or wasted since they picked up their PL bounty but at least they’ve opted to avoid making one last gamble that would take years to overcome. If the club can make the play-offs by spending a lot less than their rivals, then it would expose the folly of thinking the quality of players that are not coveted at the top level are reliable or consistent enough to pay a premium for.

Boro appear to be focusing on creating a squad of young players, both from their own academy and through transfer deals. The argument against this strategy is that young players are inconsistent and can’t deliver often enough to provide a promotion platform. However, this is the Championship where those who ply their trade in the second tier are here for precisely that reason – it’s just the market has been inflated by increased parachute payments and financial fair play busting accountancy loopholes used by billionaire investors. While some players may lack quality, others lack speed and a few lack a brain capable of avoiding making the same mistakes – indeed some may even possess all three attributes. Few players in the Championship tick all the proverbial boxes and in the end it’s about finding the right balance between what your players are capable of and what you are asking them to do.

Are Woodgate, Keane and Leo going to achieve more with less and do what Monk and Pulis couldn’t? After some mixed pre-season performances, the last outing against St Etienne showed promise and the team at least now play on the front foot after the predominantly loss-avoiding Pulis tactics. While Woodgate’s team scored goals against lower league opposition, they didn’t manage to score from open play against better French and German sides. Unsurprisingly, they also looked less solid defensively than under Pulis and it will be the ability of the team to score goals that will counteract a less mean defence.

The return of Randolph in goal and Fry in front of him will improve the defence but whether new signing Marc Bola at left-back and Howson as right-back will ultimately leave us exposed on the flanks is the fear with the more progressive 4-3-3. As it stands only Britt looks capable of scoring regularly as both Fletcher and Gestede seemingly lack belief and ability respectively. The addition of pace to the side is welcome but goals still require a goal scorer and unless Woodgate is to avoid talking about missed chances like his predecessor, then he will need another finisher.

So as Boro prepare to start their campaign at Luton on Friday under the glare of the TV cameras, the squad looks like it could provide the new head coach with a decent starting eleven but still contains players who ideally should be moved on and youngsters that are probably not quite ready. What happens in the next week before the deadline could determine whether this will be anything other than finding out if the new plan can work on a modest budget. At least the opening ten fixtures appear to have handed Woodgate a less demanding start to his managerial career than it could have been. Expectations of the Boro faithful have probably been reduced but the hope of promotion still lurk at the back of the mind as optimistically they believe that before a ball is kicked it’s going to be a good season. The sun is still shining, the dark clouds have not yet arrived – it’s the best time to be a football supporter as your club has yet to disappoint!

As Tony Pulis left Boro’s mountain training camp in Austria last summer, it’s unclear if he uttered that infamous monotone phrase of “I’ll be back” that he inadvertently borrowed from one of that country’s more famous sons. Still, this year the players arrived without the Welsh cyborg in human form after he mutually agreed with Steve Gibson not to return from the dystopian future he was seemingly intent on maintaining. In fact given the recent turnover of managers on Teesside, it’s clear that there’s only room for one terminator on Teesside and the Boro chairman has already proved himself quite capable in that department. Nevertheless, it’s apparent from the pre-season program that Pulis is still the ghost in the machine and the muscle memory of old-school double alpine training sessions may have a few players wishing for the arrival of judgement day. At least the Boro faithful were no doubt relieved to discover that when the club were being linked with Bad Aussee it was just the training camp and not an over-priced misfiring striker from down under.

As much as the departure of Tony Pulis was generally welcomed, many Boro supporters initially greeted the appointment of Jonathan Woodgate with all the stony-faced enthusiasm that Theresa May mustered for her impromptu handshake with Vladimir Putin at the G20 summit. As the underwhelmed faithful start to accept in true Teesside spirit that it is what it is, most will now be looking at just how successful new head coach will be in reshaping the squad for the upcoming season. In case anyone has not yet heard, the solemn mood music that the Hurworth string quartet has been diligently etching into the Teesside subconscious is that the club are now playing to a different tune – with a lot fewer notes in evidence now that the Premier League windfall has been all but blown. Boro are now embarking on Plan C after a swift return to the land of plenty was not the breeze it was initially hoped it would be and the subsequent over-cautious Plan B had become more toxic than some of those odd coloured plumes that had bestowed the Smoggies with their nostalgic moniker.

Rather strangely, the sympathetic violins were perhaps lacking in their usual fervour as Tony Pulis exited stage left in June and while he was personally admired by those who worked with him, the unimpressed on the terraces had grown weary of the concept of entertainment playing second fiddle to the off-key Welshman’s less than pitch perfect tactical displays – which ultimately had very few demanding an encore. However, Steve Gibson once again opted against picking up a Stradivarius to begin the next movement in the managerial suite and instead reached for a less coveted untested instrument made from cheaper wood. The hopeful hunch (to paraphrase the chairman) is that this next appointment will resonate with the players and orchestrate the arrival of a new exciting era of bold high-energy performances that get the crowd out of their red plastic seats. The new man, we are frequently told by the local media, has many strings to his bow and he will certainly need to show evidence of them if he is to pull off the plucky plan of getting more with less.

Whether, the chairman has enough room to manoeuvre to back his new man financially is uncertain and it remains to be seen if Boro will pay the price for over-indulging Garry Monk two years ago after he was seemingly allowed to pizzicato the bulk of the club’s promotion budget up the wall. OK, it’s not quite about Gibson pleading poverty and giving us a less yiddish Teesside rendition of ‘If I were a rich man’ – as it’s now no longer an issue of having an owner prepared inject cash but one of compliance with Football League financial regulations. Although when it comes to adhering to the rules, it has to be said that in this particularly version of the song, the fiddler is no longer to be found on the roof but is instead busy (all day long) devising a series of shell companies to internally resell club assets to raise profits rather than declaring “I’d biddy biddy bum” (whatever that means) in the more traditional manner mentioned.

Talking of someone who had hoped he wouldn’t have to work hard (particularly in a Boro shirt), Martin Braithwaite has surprisingly been allowed to chuck his toys back into his pram and head back to Teesside. While everyone has started with the proverbial clean slate under the new regime, it’s unlikely that the less than committed Dane will pass the hunger test that Woodgate has indicated he wants his players to demonstrate they possess – though it’s always possible Braithwaite may always opt for a hunger strike to push through a move this time round if potential suitors are unwilling to match Boro’s vaulation. Besides, it’s difficult to imagine a player who is seemingly on Premier League wages being rehabilitated back into the squad when Stewart Downing was kept on the bench for nearly half a season to prevent the club being exposed to a similar outlay in the event of triggering a contract extension. Nevertheless, the perennial loan-seeker cost the club around £9m and Boro may be seeking to squeeze as much out of a potential buyer as possible by giving at least the impression that he’s wanted.

Indeed, this is something that could apply to several names in the Boro squad who may have already been mentally stamped with ‘surplus to requirements’ by the club but their wanted status remains publicly vague for commercial reason – i.e. the Rudy Gestede’s and Marvin Johnson’s of this world. The problem as ever is finding buyers who can match the level of contracts these players currently enjoy at Boro. It was no secret that two years ago the strategy for persuading players to come to Teesside generally involved offering them lucrative deals – as well as paying over the odds on transfer fees. Shifting devalued assets is never easy and they may ultimately remain at the club with other players who are more coveted being sold to raise funds instead. Paddy McNair appears to be one such player with rumours of Celtic and newly promoted Sheffield United apparently showing interest – though if that interest firms up it would be hard to persuade a player to remain in the Championship after being predominantly overlooked last season.

Player	Mins	Starts	Sub-On	Subbed	Goals
GOALKEEPERS
Darren Randolph	4140	46	–	–	–
Andy Lonergan	0	–	–	–	–
DEFENDERS
Aden Flint	3454	39	–	1	1
George Friend	3271	37	1	2	2
Ryan Shotton	2877	33	1	4	–
Dael Fry	2865	33	1	4	–
Daniel Ayala	2722	32	1	4	1
MIDFIELDERS
Jonny Howson	3943	44	2	5	1
George Saville	2519	28	6	9	4
Adam Clayton	2491	29	7	8	–
Muhamed Bešic	2272	30	7	24	2
Lewis Wing	1798	19	9	7	3
John Mikel	1600	18	–	2	1
Paddy McNair	733	7	9	2	–
FORWARDS
Britt Assombalonga	2683	28	14	15	14
Stewart Downing	2337	24	14	12	2
Jordan Hugill	1870	20	17	9	6
Ashley Fletcher	1156	14	7	10	5
Martin Braithwaite	1107	12	5	9	3
Marcus Tavernier	482	2	18	2	3
Rudy Gestede	109	1	3	1	–
Marvin Johnson	0	–	–	–	–

It’s unlikely that Boro will be able to keep all their high earners and remain within the rules that Steve Gibson is insisting the Championship should enforce – not even if the Riverside is sold to Bulkhaul Ltd as a potential storage site and leased back to MFC while they await planning permission. Whether it would be a deal breaker if Mark Page wasn’t allowed to remain on site is unclear but one would hope that construction workers could be provided with suitable ear protection. Still we should expect to see some player sales this summer to offset the wage bill and raise funds for new arrivals – though unless the Adama-Gibson-Bamford money was secretly stashed away by a chairman looking to prevent Pulis signing any more defensive midfielders, then few will be expecting to see any addition from the upper end of the Championship market.

With the transfer deadline for both sales and loans due to close at 5pm on 8th August, there is now just over a month for the club to do it’s business – although in theory players could still depart to join League One and Two clubs until 2nd September if a certain Dane fancies heading to the Stadium of Light. Looking at the current squad and following the departure of Mikel, Downing and loanees, Hugill and Besic (shown in red), it looks somewhat thin in some areas. Defence lacks cover and regardless of whether Woodgate opts for traditional full-backs or wing-back, the club will need to find players in those areas. It’s possible Howson could continue in the right wing-back role or some youngsters could be promoted to the senior squad – though these have now been makeshift positions for some time at Boro.

Also likely to move on are Braithwaite and Johnson (highlighted in yellow), who both went out on loan after their Boro careers looked to be over – plus Rudy Gestede doesn’t look like he would fit the profile of the high-pressing high-energy forward that is planned under the new regime. That leaves essentially Britt and Fletcher but there are some noises that if a bid that closely matched the club’s valuation of Assombalonga it would be difficult to turn down – especially as next summer he’ll enter the final year of his contract and any fee will probably be heading downwards unless he has a prolific season. While the midfield still looks well covered despite the departures of Mikel and Besic, it still looks to be lacking some creativity and goals with only Wing having displayed some attacking range – especially with Saville top scoring from midfield with just four goals there will need to be a big improvement in that area of the pitch. Whether Paddy McNair will get a chance to show what he can do may depend on if Boro decide to take up interest from other clubs. Clearly the side is lacking pace and it may be a case of needing to raise funds by selling players that have similar counterparts in the squad.

It is perhaps the loan market that would offer the best route to fill the gaps in the squad given as the club are no longer likely to be in a position to pay big fees and offer lucrative 3-4 year contracts. Under Karanka’s promotion campaigns for example, it was often the case that his First XI would include a fair number of regulars that arrived on loan. Hopefully, Woodgate and Keane will be able to use their contacts to secure some up-and-coming talent from the likes of Spurs and Liverpool. While, the plan may ultimately be to bring through young talent from the academy, it’s hard to imagine in the short term that there are going to be any significant break-through seasons and a few might just about make the squad – though you never know if someone will take their opportunity when it arises and suddenly become the next big thing like Wing did.

So as we look to see how the pre-season shapes up, Woodgate has so far began by trying to say all the right things to all the right people (in all the right places). After initially impressing in his interview, he’s told the supporters he plans to play attacking exciting football, as well promising the chairman he wants to promote youth and not overspend and telling the players they will all be given a chance and he’d ideally like to play them in their favoured positions too. At the moment the new head coach is a popular choice for the players but at some point difficult decisions will need to be taken and that’s likely to be sooner rather than later as he starts to realise who he can rely on and what he is missing.

Woodgate said he’s just normal lad from Middlesbrough who won’t change because he’s the new gaffer but managers tend to prematurely turn grey for a reason and the pressure to succeed makes being normal much harder. Of course making promises in order to get everyone on-side will gain you some time but it’s now only a few weeks to go before all the hype and theory will be tested in real Championship games. The new coaching team will need to be sure that they have a squad ready to go from the off as the January window will appear a long off if they have an indifferent start in front of a notoriously impatient Teesside audience.

Following what has been described in the local media as an extensive four-week search for a new manager, the Boro hierarchy seemingly could find no better available candidate on the globe than a local man from Nunthorpe. Indeed, that man was apparently the recommendation of the recently departed boss Tony Pulis and it seems in the end Jonathan Woodgate’s vision of how he saw the team and club moving forward proved decisive. So impressive was Woody at his interview, he remained the odds-on favourite throughout the search as he saw off rivals such as the twice Championship promotion-winning manager Slaviša Jokanović and a whole host of contenders who shall remain nameless – though that’s mainly because nobody seems to know who they were.

Nevertheless, Steve Gibson has decided to put his faith in another Teessider and once again another untried or tested young manager. It appears to be a massive gamble by the owner, who many thought would be looking for a candidate with a track record of being able to demonstrate the ability to build a progressive winning team on a tight budget. With the parachute payments having finished, the next man in charge will have to juggle his resources and make some astute signings if they are to compete in the promotion mix. The overall task facing the new man was always going to be difficult one and would require a range of skills that would need some well-considered judgements. In some ways, it’s perhaps not too dissimilar to the one that faced a young Gareth Southgate as the team required rebuilding under the financial pressure of money becoming tighter.

Whether Woodgate will be taking an active role in recruitment is unclear at this stage and perhaps he will be left to concentrate on finding his feet in the new role of head coach instead. Reports that the club are looking to bring in former Boro coach Steve Round to assist their new manager may indicate someone else may have a greater input on deciding who will be arriving on Teesside. Eighteen years ago, Round joined Boro as part of McClaren’s coaching team at Boro but was dismissed by Gareth Southgate over what were described as ‘philosophical differences’ – though it’s as yet unknown what philosophy the latest ‘Gate’ is a student of. At least Round has an impressive CV after coaching for England, Everton and Manchester United. It’s perhaps his role as Director of Football at Villa that best gives a clue to what his duties may cover at Boro should he come on board – especially as he’s not had a coaching role for over five years now.

While the emphasis in the media has been about ‘refreshing’ the coaching team, it is the anticipated arrival of yet another old boy that has added the only real element of excitement. News that the much-loved Leo Percovich is to be offered a yet unspecified role in the coaching team has been greeted with far more approval than the drip drip imminent announcement of Jonathan ‘still firmly in the frame’ Woodgate. Cynics (OK that’s nearly everyone) have suggested this is designed to placate the underwhelmed masses on social media that have resorted to having auto-reply FFS-macros programmed into their smart phones as they stare at the ever-shortening odds on Woodgate. Many on Teesside are feeling flatter than carefully-ironed Flat Earth Society world map at the prospect that the manager search didn’t get much beyond the end of the road – let alone went global. Leo is certainly a crowd motivator and an adopted Teessider that definitely wears his heart on his sleeve – which was a relationship that became even more poignant following the tragic car accident that claimed the lives of his two daughters. Although, if it is as merely goalkeeping coach, then it may be quite an undemanding role with the experienced Darren Randolph looking like the best keeper in the Championship.

The latest person to be linked with the new coaching team is current Republic of Ireland assistant manager, Robbie Keane. The 38-year old claims he’s been offered the role of assistant manager to Woodgate but will still remain with Ireland. He’s known Woodgate for 20 years and says while he’s excited with the role being offered he’s yet to decide if to accept it. It would perhaps be a bit embarrassing if he now turned it down having gone public and also outed Woodgate as the new Boro manager – though apparently he’s yet to talk to his wife about the prospect of moving to Teesside and we know from recent playing targets that ‘Geography’ is often against Boro.

So Middlesbrough Football club is about to enter a new epoch – whether Woodgate will be seen as a fossil of the Jurassic football that the Pulis era served up will remain to be seen. In fact, the longevity of the new manager could be a brief one if he fails to hit the ground running. Time is not on his side if the majority of supporters are already doubtful he was the right appointment by the chairman in the first place – plus patience will not be seen as a virtue by the faithful if he’s found wanting when attempting to make his vision a reality. It’s fair to say he’s an appointment that comes with baggage and in some ways it leaves him exposed to greater criticism than an unknown candidate would have faced. Has Steve Gibson possibly miscalculated in the same way he did with his ill-advised ‘Smash the League’ comment with Monk?

OK, perhaps at least Woodgate starts with low expectations from many on Teesside and being around the top six after ten games will be seen as something of a success. However, a bad start will be met with a lot more than ‘I told you so’ from the unimpressed on the terraces – plus has Woodgate got the temperament to handle the pressure and ride out the inevitable criticism that follows bad results. Indeed, with no track record it will also be important that the players will have belief that he can be trusted to achieve results. At least with a manager who has done it before they have the credit in the bank when making unpopular decisions or changes. It may be unfair but Woodgate will be required to start well and show he can mount a credible promotion challenge and this is always the risk in appointing an untried manager – and perhaps more so for one who divides opinion.

It will be great if the gamble pays off and confidence and enthusiasm of a new manager and his coaching team show they have what it takes. However, a bad start and the rabbit in headlights look as they struggle to work out whether to stick or twist will soon make for unpleasant viewing at pre-match press conferences. We saw previously how another inexperienced manager in Karanka became prickly and somewhat difficult when faced with the pressure of things not going to plan. There will be no hiding place for Woodgate now that he’s the number one – we will soon discover if the lessons the younger man has learnt will have made him stronger character or simply more fragile one who is easily wounded. Let’s hope Steve Gibson has made the right call!

As Boro’s search for a new manager is underway, the club are looking to begin a new era and hopefully rebuild a team capable of winning promotion and staying in the Premier League. The pressure is on chairman Steve Gibson to make the right appointment and choose someone who will galvanise the supporters and instil belief into the players. It’s now 25 years since Bryan Robson arrived on Teesside, which tried to change the mentality that the club was unfashionable and rarely a destination for glamour or even big names. Diasboro’s resident Boro historian, Ken Smith, looks back at the start of the Robson era from his arrival to the start of the Riverside revolution.

In his last season as Boro manager, Lennie Lawrence was instrumental in recommending that his successor should be Bryan Robson, a legend of the game, but with no managerial experience. Lawrence was a close friend of Alex Ferguson and a meeting was arranged and with his blessing met Robson in Wetherby, from where the two men met Keith Lamb at the ‘Little Chef’ on the A19. From there Robson was escorted to Wilton Castle where an artist’s impression and model of Boro’s proposed new stadium at Middlehaven was on display. Bryan Robson had other options, Wolverhampton Wanderers being one, but after assurances from Steve Gibson that he would be allowed to bring in his own staff and that money would be made available for incoming transfers the deal was struck. Steve Gibson later recalled how he and George Cooke were so enthusiastic about the proposed new stadium and after Robson shook hands on the deal, and whilst Cooke organised champagne, Steve excused himself where he screamed the place down with joy!

Now to events on the playing field. Robson was to be a player/manager with Viv Anderson as his assistant, and his first two signings were Nigel Pearson from Sheffield Wednesday for £750,000 and Neil Cox from Aston Villa for £1M. Goalkeeper Alan Miller joined from Arsenal for £425,000 and Welsh International Clayton Blackmore on a free transfer from Manchester United. All five including Robson made their Boro debut in the first match of the season at home to Burnley where John Hendrie scored twice in a 2-0 win before a crowd of 23,343, almost a capacity crowd for Ayresome Park in those days. Boro won their first four matches against Southend and Derby away and Bolton at home without conceding a goal. They looked like extending that to five matches when leading at Watford at half-time, but conceded their first goal in the second half and had to settle for a 1-1 draw. The big test was to come in the next match at home to Sunderland where Boro found themselves 0-2 down going into the last 10 minutes, but goals from Alan Moore and Nigel Pearson within two minutes ensured a share of the spoils. A last minute penalty converted by Craig Hignett in the home match against West Brom preserved Boro’s unbeaten record.

Craig Hignett joined Boro from Crewe a couple of seasons before Robson arrived and was soon to witness the arrival of many big names

However after leading at half-time at Port Vale, Boro conceded twice in the second half to lose 1-2 and dropped to second place. Remember that only the Champions would be promoted automatically at the end of the season as the First Division was to be reduced from 22 clubs to 20, so second place at the end of the season would mean merely a play-off position. Boro got back to winning ways with two 4-1 wins home and away to Scarborough in the League Cup where the little Bolivian Jaime Moreno made his debut, and League wins away to Bristol City and home to Millwall where Boro scored 3 goals for the first time seemed to have stopped the rot, but then came a surprise 0-1 home defeat to Tranmere followed by a 1-5 walloping at Luton which saw Boro drop to 4th. A goalless draw at Portsmouth and two draws against Cesana and Udinese in the Anglo-Italian Cup and elimination from the League Cup at Aston Villa meant that Boro’s winless run had stretched to 6 matches in total.

Boro did then win successive home wins over Swindon and Oldham, but lost at Grimsby before the top of the table clash at home to Wolves awaited them in late November. A John Hendrie goal was enough for Boro to win and more importantly take them back to the top of the League. That win was the start of a stretch to the end of the year of just one defeat in nine matches, and may well have been stretched further when Boro led Barnsley before the game had to be abandoned.

After gaining a 1-1 draw at Second Division Swansea in the FA Cup, typically Boro lost the replay so could concentrate on their main objective which was to win the League. However the new year didn’t start too well with defeat at lowly Swindon where Boro without striker Paul Wilkinson and Bryan Robson, lost 1-2 after having led to an early John Hendrie goal, and Jan-Aage Fjortoft scoring the equaliser on a pudding of a pitch. Boro could only draw their next home match with Grimsby and with a lack of goals tried to sign Fjortoft who despite playing for a team near the bottom of the League was a proven goal scorer. However they did manage to sign Uwe Fuchs on loan from Fortuna Cologne to make his debut in the home game against Reading, but Boro lost again and found themselves down to 3rd. Fuchs did score his first goal as Boro got back to winning ways at home to Charlton a week later, and again in the televised top of the table clash at Molineux the following Tuesday when Boro showed their promotion credentials with a 2-0 win. A goalless draw at Millwall was followed by two home wins against Bristol City, where Fuchs scored all 3 goals in a 3-0 win, and Watford when he scored another.

Just as things were starting to look promising, Boro suddenly could only gain one more point from their next 3 matches which included a home defeat to Derby in windy conditions. Marco Gabbiadini terrorised Boro’s defence with a couple of goals as the Rams led 3-0 at halftime with the wind in their favour. Fuchs and Jamie Pollock scored in the first 10 minutes of the second half, but to no avail as Derby scored a fourth to take the spoils 4-2. Another Jamie Pollock goal in the midweek derby at Sunderland on the first day of Spring not only saw Boro record their first win at Roker Park since 1982 but regain first position in the League since the end of January.

At last Boro managed to sign Jan-Aage Fjortoft on transfer deadline day for a record fee of £1.3m and he quickly made his debut the following day as Boro came back from a 0-1 halftime deficit at home to West Brom to win 3-1, and although they lost at Oldham in midweek they beat Stoke 2-1 at home in their next match. From then on to say that Boro limped over the line to promotion might be a slight exaggeration, but three successive 1-1 draws where Fuchs scored his 9th goal in 13 matches plus two substitute appearances, and Fjortoft scored his first two goals did create a scene of nervousness as Boro prepared to play their last League game at Ayresome Park against a Luton team that had inflicted Boro’s biggest defeat of the season in October 1-5.

Old Boro greats including Wilf Mannion and George Hardwick were paraded around the perimeter of the pitch as the biggest crowd of the season 23,903 gathered not only to take a last nostalgic look at Ayresome Park and some of their favourites who had graced the hallowed turf since the Second World War. After several near misses John Hendrie scored the all important goal on the stroke of half time, and most of us thought that would be it. Although Boro hadn’t been renowned for scoring too many goals that season, apart from that 1-5 defeat at Luton, they had been defensively sound with the concession of only 18 goals at home and only 38 in total from their 44 matches so far. So it came as quite a surprise when Luton equalised. However when Hendrie scored 20 minutes from time, I was confident that that would be the winner. Of course Boro weren’t technically sure of promotion, but when Bolton failed to beat Stoke days later, Boro’s promotion was guaranteed. Tranmere were the opposition for Boro’s final match and a draw would guarantee the Merseysiders a play-off position, and that’s how the game ended, a 1-1 draw. Reading finished second, but Bolton beat them 4-3 in the play-off final to join Boro in the top tier.

John Hendrie finished top scorer with 15 league goals from his 39 matches, but Uwe Fuchs’s contribution should not be underestimated with his 9 goals, one more than Craig Hignett. However generally speaking Boro’s lack of goal power didn’t bode well for the Premier League, so no doubt Bryan Robson would have to enhance that and the midfield as he was unlikely to play much himself at a higher level. Many of us hoped that Uwe Fuchs would become a permanent acquisition, but Robson thought differently.

Nick Barmby’s arrival from Spurs for over £5m was a signal of intent and the first English international to arrive at the club for 90 years

The summer saw Boro smash to smithereens their transfer record. True to his word Steve Gibson provided the finance to sign not only a striker, but an international striker at that. Nick Barmby was not a prolific goal scorer, but it was the first time for almost 90 years that Boro had signed a current English international player. The fee was reputed to be £5.25m and although the Spurs managing director Alan Sugar played hardball wanting the full agreed fee to be paid instantly rather than in instalments, the deal was agreed. I had paid a couple of visits during the summer to see how the Middlehaven stadium was progressing, and like many others was in awe of the design if not the location.

Boro started their campaign at Highbury against Arsenal, and the Sky cameras were there to see how Boro would perform against one of their former manager’s team, Bruce Rioch. Boro started rather well when Barmby scored after half an hour. Ian Wright equalised before half time, but Boro deserved the draw. Now onto the first match for Boro in their sparkling new stadium. After a few last minute adjustments, Boro got the safety certificate for the match against Chelsea to go ahead and Craig Hignett had the honour of scoring the first goal after 39 minutes. Jan-Aage Fjortoft scored in the second half, and Boro were up and running. Although Boro lost at Newcastle and struggled to get a point at newly promoted Bolton, I joined the long queue at Ayresome Park with my pal determined to get tickets for Boro’s next match, a midweek encounter with Southampton. Although the match finished goalless Boro then proceeded to win their next five matches including two 1-0 away wins against Manchester City and Sheffield Wednesday either side of a 2-0 win against the Champions Blackburn Rovers when the ground record was beaten for the second time with a near capacity crowd of 29,462.

After QPR had been dispatched Boro were now in 4th position with 21 points from their first 10 matches. Although they had scored only 11 goals, 5 from Hignett including 2 penalties, 3 from Barmby and 2 from Fjortoft, they had only conceded 4. The next match was the big test, away to Manchester United where Bryan Robson received a tremendous ovation from the Old Trafford crowd, albeit a small crowd of only 36,580. Boro lost that encounter 0-2, but the perception was that Boro would not have much trouble in staying in this league. The two little midgets Hignett and Barmby playing just behind Fjortoft, although not scoring too many goals, had the pace to cause problems against most of the teams in the Premier League and defensively Boro looked solid.

Then came the signing of Brazil’s player of the year, a certain Osvaldo Giroldo Junior, better known as Juninho Paulista, or plain Juninho to Boro fans. Arsenal had had their eye on the little fella, but only Bryan Robson and Keith Lamb had followed Boro’s interest by actually flying to São Paulo to interview him. The Brazilian club were reluctant to sell their prized asset, but needed the cash. A transfer fee of £4.75M was agreed and because of Bryan Robson’s world status the little fella agreed to sign for Boro. Arsenal tried to hijack the deal, but they were too late. When Juninho arrived at Teesside Airport with Keith Lamb there were a few people to welcome him, but when he arrived at the Riverside Stadium a Brazilian Band, the whole of the English press, and thousands of Boro fans were there to greet him and his interpreter. At the time I was somewhere in Victoria-Gasteiz in the Basque region of Spain on my way to my five month winter migration to the Algarve. I stopped the car to listen to Sports Round-up on my shortwave radio, and the whole programme was devoted to the arrival and interviews of Juninho. Boro were now big news, really big news.

The signing of the Brazilian player of the year in Juninho was greeted with much excitement by supporters and he soon became a legend on Teesside

Juninho made his debut in the home game with Leeds and provided the stellar pass which resulted in Fjortoft opening the score for Boro. Naturally he tired and was eventually substituted by Alan Moore as Leeds eventually equalised. Of course the ground record had been broken again – albeit by an extra 5 people. A midweek defeat at home to Spurs saw the ground record broken once more by a further 20 people, but Boro then beat Liverpool 2-1 four days later at the Riverside. Two away draws at Wimbledon and QPR, then a 4-1 home thrashing of Manchester City in which Juninho scored his first goal had Boro back in 4th position.

Boro had progressed to the 4th Round of the League Cup with a 3-1 aggregate win over Rotherham and the disposal of Crystal Palace after a replay, but disappointingly only drew with Birmingham and then lost the replay at St. Andrews. That defeat followed a 0-1 reverse in Boro’s next League match at Blackburn, but Boro seemed back on track as Christmas approached with a 4-2 home win over West Ham.

Boro were then heavily beaten at Goodison Park on Boxing Day, and that started a real slump in form when Boro only managed one more win in their next 16 matches and that was an FA Cup tie at Notts County. Wimbledon knocked Boro out of the FA Cup after a replay, but more alarmingly Boro lost 10 League matches including a 0-5 thrashing at Chelsea leaving them down to 13th. By now Boro had accumulated only 34 points from their 30 matches and there was general concern that they might be involved in a relegation battle if their poor form continued. However after two successive draws at home to Nottingham Forest and away to Aston Villa, that still left Boro 4 points short of the 40 point mark. Thankfully a Graham Kavanagh penalty in the 4th minute at Leeds saw Boro win 1-0 and a 3-1 home win over Sheffield Wednesday where Chris Freestone scored his first and only league goal saw Boro safe with four matches remaining.

Boro then drew at Tottenham, but lost at home to Wimbledon and away to Liverpool before the last day visit of Manchester United. Newcastle had looked like taking the title with at one stage holding a substantial lead over Manchester United, but had slumped somewhat whilst the Red Devils won game after game. The Magpies manager lost his cool after Ferguson had wound him up, and in front of the Sky cameras stated “I’d just love it, really love it if Boro beat Manchester United”. Some hope really, as Boro were dispatched rather easily 0-3 before another record crowd of 29,922, the sixth time the ground record had been broken. Some United supporters had bought tickets from Boro fans at twice the original cost, and had thus infiltrated the Boro sections of the crowd much to the chagrin of the stewards.

However Boro had finished with 43 points, but Nick Barmby was top scorer with a mere 7 goals after his early season flourish. It was now obvious that Boro needed a proven goal scorer, though few would have expected it would come in the form of one of the most famous names in Italian football.

Although Boro’s first season at the Riverside had seen an excellent start, which disappointingly tapered off, it at least saw exciting players such as Nick Barmby and Juninho purchased and Boro finished mid table. At the time I used to watch ‘Football Italia’ presented by James Richardson on Channel 4 every Saturday morning, so was well aware of Fabrizio Ravanelli nicknamed ‘the white feather’ but never imagined in my wildest dreams that Robson would sign him or Emerson. The first match of the 1996/97 season was a home match against Liverpool when for the first time the attendance exceeded the 30,000 mark. Every time that Liverpool scored, Ravanelli equalised with his shirt pulled over his head, the first one being a penalty as the match finished 3-3. What a start!

Emerson had cost £4M with his former manager Bobby Robson describing him as the complete midfielder. I was thinking could he be another Graeme Souness, but the signing of Ravanelli for £7M had absolutely smashed the record, and on the evidence of his first match worth the money. However Boro lost 0-1 at Chelsea four days later before Juninho’s goal three days later at Nottingham Forest earned a point. However we still believed that this team had goals in them, and sure enough Boro scored 4 in each of their next two home matches, the first of which against West Ham broke the ground record again. Ravanelli added 3 more goals to his tally in those two matches against the Hammers and Coventry, so 6 goals in five matches for the Italian was a great start.

Boro shocked the footballing world when they signed Ravenelli for £7m  and he was also joined by the enigmatic Brazilian midfielder Emerson

Boro recorded their first away win at Everton, and then put Hereford to the sword in the League Cup as they won 7-0 with Ravanelli scoring 4 and 3-0 in the second leg. However that was followed by two disappointing defeats 0-2 at home to Arsenal and 0-4 at Southampton. Ravanelli scored his first away goal in the 2-2 draw at Sunderland where Emerson also scored with a real blockbuster in a match where Mikkel Beck was named substitute after a long protracted set of negotiations from Fortuna Cologne on a Bosnian free transfer – although he didn’t make his debut until a fortnight later. The ground record was broken again against Spurs, but Boro were suddenly in a slump at least in League matches as they lost 0-3 starting a sequence of ten winless matches culminating in a 1-5 thrashing at Liverpool.

The League Cup was different though with progress having been made to the quarter-finals after home wins against Huddersfield 5-1 and a memorable 3-1 success against Newcastle. But Boro were in trouble in the League following the Liverpool defeat as they chose to cancel their next away fixture against Blackburn because they claimed to have 23 players injured or ill. Boro club officials insisted that they had received assurances from senior Premier League representatives that they were entitled to have the match postponed, but couldn’t produce concrete evidence. Within a month they were fined £50,000 but more significantly deducted 3 points. Middlesbrough FC went to court to have the 3 point penalty rescinded, but unsuccessfully as it happened.

Back to matters on the field, Boro ended that winless League run on Boxing Day as they beat Everton 4-2 with a brace from Juninho, but three more successive defeats at Coventry and Arsenal at home, and away to Southampton had Boro bottom of the League. A 4-2 home win against Sheffield Wednesday might have been 3 points gained, but that was quickly eroded by the confirmation of the 3 point deduction. During the transfer window Boro strengthened their squad with the signings of Vladimir Kinder and Gianluca Festa.

Meanwhile the Cup runs had started with Boro disposing of Chester 6-0 in the FA Cup, then 4 days later beating Liverpool 2-1 in the League Cup. Boro were then drawn away to non-league Hednesford Town in the FA Cup though the Staffordshire club were willing to forfeit home advantage for the tie to be played at the Riverside. An own goal seemed to have given Boro the advantage, but with less than 5 minutes remaining Boro were 1-2 behind and a big upset was on the cards despite fielding a team with 6 regular first-team players. However Fjortoft and Ravanelli scored and Boro scraped through, and although Hednesford were disappointed to lose, they were happy to swell their coffers by playing in front of a 27,000 plus crowd. They might have been happier still with a draw as the replay would also have taken place at the Riverside.

Boro’ League form was still a matter of concern as defeat at Sheffield Wednesday had now meant an accumulation of only eleven points (minus three for the points deduction) in the last 20 matches, yet their Cup form despite the scare against Hednesford was very good admittedly though 4 of their matches had been against lower division teams. Nevertheless home wins against Newcastle and Liverpool in the League Cup and away wins against Manchester City and Derby in the FA Cup were impressive. Suddenly Boro were in the Semifinals of both competitions. At last with on paper what seemed like easy opponents in the Cups, Boro could now concentrate on improving their League position. They did that by winning 4 successive League matches, a midweek 6-1 thrashing of Derby only 3 days before the two teams were to meet in the FA Cup, a 3-1 win at Leicester where Juninho mesmerised the Midlanders, and further home wins over Blackburn and high-flying Chelsea where Juninho scored a wonder goal, and suddenly Boro were out of a relegation position. However if Boro thought it was a foregone conclusion that they would overcome 2nd Division opposition easily in the Cup competitions they were in for a shock.

Firstly in the League Cup on a pudding of a pitch at Stockport the home team held out for over 70 minutes before goals from Beck and Ravanelli seemed to have assured Boro of one Final. However Boro lost the second leg at home 0-1 having conceding a first half goal. They may have looked in control after that, but a 2-1 aggregate score was less than what the home crowd expected. The Final on the 6th April was Boro’s first major appearance at Wembley if one discounts the Zenith Data Cup Final, and Leicester were the opponents, a team that Boro had easily beaten three weeks before. But this time Juninho was well shackled. Nevertheless as the match went into extra time Ravanelli broke the deadlock in the 95th minute, although we couldn’t relax as the match approached the 2 hour mark. Unfortunately Emil Heskey broke Boro’s hearts with an equaliser 2 minutes from time, and a replay at Hillsborough to be played ten days later and only 3 days after Boro’s FA Cup Semifinal against Chesterfield at Old Trafford.
This proved to be the most iconic and controversial in Boro’s FA Cup history, excepting maybe the game against Burnley in 1947 when a blatant ‘hand of God’ incident deprived Boro of their first FA Cup Semifinal.

Boro missed several chances to take the lead in the first half but when Vladimir Kinder was sent off for a second bookable offence in the first half, the game remained goalless at half time with Boro down to ten men. Suddenly in the second half Boro found themselves 0-2 down, the second a penalty converted by the current Burnley manager Sean Dyche. Ravanelli pulled a goal back, but then Chesterfield hit the bar with some observers claiming the ball had crossed the line. However Dyche turned from hero to villain when conceding a penalty which Craig Hignett converted to level the score soon after. The match went into extra time and Gianluca Festa seemed to have scored the winner after the ball had hit the bar, but once again Boro were thwarted by a late goal as the match finished 3-3.

So two replays both after extra time that Boro could well do without as a fixture pile-up ensued. The League Cup replay at Hillsborough came 3 days later and this time Steve Claridge scored the only goal as Boro faced Sunderland at home in a relegation match 3 days later. Boro lost 0-1 and were now still in the bottom three. Another 3 days and Boro were back at Hillsborough to face Chesterfield again, but this time had no trouble in winning 3-0. However 2 days later saw a weary Boro lose 0-1 at Tottenham with Boro remaining in the bottom three. Boro now had played 15 matches in 47 days, two of which had gone to extra time as May beckoned.

Boro played their last home match on the 3rd May, and after letting a 2-0 halftime lead slip, needed a last minute penalty from Ravanelli to secure a 3-2 win against Aston Villa. Two days later Boro were back at Old Trafford, but this time to face Manchester United. Goals from Juninho, Emerson and Hignett raised hopes that relegation might be avoided as Boro led 3-2 at halftime, but United equalised and the match finished 3-3. Three days later Boro had to fulfill the postponed match at Blackburn which finished goalless meaning Boro went into their last match on the Sunday needing to win at Elland Road against Leeds. Leeds scored first, but when Juninho equalised with just over 10 minutes remaining Boro still had hope, but it all ended in tears especially from Juninho as he sat with head bowed at the final whistle. Just one more win from those last three draws would have saved Boro and sent Coventry down with Sunderland and Forest. In fact if Boro had sent out a youth team to fulfill the postponed fixture at Ewood Park and lost heavily, they would have avoided relegation. The League season had ended with Ravanelli scoring 16 goals from 33 matches, although only 2 of them were scored away from home. He did score another 15 in Cup matches but only 3 of those were against Premier League opposition. Juninho scored 12 League goals from 34 matches and another 3 in Cup ties as Boro finished 19th with 39 points.

Some newspapers ran stories of international players that Boro had earmarked as transfer targets if Boro had escaped relegation. A case of ‘look what you could have won’ as the late Jim Bowen often remarked. In some ways the FA Cup Final against Chelsea seemed like an anticlimax. There were stories of fisticuffs between Neil Cox and Ravanelli, and also suggestions that Ravanelli shouldn’t have been picked because he wasn’t fit, as indeed he wasn’t and had to be substituted after 24 minutes by Mikkel Beck. Boro conceded a goal after 40 seconds when reserve goalkeeper Ben Roberts having possibly advanced too far, was beaten by a piledriver from Roberto Di Matteo, Eddie Newton scoring a second with seven minutes remaining.

Juninho didn’t participate in the open bus tour through the town afterwards, which was a pity really as Boro had negotiated a move to Athletico Madrid for £12M with a buy-back clause should he become available. Juninho was thinking of his career and dreaming of pursuing his dream of appearing in the World Cup for Brazil, but that also ended in tears for the little fella.

Back in Division 1 for the next season Bryan Robson wasted no time in finding a replacement for Juninho. His name was Paul Merson, a surprise reject from Arsenal for £5M. It proved to be a masterstroke. Boro knew they wouldn’t be able to hang on to Ravanelli, although he did score a last minute winner as Boro came from behind to win their first match of the season at home to Charlton. He even played in the second match at home to Stoke which Boro lost 0-1, but then he was gone. Meanwhile Emerson affirmed that he was staying although that proved to be a false dawn as he suddenly became homesick in December, was granted a short leave of absence but never returned, and Boro went for experience in buying Andy Townsend for £500,000.

After relegation, Juninho left for Spain and he was replaced by the signing of Arsenal’s Paul Merson to help power the club to promotion

Boro won at Tranmere and earned two draws in consecutive away matches at Stockport and Bradford, but it wasn’t quite the start of a season that Boro fans had hoped for with the team only in mid table. However Boro made progress in the League Cup by overcoming Barnet over two legs before returning to winning ways in the League with a 3-1 home win over Birmingham and a 2-1 win at Sunderland with Emerson scoring in both matches. A disappointing 1-2 home defeat to Sheffield United followed, but that was the last time that Boro would lose at home in the League. They beat Sunderland 2-0 in the next round of the League Cup, drew at Crewe and won at Oxford, beat Port Vale 2-1 and Huddersfield 3-0 at home, and suddenly found themselves in 3rd position. A slight blip at Wolves and a home draw with Portsmouth saw Boro drop to 6th, but a 2-1 home win after extra time against Premier League club Bolton saw Boro reach the Quarter-final stage of the League Cup.

Boro marched on in the League with wins at Norwich and Swindon in a sequence of 9 unbeaten matches ending with a 4-0 home win over Reading, a brace of goals apiece from Craig Hignett and Mikkel Beck putting Boro top of the League. A defeat at Manchester City didn’t alter Boro’s League position as Boro won at Huddersfield on Boxing Day, and the year ended with a 3-1 home win over Stockport. A late Hignett goal saw Boro reach the Semifinal of the League Cup, and Boro disposed of QPR after a replay in the FA Cup. Boro lost the leadership in the League by losing 0-3 at Charlton, but the rest of January was to provide Boro with two tricky matches against Premier League opposition.

In the transfer window Boro signed two strikers, Marco Branca from Inter Milan for £1m and Alun Armstrong from Stockport for £1.6m. Neither player was available before the home FA Cup match against Arsenal which Boro lost 1-2 with Paul Merson scoring against his old club, nor for the trip to Anfield in the Semifinal of the League Cup which Boro also lost 1-2 but with the importance of an away goal. Before the second leg though Boro had 4 important League matches. They extracted revenge against Stoke for that early season home defeat by winning 2-1 with goals from Nigel Pearson and Jaime Moreno, drew at Birmingham, but beat Tranmere and Bradford at home thus regaining 1st position.

Marco Branca signed before the second leg of the League Cup match, and what an impact he made. Boro were awarded a penalty after 2 minutes which Merson put away, and 2 minutes later Branca scored a second goal. Craig Harrison then kept Liverpool’s dangerman Steve McManaman quiet for the rest of the match and Boro had reached their 3rd Wembley Cup Final in two seasons. Three days later Boro’s ground record was again broken when 30,227 witnessed a 3-1 win against Sunderland with Branca scoring twice and Alun Armstrong scoring on his debut. After beating Crewe with a Neil Maddison goal Boro then went into one of their strangest typical modes. In successive matches they lost 0-4 at Forest, 0-5 at QPR and then beat Swindon 6-0 yet still remained top of the League.

Robson brought in a troubled  Gazza from Rangers in a bid help  bolster Boro’s promotion bid but he looked less than match fit on arrival

Boro then drew at Portsmouth and won 3-0 at home to Norwich before their Wembley date against Chelsea once more. In the meantime Robson signed Paul Gascoigne who was giving some stirring performances for Glasgow Rangers. He went straight into Boro’s team for the showdown with Chelsea, but for the 3rd time the Pensioners were to beat Boro in a Wembley Final. Gazza magnanimously gave his losers medal to Craig Hignett, the player he’d replaced in the Boro line-up. Boro suffered some reaction following their Cup defeat as they lost at West Brom and Sheffield United to drop to 4th in the League. Having now not won any of their last 6 away matches in the League Boro seemed to be floundering.

By then Boro had signed Hamilton Ricard and he scored his first goal in a Boro shirt as they beat Bury 4-0 with Branca scoring the other 3 goals. Away wins at Reading and Port Vale, plus a home win over Manchester City all by a 1-0 scoreline saw Boro in second place going into the final two matches. Ricard scored again in the 1-1 draw at Wolves, and not for the first time Boro needed to beat Oxford at home in their final match to gain promotion. A touch of deja-vu here as Boro repeated the 4-1 scoreline of 31 years previously, but this time to regain their Premier League status. They finished 3 points behind Forest and one point ahead of Sunderland who missed out on promotion in the play-offs after a 4-4 draw with Charlton and a 6-7 loss in a penalty shootout.

Boro had won 15 and drawn 4 of their final 19 home matches and finished with 91 points. Mikkel Beck was top goalscorer with 14 League goals from his 39 appearances whilst Paul Merson scored 12 from 45 matches. Marco Branca chipped in with 9 goals in 11 matches and Alun Armstrong 7 from 11 matches. Paul Merson admitted he was down on his last legs having only missed the one fixture at Charlton midway through the season, and doubted his ability to perform at his best should Boro be engaged in the play-offs. Strangely he left Boro for Aston Villa after only playing in the first 3 matches of the following season.

By today’s standards maybe the League threw up some strange minnows in the Division maybe accounting for the fact that Sunderland failed to claim promotion with 90 points. But Stockport finished 8th, Crewe 11th, Oxford 12th, Tranmere 14th and Bury 17th, yet Manchester City, Stoke and Reading were relegated. Such is the way that power has changed in the last 20 years. Boro were to remain in the Premier League for 11 years. More about the Robson years in the future.

It’s not clear how long Steve Gibson and Tony Pulis had to wait before  they got to share that famous bottle of red but the Boro chairman has announced this Friday that there will be no more glasses raised next season. The decision won’t have come as a shock to most on Teesside as it seems the local media had been tipped off well in advance of any official club statement. So in the end,  the argument that a seventh-place finish was a worthy achievement under the tough financial constraints, which possibly some automatic promotion  winners could only dream of, was placed in the context it demanded. Incidentally, given the  parody of Steve Gibson as Henry VIII  in the  ‘Man for all seasons‘ piece of a few weeks ago, today rather ironically coincides with the anniversary of the execution of Anne Boleyn.

It’s  probably fair to say that football is ultimately a results-based business and Tony Pulis will know deep  down that his team fell short of the expectations of both supporters and chairman alike. Nevertheless, as the year started, an automatic spot was still a distinct possibility,  which the recruitment of “leg-beater” Rajiv van La Parra from Huddersfield to add much needed pace and the classy experience of John Obi Mikel was hoped would help achieve it. Indeed, come mid-January, Boro were only four points behind second placed Sheffield United and third-placed Norwich, with the thought that once the new recruits were match fit they would help the team kick on.

The 5-0 thrashing of Peterborough in the FA Cup was possibly optimistically taken by some as a sign that the shackles were maybe about to come off. Sadly, the next round against Tony’s home-town club Newport proved that not to be the case and the meek exit in the replay was perhaps a sign of what was to come in the league campaign. The football had been far from convincing  but Boro had ended February by losing just one of their eight games of 2019 against in-form Sheffield United.  Although, perhaps it was that 11th-minute injury time equaliser by Leeds that was to put an end to automatic promotion hopes.

Then a disastrous March began with a goalless draw against a struggling Wigan side that was then followed by four losses, which continued into April to make it six defeats on the spin. Boro had dropped down the table to eighth and even the play-offs were beginning to look gone. To their credit, Boro rallied and won five of their not particularly demanding looking last six fixtures. However,  it was not enough and the damage had already been done with what was regarded as a too cautious an approach at home by many supporters.  OK, Boro had been the victim of a few bad decisions and defensive injuries had left the team in makeshift mode. Still, it was scoring goals that had been the main reason why Tony Pulis and his team found themselves finishing outside the play-offs and whilst the manager was not responsible for the misses,  he played a significant  part in the overall failure of the team to trouble the opposition defences.

So now that Tony Pulis has gone and we await news of who will be leading the new regime at the club,  here is part two of the season review and a summary of how the last 20 league games of the Welshman’s tenure panned out through the words of own Diasboro match reporter,  Redcar Red and the post-match comments of Tony himself. What is evident is the sense of frustration of both men as the season and indeed promotion increasingly began to drift away from Boro.

 

January…

W1 : D2 : L0 : F4 : A3 : 5/9pts

26. Pride restored at the Park

Pos. 6th (43pts)	TUESDAY 1 JANUARY 2019			Pos. 5th (43pts)
Derby		1-1	Boro
Wilson (2)	62% 8(2)	POSSESSION SHOTS (on target)	38% 11(2)	Hugill (52)

RR: After an horrendous start, looking punch drunk and out on their feet for the opening twenty minutes or so Boro fought back bravely and arguably were unlucky not to have collected all three points in the end. There were some very strong and committed performances notably from Howson, Friend, Hugill, Ayala, Batth, Fry and Randolph back to his best kept us in it but MOM for me was Lewis Wing who was out on his feet come the final whistle. That sleepy start for which I’m sure TP will not be holding back from when holding accountability forced Boro to put in their best performance for months to maintain their credible away form. I would like to hope that it showed Pulis that the limitations he thinks we have are perhaps not as severe as he believes and with Tav and now VLP could actually be much better.

TP: We were disappointed to lose Aden just before kick-off, that was a massive blow, and I think we started like it. We were very much on the back foot at the back. They got the goal after two minutes but the response of the players was fabulous and I think we took control then for long periods and Danny Batth’s chance was the best of the game and he should score. The players have worked tremendously hard, especially after such an early setback. To give them a leg-up you think ‘blimey, this is going to be a long afternoon’ but they showed great character and the midfielders swarmed all over Derby at times.

⚽ Full Match Report…

FA Cup 3rd Round Five star Posh pushover

	SATURDAY 5 JANUARY 2019
Boro		5-0	Peterborough
Assombalonga (47, 70) Friend (50) Wing (62) Fletcher (87)	64% 10(7)	POSSESSION SHOTS (on target)	36% 9(1)

RR: MOM was Lewis Wing who came on and changed the entire game but Grant was also worthy of a mention for his reading of the game and spreading the ball around. McNair had a strange game; he had a few wobbly runs that came to nothing but was always full of running and looked far better and coherent when he had Wing to link up with (as did everyone else to be honest). In a strange way I felt that Paddy had shown something there that could maybe be tapped into further, especially with Lewis Wing in front. An underwhelming first half which just didn’t knit together up front at all and then a second half that was light years away from it, yielding a scoreline that nobody was expecting at half time and as a consequence the fourth round now beckons.

TP: The application of the players was very good. In the first half, we played with five forwards really with Tav and Rajiv out wide. They all pushed on, and if anything, I’ve made a mistake doing that because it blocked all the spaces we were really trying to use. Bringing Wingy on, and then pulling him and Grant out to play a bit more, sucked them on to us, and then there more spaces for us to play in. I think the big thing is we’ve scored five goals, and I’m really pleased with the attitude and application of the players. We played really well, especially second half. But we’re playing against a League One side, we’re not playing against a top Championship side.

⚽ Full Match Report…

27. Britt’s Wing Man breaks down Brum

Pos. 8th (39pts)	SATURDAY 12 JANUARY 2019			Pos. 5th (46pts)
Birmingham		1-2	Boro
Adams (79)	55% 15(4)	POSSESSION SHOTS (on target)	45% 8(5)	Wing (37) Assombalonga (82)

RR: Today was always going to be a tough game, away to a side that had only lost once at home this season and who will reasonably feel hard done to. A game which started dull increased in tempo with Boro deservedly going ahead. The arrival of Craig Gardiner changed the make-up of the second half with Boro initially starting the half confidently then literally clinging on just before and after the Evans equaliser. Out of the blue Wingy again produced a piece of magic to set Britt free to bring home the points totally against the run of play. Throughout the game there was great defending from Ayala and Batth. Fry and Friend done their bit at both ends, Wingy was superb as was Hugill’s battling (or battering despite his glaring miss). Britt started quietly once coming on but then started to cause problems and deserved his winner. Saville had a great first half albeit faded a little in the second or perhaps stood firm depending on your view point and what TP was asking of him. MOM had to be Wing, there were some good performances from those in Red but when the extra magic was needed Wingy was there!

TP: To come in just 1-0 up at half-time was a travesty. We should have been out of sight. We were by far the better team. I know we should have had two penalties so instead of being one up, we should have been three up at least. In the second half, they played very direct and we had to defend – and we did that ever so well. They’ve got a great goal and there were one or two other scares. But it was a great goal from Britt, too – he gets his chance and he finishes – and I think we deserved to win. Winning so well away from home shows the character of the team.

⚽ Full Match Report…

28. Lions versus Pulis Pussycats

Pos. 5th (47pts)	SATURDAY 19 JANUARY 2019			Pos. 19th (21pts)
Boro		1-1	Millwall
Hugill (90)	59% 16(2)	POSSESSION SHOTS (on target)	41% 7(3)	Wallace (21)

RR: Millwall were robbed and Pulis got a point when he weakly and negatively threw away all three before even a ball was kicked. MOM was Randolph and then VLP in the second half but who cares because having to sit through that farcical, incoherent steaming mess of a team selection had me considering a season ticket for Roseberry Park (or St. Lukes to most of us on here) rather than returning to the Riverside any time soon. So to summarise Millwall had some balls, put up a decent and credible show and were robbed at the end after thoroughly deserving all three points. In between Boro passed it sideways, backwards and sideways again, nobody made any runs off the ball to drag defenders wide or create anything other than offer a modern alternative to Mogadon. Next season I suggest that Steve Gibson offers a free Nitrazepam tablet instead of a free pint. This wasn’t negative football in the Karanka sense this was worse, much worse this was hard core garbage.

TP: I’m disappointed at the first half. We started slowly and looked nervous. The players have to play with the freedom they do away from home. I think some of them are a little bit affected maybe by the support but supporters pay good money to watch their team and they have a right to say what they want. You have to accept that as a player or a manager. The players kept going second half, kept at it. That’s one defeat in six games now, we just have to be more productive and more positive at home.

⚽ Full Match Report…

FA Cup 4th Round Exiled Dolan delivers bitter Pill

	SATURDAY 26 JANUARY 2019
Boro		1-1	Newport
Ayala (51)	58% 19(4)	POSSESSION SHOTS (on target)	42% 17(5)	Dolan (90+3)

RR: A strong Boro side should have blown their weaker opponents away but once again the familiar home frailties came to the fore by sitting deep and offering no credible attacking threat in open play apart from Wing having pot shots from distance and set pieces, who was MOM for Boro. Unfortunately, a draw was the last result Boro needed as they now face a trip to South Wales sandwiched in between a challenging run of Championship fixtures. A final word of congratulations goes to Michael Flynn and his side as they came to attack play football and were full value for the draw and indeed unlucky not to have put away some of their other gilt edged chances.

TP: I thought Newport played with great spirit and togetherness and they deserve all the credit that hopefully they will be given. The big disappointment for me was that we didn’t stop crosses – it was almost like we were quite happy for them to stick it in the box and there were lots of occasions we could have got our bodies in the way. It’s the first time Mikel’s had his boots on for a couple of months. John is a quality player, wonderful person, and he’ll be good for us but we’ve got to get him fit.

⚽ Full Match Report…

February…

W3 : D1 : L1 : F7 : A4 : 10/15pts

29. Britt brace throttles Throstles

Pos. 4th (50pts)	SATURDAY 2 FEBRUARY 2019			Pos. 5th (50pts)
West Brom		2-3	Boro
Rodriguez (42) Gayle (63)	67% 19(6)	POSSESSION SHOTS (on target)	33% 14(5)	Saville (17) Assombalonga (75, 83)

RR: In Typical Britt style he looked languid and slow at times when he came on but then he has that incredible knack of scoring and not just once but twice. Wing was as ever magnificent, Saville had another good game, Shotton was rock solid in his duties and Friend and Ayala battled away but the scene stealer was Assombalonga who has to be the MOM for launching Boro back level on points with West Brom instead of facing a six point gap. More importantly perhaps was maintaining a three point gap between us and the chasing pack of Bristol and Derby. For a neutral the game swayed and changed, twisted and turned but despite the Baggies dominance in the possession stats it was boring Tony Pulis and his sides three goals who had the widest smile. Perhaps Boro hanging on to Britt in the window was a shrewd bit of business after all for all concerned.

TP: Being unable to add to the squad [in the transfer window] was a disappointment for everybody but we’ve got a great, resilient group. The thing we’ve got to do is play with a little more confidence and a little bit more freedom, like we did today, at home. It meant a lot [to the supporters] because there’s been a real negative feeling around the place in respect of us not bringing players in and I just wanted to say thank you for supporting the lads and that’s what we need, irrespective of whether we bring them in or we don’t. They have a great young manager – Darren is a fabulous lad. I wish them all the best, but I don’t want them to finish above Middlesbrough.

⚽ Full Match Report…

FA Cup Replay A Bridge too far

	TUESDAY 5 FEBRUARY 2019
Newport		2-0	Boro
Willmott (47) Amond (67)	44% 16(4)	POSSESSION SHOTS (on target)	56% 13(1)

RR: As Newport keeper Day collected another lacklustre Boro cross the fourth Official held up three agonising minutes but the reality was that if this Boro side had another three years they wouldn’t have scored, collectively they could have set a Teesside record in the Bongo club. Boro didn’t turn up, didn’t look interested or remotely bothered to the extent that it made me think they genuinely didn’t want any more cup games and certainly not against Man City. Was it a case of more important fish to fry and they or TP at least would rather Newport get some glory and benefit than Boro get demoralised and battered next round? At least the FA can’t take three points off us on this occasion for not turning up. MOM was 28 year old Robbie Willmott for Newport, there wasn’t a single Boro player worthy of any more than a 3/10 and that would be by far the most generous score. Let’s hope it was just a fitness training exercise with an eye on Saturday. The good news of the evening was that Joe Day’s wife was able to hang on until the final whistle as he sprinted off the pitch to be at her side which was more than Boro’s defence could manage.

TP: They were the better team, they ran all over us. It was men against boys. Forget the conditions, you have to match people and that’s the real disappointment. Give them credit, they were fantastic tonight and they deserve their win. The tempo of the game was really poor from us. I am desperately disappointed at the lack of real commitment. We were outfought and outplayed. We’ve been fantastic away from home this year. They have regularly turned up and put in performances but it’s different circumstances tonight and we never coped with it.

⚽ Full Match Report…

30. Sit back setback

Pos. 5th (51pts)	SATURDAY 9 FEBRUARY 2019			Pos. 1st (58pts)
Boro		1-1	Leeds
Wing (47)	33% 9(3)	POSSESSION SHOTS (on target)	67% 17(4)	Philips (90+11)

RR: The inevitable late equaliser finally came as Shotton managed a tired headed clearance to concede a corner, which resulted in an unmarked Phillips heading it in past Randolph and Clayts and Assombalonga who had retreated onto the goal line to send the away fans wild and sink Boro hearts. The game restarted but the whistle went within seconds and those three points suddenly now reduced to one. In balance and in fairness Leeds were worthy of a point but I walked away feeling that if only we had been more positive in our substitutions it could have been a different story. MOM was Howson but had Wing stayed on it may have been a close call and indeed Saville and JOM were also worthy contenders. A frustrating day but at least a decent game of football tinged with sadness and concern over Jack Clarke (who required lengthy treatment after collapsing on the bench) but finished off by the inevitable trouble caused in the town after the game with hordes of Police chasing around after Football Hooligans.

TP: In the first half we were the better team and our midfield players were fabulous. When we were attacking, we were having five or six players in the box and around that area, which was fantastic. We tired a bit in the second half, Leeds came into it as the game went on, and we certainly didn’t need to concede a goal from a set-play – something that’s really disappointed me.

⚽ Full Match Report…

31. Blunt Boro fall to the Blades

Pos. 3rd (58pts)	WEDNESDAY 13 FEBRUARY 2019			Pos. 6th (51pts)
Sheff Utd		1-0	Boro
Stearman (61)	56% 15(5)	POSSESSION SHOTS (on target)	44% 10(4)	S/O Ayala (64)

RR: The determined and bold attempt by Wilder of switching to three up front turned the game on its head from the first half where Boro had ended it looking comfortable. Those three Strikers roughed up and upset the Boro defence. The irony was that the goal came from a Pulis style set piece (remember them from August?). A disappointing evening for Boro that culminated with Flint crocked and Ayala now banned and any hopes of an automatic spot all but gone. MOM for me was JOM for his first half showing, nobody for Boro put in any sort of performance of note at all in the second half. A real test now lies ahead for TP to rally his troops after two successive disappointments. Suspensions and injuries have now ravaged his back line and he will struggle to put out any sort of defence against Blackburn on Sunday. Those on the bench tonight won’t have made his selection dilemma any easier and indeed a few on the pitch didn’t cover themselves in glory either.

TP: I’m really disappointed with the goal. I think the linesman’s decision for it to be a free-kick is shocking. If they’re going to give a free-kick for that then the lad who scored the goal has pushed and jumped on Dael and the referee’s in a great position to give it and doesn’t give it. It’s a free-kick every minute of the day. It was such a big game tonight and we have a referee who’s only refereed eight games in the Championship all season. You look around and you’ve got other referees who are refereeing Premier League games and dropping down – that’s not the referee’s fault, that’s the person in charge and that can’t be right. That’s not good enough.

⚽ Full Match Report…

32. Boro Renaissance at Rovers?

Pos. 14th (43pts)	SUNDAY 17 FEBRUARY 2019			Pos. 5th (54pts)
Blackburn		0-1	Boro
S/O Williams (45)	49% 5(1)	POSSESSION SHOTS (on target)	51% 26(7)	Assombalonga (19)

RR: One nil and all three points was a very good result and after a great first half, then an optimistic opening ten minutes of the second half, it saw us hanging in at times when we really should have put ten men Blackburn to the sword. Twenty-six efforts on the Blackburn goal yet only one goal to show for it were both great and disappointing in equal measure. MOM was a tough one but thankfully for all the right reasons this time. There were some solid defensive performances from the three, Saville was full of tireless running and made things tick as did Wing along with Howson down the right. Fletcher did well despite his eagerness to score saw him make a few poor finishing decisions but there was no doubt his running led to both the goal and the sending off. Britt ran a lot more than usual, did some sterling defensive work and scored, Besic was calm and measured but the one who shaded it for me was Mikel, he was majestic in the middle, routinely broke things up, shielded his defence and set up attacks.

TP: I’m pleased. I don’t want to take the gloss off it because I thought we were very good today, but to get 27 shots on goal and just score one goal is something I’ve kept harping on about since I joined the football club. We’ve got to be more clinical in front of goal. We had really good opportunities to get the second one, and if you get the second one it’s game over and you can relax a little bit. What we’ve got to do is replicate the intensity we showed against Leeds for home games for the rest of the season and that gives us a chance.

⚽ Full Match Report…

33. Stroll in the Sun

Pos. 5th (57pts)	SATURDAY 23 FEBRUARY 2019			Pos. 18th (39pts)
Boro		2-0	QPR
Howson (2) Fletcher (32)	45% 10(4)	POSSESSION SHOTS (on target)	55% 9(4)

RR: It ended two nil with Boro rarely looking to get out of second gear and almost disappointing after the swashbuckling start, which had graduated into overcomplicating things. But it’s a home win and three points are three points so job done. MOM was difficult since there were no poor performances and indeed some very commendable ones across the pitch. Besic was much improved though not without a few of those special Mo moments, Howson was excellent as was Wing. Saville stuck to his task on the left, Shotton was a colossus in the middle of the back three but Dael Fry looked like a young Franz Beckenbauer. He was winning aerial challenges with ease, dribbling the ball out of defence assuredly on numerous occasions and perhaps should consider having a go himself rather than passing it in the last twenty yards.

TP: It’s a great result. QPR are not as bad a team as some people think. They’ve got some good players and they played some good stuff at times. Besic and Jon Obi really controlled the game. They’re two good players, when they’re playing like that. I thought Dael Fry was the best player on the pitch. Once Ashley Fletcher scores the second goal, it was just a case of managing the game. Again, the end-of-term report, if you like, is that we’ve missed four or five really good opportunities. But we’ve only lost one game this calendar year in the league, and that was away to Sheffield United with ten men. The boys deserve a tap on the back for that.

⚽ Full Match Report…

March…

W0 : D1 : L4 : F2 : A8 : 1/15pts

34. Profligate Boro draw a blank

Pos. 19th (36pts)	SATURDAY 2 MARCH 2019			Pos. 5th (58pts)
Wigan		0-0	Boro
	49% 6(2)	POSSESSION SHOTS (on target)	51% 15(1)

RR: Boro had their chances but our finishing was woeful and not for the first time our strikers needed far too many chances to convert. A point was a disappointment as reality sunk in that this result pretty much made any hopes of a top two spot now a forlorn hope. MOM was undoubtedly Howson who was head and shoulders above everyone else in a Red shirt. We had spells of pressure in a scrappy game that we should have won but poor finishing was our Achilles heel as storm Freya was about to make the journey back across the A66 even more dramatic than our shots on target.

TP: I can’t fault the effort and the commitment. The quality of the chances we created was good but we didn’t take them. Four times we could have played people in but overplayed the pass and it’s that quality in the final third that we need to improve on, but it’s difficult to criticise them. There’s a long way to go in the season and we have got to give it our best. We’ve fallen short not on effort or commitment, but on quality.

⚽ Full Match Report…

35. Bees sting substandard Boro

Pos. 5th (58pts)	SATURDAY 9 MARCH 2019			Pos. 12th (49pts)
Boro		1-2	Brentford
Fletcher (6)	37% 19(6)	POSSESSION SHOTS (on target)	63% 14(3)	Shotton (70 o.g.) Benrahma (73)

RR: Brentford had beaten Boro on Teesside for the first time since before the Second World War and deservedly so. With three whole minutes of the ninety remaining Tavernier was introduced to add that pace and urgency that we had been missing all afternoon and who knows what on earth he was supposed to achieve with the game all but over. However, the lad did try valiantly and he did have a few link-ups with both Wing and Friend but his arrival from the bench was so late it was farcical. There wasn’t a MOM for Boro because that would imply that someone played well when in fact so many were well below par. It was a collective nightmare made worse by a ridiculous and negative tactical managerial decision in a crucial part of the game which handed the initiative to the visitors when they clearly already had it.

TP: We’re disappointed obviously but Brentford are a good side. We got off to a great start, then we should have had a penalty – one of three definite penalties. Refs have to get those decisions right and how he’s got that wrong I don’t know. He has a clear view and that’s three definite penalties in a home game and we didn’t get any. I think the results this weekend have given everyone near the top of the table a bit of zip but we’ve just got to get as many points as possible in the remaining games.

⚽ Full Match Report…

36. Ref Justice at the Riverside

Pos. 5th (58pts)	WEDNESDAY 13 MARCH 2019			Pos. 9th (54pts)
Boro		1-2	Preston
Fletcher (32) S/O Ayala (61)	40% 22(4)	POSSESSION SHOTS (on target)	60% 17(6)	Gallagher (63) Stockley (81)

RR: Tav had come on for Mikel with five minutes remaining as we threw caution to the wind but there wasn’t enough time or even energy left to rescue anything. Our futile persistent passing around the Preston box was rubbed in our noses by that deflected “offside” goal. Shooting creates chances and passing simply retains possession in non-dangerous areas. Despite destroying Preston in the first half we just didn’t possess that instinctive killer touch. Disappointing and unfair in equal measure but that’s been the story of a season of wasted opportunity. MOM would have been Howson who ran all night but it was he who put Ayala in trouble leading up to the sending off so I’m giving it to Besic despite the state of my undergarments.

TP: I think it’s a poor decision [Ayala red card]. He’s miles away from it and he’s got people between him an the ball. How he makes that decision, a game-changing decision, from where he is, is just astonishing for me. In my opinion he’s made a shocking decision tonight. Dani is disappointed because he slides in, he definitely sides in, but he takes the ball with one foot, not two feet. People will say it’s aggressive but it’s a game of challenges, football. They scored the goal from a free-kick that shouldn’t have been a free-kick. Even if we get Dani sent off at that time, at the other end of the pitch we have to be scoring goals. I know I sound like a broken record saying the same thing but again we scored one when it should have been four or five.

⚽ Full Match Report…

37. Pulis raises white flag at Villa

Pos. 6th (57pts)	SATURDAY 16 MARCH 2019			Pos. 5th (58pts)
Aston Villa		3-0	Boro
El Ghazi (28) McGinn (44) Adomah (88)	61% 18(5)	POSSESSION SHOTS (on target)	39% 4(1)

RR: Again there was no Boro MOM, Downing was the best of a dire lot but to even contemplate saying that we had someone who put in the required effort to be remotely acknowledged as a performance of note was impossible. Three defeats in a row now and each of them with a bizarre story to tell and the fact that I expected and confidently predicted such a shambolic and humiliating display here at Villa Park weeks before hand is testimony to just how poor things are. Tony Pulis is very clearly a spent force and at this level has neither the nous nor the ability to get a side promoted. Today was a foretaste of exactly what will happen if we somehow managed to hang onto a play-off place which based on what I am currently witnessing I would rather miss out on than be put through any more of this dire negativity.

TP: They were three goals that were unlike us to concede. We haven’t given goals away like that away from home. There has been a flatness around the club since the defeat against Preston on Wednesday and for the first 20 minutes we still looked like there was a hangover – we didn’t get going at all. I’m really disappointed. Villa have had five shots on goal and scored three goals. That’s something that wasn’t happening when we were doing well.

⚽ Full Match Report…

38. Boro flapping leaves Canaries singing

Pos. 8th (58pts)	SATURDAY 30 MARCH 2019			Pos. 1st (81pts)
Boro		0-1	Norwich
	40% 17(6)	POSSESSION SHOTS (on target)	60% 17(5)	Hernández (54)

RR: The second half had saw Daniel Farke’s half time team talk up the ante and Pulis’s Boro simply couldn’t live with it. Bristol are now coming up on Tuesday night who have leapfrogged Boro this evening on goals scored as we slide ignominiously down to eighth. Without energy and intelligent playmakers on the pitch Boro will like as not struggle again. No VLP or Tavernier apparently required for Pulis’s Boro yet Hernandez and Buendia destroyed us (as predicted) with similar skill sets. The MOM has to be Randolph who made up for his early concentration lapses to save us from another three or four going in. The scribbled note seems to be just causing confusion when that sheet goes onto the pitch and gets passed around. Surely by now it’s clear even to Pulis that it’s the wrong communication method or there again maybe it’s the right communication method but its what’s written on the note that is the problem not unlike the team selection and tactics.

TP: We had very good opportunities to score. We need to finish the chances we are creating and we have been saying that since I came here. Goals change games but when we get opportunities we don’t put them away. We came back into it, we had three, great opportunities to score and, again, we have to score goals. The big thing is we dropped our heads when they scored and we can’t do that. It’s an eight-game season and if we win on Tuesday we go back into the top six and players have to relish the challenge. We have to really really hope and pray things start to drop for us. Let’s bring it on and I hope the players feel the same as me. It is there for us and we have to make sure we graft.

⚽ Full Match Report…

April…

W4 : D0 : L3 : F7 : A8 : 12/21pts

39. Robins go bob bob bobbin’ along

Pos. 5th (61pts)	TUESDAY 2 APRIL 2019			Pos. 8th (58pts)
Bristol City		1-0	Boro
Webster (31)	54% 23(7)	POSSESSION SHOTS (on target)	46% 14(5)

RR: Maybe it was just me being lost in the moment trying to figure out why you would bring on a circular running midfielder and take off the only remaining wide player who can at least put decent crosses into a box now habited by three, yes sits down in amazement, three Boro Strikers? It did seem however that Fletcher was now sitting deeper (or wandering desperate to get a pass) so in part that meant that we did still have two strikers, well one who hadn’t yet missed his prerequisite number of sitters to record a goal and a WWE wrestler masquerading as Footballer. In between behaving like an errant ten pin bowling ball in the skittle like Bristol defence Hugill did manage to get a semi volleyed boot onto a last second chance that went wide to a unified backdrop of both sets of fans agreeing at full voice that Tony Pulis’s football is indeed very reminiscent of faecal matter. I did however hear one of the cleaners on the way out take umbrage to the impromptu singalong complaining that what they cleaned didn’t stink the place out that badly. I did hear someone say on the way out that its the worst run for something like twenty years but that may have been just how long it feels like TP has been here.

TP: We created five or six chances and even the free-kick we worked on this morning nearly came off. There is no way in a million years I can fault them for effort. We had 23 shots at goal tonight, 17 on Saturday. That is 40 in two games, I don’t think I had that at Stoke for a whole season, never mind two games. Darren made a couple of great saves but all in all, there was only us and we needed that bit of luck.

⚽ Full Match Report…

40. Dead Ducks Swansong

Pos. 13th (53pts)	SATURDAY 6 APRIL 2019			Pos. 8th (58pts)
Swansea		3-1	Boro
Grimes (34 pen) Routledge (38) Roberts (71)	61% 16(7)	POSSESSION SHOTS (on target)	39% 13(1)	Saville (81)

RR: With another late Boro attack ending with Fletcher fluffing his lines, it summed up how the afternoon had gone for Boro. Despite being 3-1 down, the game had been toing and froing but it wasn’t worth commenting on as the match was now very much an irrelevance considering the wider state the club now finds itself in [after six sucessive defeats]. Dael Fry slightly raised very late hopes with some positivity and Howson had collected a despondent frustrated yellow. The Boro MOM can only be Randolph without whom the score line would have looked an awful lot worse.

TP: I am really disappointed. In the first half our tempo and decision-making were awful. We should have had a penalty in the second half for a clear handball. Swansea were a Premier League side last season and this was the game I was more worried about than all the others. Five games to go and it is all to play for.

⚽ Full Match Report…

41. Boro blues for troubled Bolton

Pos. 23rd (32pts)	TUESDAY 9 APRIL 2019			Pos. 7th (61pts)
Bolton		0-2	Boro
	57% 13(2)	POSSESSION SHOTS (on target)	43% 18(5)	Fletcher (16, 28)

RR: There were many doubts if this game could actually go ahead and from the perspective of both sets of fans many more who probably wished it wouldn’t. However, a good Boro first half against a very weak and disparate Bolton side wasn’t built upon in the second half which was disappointing. So bad were the Bolton defence that Fletcher, Saville, Howson and Britt were tearing them apart with ease every time we went forward. The traveling army started cheering nervy Bolton passes in defence with a series of disparaging “ole’s”. So finally three points and in fairness the victory was never really in doubt but getting that losing streak off their back was important for Boro. Besic, Saville, Howson and Assombalonga all had good games but with two goals Fletcher earned the MOM award.

TP: I am relieved for the players as I don’t think they have deserved to lose six games on the bounce, irrespective of what people say. The difference tonight is we took two of our chances, whereas four of the six games we should have won and we didn’t. I thought we played really well in the first half – we controlled the game and looked a threat – and we had two or three opportunities in the second half. The most important thing is not worrying about other teams and other games, but making sure we do the business ourselves.

⚽ Full Match Report…

42. Stumbling Britt seals Boro victory

Pos. 7th (64pts)	SATURDAY 13 APRIL 2019			Pos. 9th (60pts)
Boro		1-0	Hull
Assombalonga (25)	39% 15(4)	POSSESSION SHOTS (on target)	61% 15(4)

RR: Battered and bruised the Boro defence were hanging on, desperate for the whistle made worse knowing Britt could and should have had three or four goals to his name to ease the anxiety. Then a heart in mouth time as a late Grosicki free kick was tipped onto the bar by Randolph before being booted clear by Flint with the Hull players appealing it was over the line. Hull’s season is now all but over whilst Boro’s still stubbornly continues as they find themselves a point behind Bristol in sixth. MOM for Boro could have been Randolph for two great saves, or Howson for being switched around yet competently adapting all afternoon, or Besic for buzzing around up until he went off. However, for me it was Dael Fry who stood defiantly whether at Left Back or Centre Back and stepped up a gear when Ayala went off injured.

TP: I just think again it’s déjà vu. The chances we had first half, we should be scoring more than the one goal. If it’s just the one goal, it’s going to be edgy all the way through and that’s the way it was. I think we had seven chances today where if we beat the goalkeeper, we score. We are obviously pleased with the result. I’m really, really pleased, they had to dig in and they did dig in.

⚽ Full Match Report…

43. Early Bird Britt collects the points

Pos. 6th (67pts)	FRIDAY 19 APRIL 2019			Pos. 16th (52pts)
Boro		1-0	Stoke
Assombalonga (2)	36% 7(2)	POSSESSION SHOTS (on target)	64% 14(1)

RR: Despite a very uncomfortable second half we had held on and earned the win the hard way. It wasn’t pretty nor was it entertaining for the most part but its points on the board that count now if Boro are to retain any hope of making the play-offs. MOM was McNair, it was his best game for Boro and he actually looked to be worth every penny paid for him last summer. Not his preferred role it has to be said but his composure and timing were impressive and he looked the most accomplished I’ve seen him play in a Boro shirt. Mikel was back to his best, Howson had another good game at right wing back and Besic looked up for the challenged before being subbed. Shotton did well considering he was on the left but McNair just caught the eye and for all the right reasons and maybe knowing he has a real opportunity of a run in the side gave him that extra edge of encouragement.

TP: I’m pleased with the win. We’ve played much better than that and lost games at this place. We’ve not been as fluent today. To have five players missing from the backline that we started with at the beginning of the season, it takes a lot of courage and determination from the players to go out there and play the way they played. They’re having to do jobs they are not used to. Like I say, I think we’ve played better in other games than we have but we just haven’t taken our opportunities and chances. It’s all about results as a manager, if you don’t get results you don’t hang around long.

⚽ Full Match Report…

44. Boro bottlers smashed

Pos. 11th (60pts)	MONDAY 22 APRIL 2019			Pos. 7th (67pts)
Nottm Forest		3-0	Boro
Lolley (39 pen, 85) Milosevic (64)	54% 20(9)	POSSESSION SHOTS (on target)	46% 3(1)

RR: Getting beat away at Forest isn’t a disaster in itself but the manner of the way this Boro side was set up and then consequently failed in such miserable fashion to even threaten Pantilimon’s goal was a disgrace. Defensively we were down to the bare bones but our midfield was hopeless and a complete liability, our strikers had zero service as we sat far too deep from the off and Saville has never remotely looked capable out left. Boro’s black shirts were very apt on the day as it perfectly matched the mood of the travelling army. Randolph was the Boro MOM, which considering that we conceded three goals illustrates just how dire we were this afternoon. There have been far too many of these types of games under Pulis now, how many more do the fans have to endure?

TP: It was always going to be difficult – we’ve only got two real defenders on the pitch. We’re trying to put square pegs in round holes and it really caught us out today. I’m disappointed. We played with forwards on the pitch today, more forward-thinking players than I’ve ever played, and you want them to do a lot more going forward. We’ve still got a chance. We’ve got to dust ourselves down and we need all the players to be together and try and get a result Saturday.

⚽ Full Match Report…

45. Wing and a prayer

Pos. 7th (70pts)	SATURDAY 27 APRIL 2019			Pos. 20th (46pts)
Boro		2-1	Reading
Wing (31) Assombalonga (39 pen)	38% 18(6)	POSSESSION SHOTS (on target)	62% 12(4)	Loader (11)

RR: Just like the last few home games it was the Alamo revisited again as nerves were shredded, enduring what was hopefully the last of the Pulis era at the Riverside. It ended with a 2-1 victory that was far from convincing and anything but enjoyable (that last emotion had long since been aborted since August). MOM was a joint one between Howson and Wing, Wingy grabbed his goal but Howson was Mr Duracell all game and it’s impossible to split the decision. Incredibly, the tantalising chance of a play-off spot still remains up until the very final game of the season but most of us know that top six should have been the absolute minimum. Now we find ourselves rueing the lack of goals and goal difference that TP had been at great odds to highlight in his programme notes. Unfortunately, those stats don’t highlight taking Britt off for Friend at home to Brentford or the abject negativity against the likes of Villa, Forest and Swansea nor the shameful capitulations to Newport and Burton. No team spirit, no belief, no determination, no confidence, no positivity and negative demoralising leadership has led us to where we now find ourselves.

TP: We played some fantastic football, especially on the right-hand side. I thought Howson, McNair and Wing were absolutely fantastic down that side. I was really pleased for Wingy. We kept it as quiet as we possibly could – we didn’t want anyone to know he was going to be fit. I apologised to him because I kept him on for 90 minutes, and I shouldn’t have done. He’s been the find of the season. He’s got a good character, a good attitude and he wants to improve. That’s what will take him further. If Derby win their two games, they win their two games, but we’ve kept the pressure on them, and that’s what we wanted to do today.

⚽ Full Match Report…

May…	W1 : D0 : L0 : F2 : A1 : 3/3pts

46. Boro ground to a halt at the Millers

Pos. 22nd (40pts)	SUNDAY 5 MAY 2019			Pos. 7th (73pts)
Rotherham		1-2	Boro
Smith (86 pen)	58% 18(4)	POSSESSION SHOTS (on target)	42% 12(4)	Assombalonga (28 pen) Mikel (37)

RR: With sixty-five minutes gone, Boro were 2-0 up and in a play-off spot as Derby were still being held 1-1 and Bristol were losing. Sadly, the news coming in from Pride Park after that changed for the worse and Boro were left hanging on to what they had. Boro fans were now left reflecting on all those games that we meekly surrendered over a season that had started so well then defended into despair. Indeed, MOM was the Boro Travelling Army. Boro had recklessly missed out on what was once a nailed-on position in the play-off’s, which was sealed after that calamitous run of six defeats in a row. Part of me was disappointed at today’s outcome whilst another part was relieved that this frustrating season was finally over and not spluttering incoherently and aimlessly on. Now put out of our misery but in truth we didn’t miss out today, our lack of goals, terrible home record, negative attitude and out dated tactics had sucked the heart and soul out of players and fans alike some months back.

TP: This has been a bigger achievement that last year really, if you’re selling who we have done, with the players that we’ve got and the players that we’ve worked with. Overall, although I’m desperately disappointed we’re not going to play Leeds over two games, I can’t be too harsh on the players. We’ve played clubs this year that have spent £50m or £60m, and they’re below us in the league, they’re not even in contention for the play-offs.

⚽ Full Match Report…

With Norwich and Sheffield United already off on their summer holidays and planning for life in the sunlit uplands of the Premier League, the fight has begun to see which other Championship side will fight with them on the exclusive club beaches. Still, as the play-offs get underway,  there will sadly be no postcard sent this year to Boro followers that are wishing they were here. Despite all the blood, toil, tears and sweat, Tony Pulis’s side failed to squeak into the top six as Boro in the end proved to be more like church mice than Churchill – close but no cigar as we were left to ponder those not quite immortal words of  ‘never was such much owed to so few goals’.

Back in August, the hope was that the club would build on last year’s disappointment after Tony Pulis’s side rather meekly exited the mini-league to riches against Aston Villa – OK, some may say that Boro did indeed build on that disappointment by adding to it with a feeling of dismay at the missed opportunity. Although, when Tony Pulis prepares to open the third bottle of wine  in his meeting with the Boro  chairman,  he will no doubt still be trying to convince  Steve Gibson that seventh place was a far greater achievement than fifth was a year earlier.

Nevertheless,  it’s probably a good idea that the chairman’s glass remains half full (or possibly empty) while he contemplates the important decision on whether his manager should have his contract extended. The question that will need answering for many supporters is how a promising start to the last campaign failed to see Boro at least cement a place in the top six, let alone the coveted automatic spots they once occupied.

The season began in the shadow that the club had failed to recruit the pacey wide players that the manager thought were missing from his squad and after Adama Traore made his expected departure,  it soon became clear they were not coming. Then as Bamford surprisingly left, the mood was that Boro would struggle to repeat their top-six finish without key additions.  However, against all expectation, the team had their best start to a season since our friend Otto Frederick Rohwedder had the novel idea that bread should be sliced before it was sold.

OK our promotion prospects may have ended up as toast but how did the season pan out? Instead of looking back in hindsight, it may be more enlightening to experience the thoughts of a couple of people in the moments directly after the game. Diasboro’s own match reporter, Redcar Red, normally ended by concluding his view of what he has just witnessed – which is then followed in this match-by-match review by the post-match  quotes of Boro manager, Tony Pulis. You may or not be surprised to see that quite often the two views don’t always seem like they were watching the same game.

So Here’s a look at the first part of the season from August to December from two people who have cast a discerning eye over the action. In addition, each game shows a graphic containing the relevant stats and the results are also collated to highlight the league performance of each  month. When we look back at the season now, it’s possible many on Teesside will perhaps have opted for the word unravelled rather than unfolded but it’s still interesting  to view events in the moment. Indeed, it’s easy now to forgotten that as Boro entered December, they were only two points off the top of the table and automatic promotion was still seemingly a real aspiration of the club.

August…

W4 : D2 : L0 : F9 : A2 : 14/18pts

1. Young Guns silence Lions roar

Pos. 9th (1pts)	SATURDAY 4 AUGUST 2018			Pos. 9th (1pts)
Millwall		2-2	Boro
O’Brien (12) Gregory (37)	55% 12(3)	POSSESSION SHOTS (on target)	45% 9(2)	Braithwaite (87) Friend (90+7)

RR: Incredibly and unbelievably Boro rescued this game against all the odds thanks to the determination and fearlessness of youthful energy. Tavernier and Wing showed their mettle and if they can do that at the Den then they can do it anywhere in this division. A rollercoaster of an afternoon which was despondency personified, rescued by the introduction of the U23s. MOM has to be Tavernier who changed the game when he came on along with Wing. Once the shackles of the sedentary midfield was gone Howson was far more influential and Braithwaite who had got himself involved all afternoon was for me close runner up to Tav in the MOM stakes.

TP: Let’s put everything into perspective, we’re six short of who we finished last season with. It’s half the team we had last season. The first half we were poor – we sat back, never got after it, never got the ball forward or got enough possession in their half, so there were some choice words at half-time. We made some changes and in the last 25 minutes we showed our teeth, for the first time during the game.

⚽ Full Match Report…

2. Swashbuckling Boro Foil Blades

Pos. 1st (4pts)	TUESDAY 7 AUGUST 2018			Pos. 24th (0pts)
Boro		3-0	Sheff Utd
Braithwaite (7) Flint (18) Downing (25)	41% 13(5)	POSSESSION SHOTS (on target)	59% 16(4)

RR: MOM for me was Braithwaite who simply looked a class above and like a few others possibly had his best game for Boro. I heard Radio Tees gave it to Lewis Wing and I can’t argue against that and indeed had Stewy or Fry, or Shotton, or Clayts or, or, or, or… it was just one of those nights when it all worked, well at least for the first twenty five minutes which in fairness was all that was needed.

TP: We played really well first half and I thought the tempo of the game and everything we did was first class. Second half we dropped off a little bit. But it’s the first week of the season and to be asked to play after Saturday, to put in this performance, especially in the first half, was brilliant. We’ve got to make sure we dust ourselves down for Birmingham on Saturday, who didn’t play tonight and you would think will be a little bit fresher. It’s difficult to pick anyone out as there’s so many players tonight who have put in a wonderful effort for the football club.

⚽ Full Match Report…

3. Britt gives ex-Boss the Blues

Pos. 1st (7pts)	SATURDAY 11 AUGUST 2018			Pos. 19th (1pts)
Boro		1-0	Birmingham
Assombalonga (12)	52% 10(2)	POSSESSION SHOTS (on target)	48% 11(4)	S/O Gardner (83)

RR: The lack of a Traore type outlet was noticeable as clearances were coming straight back at us for large parts of the second half. Looking at the bench TP didn’t have many options and played the hand that was dealt to him. Like on Tuesday night there were no bad performances and in fact Shotton and Howson in particular are playing their best Boro football, likewise a few others like Downing and Braithwaite are worthy of mentions. The back three are looking more solid as the games progress and Randolph never looked seriously troubled. Clayts was magnificent in shielding and protecting and we witnessed another good game from Lewis Wing who didn’t look out of place. All that said let’s be under no illusions that as good as it is to be top of the league it’s not viable to stay there unless our recruitment team unlearn the habit of a lifetime and get some credible loans in and quickly.

TP: They’ve been fantastic, the lads today, when you think it’s the third game in a week, and conditions on the three games were very warm and very humid. And let’s be fair: we should have won the game by five or six goals. It’s an absolute travesty that the game has finished 1-0. The lads certainly deserved it. Some of the football that we played to create the opportunities and chances was absolutely first-class, and you have to put them away when you’re creating them.

⚽ Full Match Report…

EFL Cup Round 1. The Boys penalise Magpies

	TUESDAY 14 AUGUST 2018
Boro		3-3 (4-3 pens)	Notts County
Fletcher (27, 74) Mahmutovic (44)	55% 22(7)	POSSESSION SHOTS (on target)	49% 9(3)	Crawford (2) Stead (34, 63)

RR: The game was definitely not one for the purist but it was entertaining and one that you couldn’t take your eyes off. Leaving the tactical error strewn car crash out of it for a moment, Mahmutovic for me was outstanding in the first half and very good in the second. McGinley grew into the game and Tav was a constant threat along with Johnson (once the WD40 started to seep in). Walker when he came on was superb and will have given TP the right sort of headache. Wood’s appearance was a fairy tale and Lonergen saved two penalties but overall I think Fletcher just edged things for his two goals.

TP: I’m a great believer that if you feel confident taking a penalty then you give it to the person who feels confident. There were six out of the seven (debutants) who wanted to take one pushing people like Fletch and Grant out of the way saying ‘I’ll take on, I’ll take one,’ so that was absolutely fantastic. Football clubs spend a lot of money on their academies and sometimes you get criticised for playing them in these competitions but I’m a great believer that the kids have got to go out. So if you gave me the option I’d get the kids out playing every week.

⚽ Full Match Report…

4. Boro Pair Better Bristol

Pos. 19th (2pts)	SATURDAY 18 AUGUST 2018			Pos. 1st (10pts)
Bristol City		0-2	Boro
	33% 18(4)	POSSESSION SHOTS (on target)	67% 13(3)	Braithwaite (13) Assombalonga (32)

RR: The whistle went and Boro remained top of the league thanks to some well taken opportunities but in the main some sterling defensive work. MOM is difficult as Britt and Braithwaite were both very good but then so was Downing, Wing and Clayton but I think Dael Fry just slightly edged it, no doubt helped by the thought of a fit Dani Ayala breathing down his neck.

TP: We were strong. Our two centre-halves, Fry and Flint, look a good pair. We were pretty dominant. They’ve still got to do certain things I’m not pleased about, but they gave us a solid base. The five in midfield again worked really, really hard. Stewart was always a threat down the right-hand side and Braithwaite really could have had another two. Our quality in the changeover of play has got to be better, because there were chances or opportunities to play people in and we missed those chances because we didn’t see them or the pass wasn’t very good.

⚽ Full Match Report…

5. Dan dare deflates Baggies

Pos. 1st (13pts)	FRIDAY 24 AUGUST 2018			Pos. 7th (7pts)
Boro		1-0	West Brom
Ayala (90+1)	38% 18(4)	POSSESSION SHOTS (on target)	62% 13(2)

RR: An intense game finally broken by last season’s goal machine on his return and boy did he enjoy it. There were no poor performances in Red so picking the MOM was really difficult, Downing was instrumental all game, George had a great match as did Fry, Clayts was superb, Britt played probably his best game from a team perspective and Braithwaite was entertaining and unlucky not to get a brace but for his determined never say die spirit and running it has to be Howson for me although I feel that Clayts also put on a great show.

TP: West Brom have a lot of quality players and I still think any team that finishes above them will get promoted. This league is really, really tough and every game you play you have to be at your maximum. We’ve turned up again tonight, realised it was going to be tough, worked hard and got the break at the end – which we deserved.

⚽ Full Match Report…

EFL Cup Round 2. Boro avoid Rochdale upset

	TUESDAY 28 AUGUST 2018
Boro		2-1	Rochdale
Johnson (37) Hugill (53)	47% 13(5)	POSSESSION SHOTS (on target)	53% 20(10)	Delaney (83)

RR: The final whistle pierced the Riverside bringing respite and relief and saved a late upset and then on to penalties. In balance Rochdale have had a few good Cup displays of late and they certainly will feel unlucky tonight as Lonergan was the undisputable Boro MOM. So some fitness levels are further improved, Lonergan looks match sharp and a few of the youngsters got another opportunity to impress but it was far from enjoyable and best described as functional but on the positive we are into Thursday night’s draw for the next round of the Cup.

⚽ Full Match Report…

6. Leeds wrestle a draw from Boro

Pos. 1st (14pts)	FRIDAY 31 AUGUST 2018			Pos. 2nd (14pts)
Leeds		0-0	Boro
	62% 11(3)	POSSESSION SHOTS (on target)	38% 9(3)

RR: A draw was a fair result but Boro did have a few strong penalty shouts with both Britt and Flint being subjected to WWE tactics rather than football. MOM was Clayton for his commitment to the cause which shone like a beacon. Dael Fry made a couple of Beckenbauer runs in the game to his credit, Shotton was involved all game and Besic did start to influence things far more in the second half but Clayts was the one that was everywhere and putting in the sort of gritty display that will have him first on TP’s team sheet after the International break.

TP: We knew it was going to be a tough game. We’re two teams with momentum going their way.We’ve looked and studied the shapes Leeds use and their patterns. We worked very hard on making sure we filled certain spaces. The players have taken it on and there were only a few occasions where they had half a chance.

⚽ Full Match Report…

September…

W1 : D2 : L1 : F3 : A2 : 5/12pts

7. Pukki strike finishes sick Boro

Pos. 16th (8pts)	SATURDAY 15 SEPTEMBER 2018			Pos. 4th (14pts)
Norwich		1-0	Boro
Pukki (58)	62% 16(6)	POSSESSION SHOTS (on target)	38% 8(2)

RR: Playing like that away to Leeds made sense but today was an opportunity totally and utterly spurned through a lack of endeavour. More creativity in the first half could have given this fixture an entirely different complexion from a Boro perspective and hopefully lessons will be learned from that, uninspiring summed it up. In terms of a MOM the only Player I could give it to was Clayton who crunched into tackles and literally gave his all for the cause before being forced off. The experience on the bench looked very impressive at three o’clock but when we went behind the lack of raw energy from the likes of Wing and Tavernier that we witnessed at the Den was sorely miss.

TP: It’s disappointing, I thought we had a pretty good start. A couple of opportunities, a couple of chances, an array of corners and we dropped off after about 20 minutes and they came into the game, and they were the better team up until half-time and they were better after the break as well up until they got the goal. From there they get their goal and it’s a fortuitous goal, it’s going wide, the lad toe pokes it, hits Ryan Shotton on the inside of his foot and goes in. Not our day in lots of respects.

⚽ Full Match Report…

8. Britt sucker punch breaks Bolton

Pos. 2nd (17pts)	WEDNESDAY 19 SEPTEMBER 2018			Pos. 15th (11pts)
Boro		2-0	Bolton
Saville (34) Assombalonga (90+5)	61% 19(4)	POSSESSION SHOTS (on target)	39% 7(2)

RR: Two nil and back up to second place, one point behind the Dirties with Swansea up next. The League maybe doesn’t lie but that tonight was less than impressive. Should Bolton make the Play offs we may over time be a little less dismissive of the performance but the truth is that two unforced errors handed us three points on a plate. We can’t rely on other sides being so generous. MOM is a difficult one as there weren’t many outstanding displays. In the first half Howson and Braithwaite looked good but overall I thought Shotton did well, Saville showed some fight and a goal but it has to be Clayts again who rarely put a foot wrong despite his wounds.

TP: In the first half we dominated the ball and got in the final third a lot. Little breaks didn’t got for us, but we still got a great result. They are resolute. They get bodies behind the ball. There is no space to play and they work hard and are a credit to their management team. In the final third, there were two occasions where people have shot from unbelievable angles where there is someone to tap it in. Getting your head up and showing a little bit more composure in the final third is what makes this game easier. We have to look at those situations and people have to show their quality a little bit more.

⚽ Full Match Report…

9. Swans break evens

Pos. 2nd (18pts)	SATURDAY 22 SEPTEMBER 2018			Pos. 14th (13pts)
Boro		0-0	Swansea
	42% 16(5)	POSSESSION SHOTS (on target)	58% 5(2)

RR: Apart from a cross come shot that hit Randolph’s crossbar in the second half and the Olsson effort Swansea showed why they haven’t scored many this season, in fact both sides showed their inability in the final third allied to their credible defensive statistics and so 0-0 probably wasn’t such a huge surprise. Considering the amount of first-teamers out of action I think Swansea will progress this season and looking back this may be seen as a point gained rather than two dropped. MOM was again the usual contenders, Clayts was simply Clayts, Braithwaite gave reason for optimism and Howson was involved all game but Shotton just edged it with his defending and tireless running.

TP: I was last in the Championship working 11 years ago, you look at it now and there are more quality players, playing in better stadiums. The pitches are better, the quality is better, and there are better players who are playing international football. And yet we are asked to play eight more games than the Premier League, there’s more Premier League players playing international football, someone has to look at it, to ask players to play Saturday, Tuesday, Saturday.

⚽ Full Match Report…

EFL Cup Round 3. Boro spot on at Deepdale

	TUESDAY 25 SEPTEMBER 2018
Preston		2-2 (3-4 pens)	Boro
Robinson (27) Barkhuizen (66)	60% 21(8)	POSSESSION SHOTS (on target)	40% 17(6)	Fletcher (34) Tavernier (69)

RR: The game ended 2-2 and 4-3 on Penalties in front of a credible Boro Army following. On the night Wing was consistent and influential all game. Gestede good in the first half, and McQueen had a very good second half but MOM was Danny Batth who was impressive.

⚽ Full Match Report…

10. Limited kit suits limited Boro

Pos. 21st (8pts)	SATURDAY 29 SEPTEMBER 2018			Pos. 3rd (19pts)
Hull		1-1	Boro
Bowen (69 pen)	52% 10(3)	POSSESSION SHOTS (on target)	48% 12(4)	Assombalonga (51)

RR: I can’t award a MOM because Boro were almost as bad as when Strachan was here with the players looking as disjointed and confused as under Monk. From the kick off they lacked the confident swagger of a team about to go top of their league. The cold truth is poor selection, poor tactics and even poorer execution has been a continued story of late and as a consequence we threw points away yet again. The one common theme in all this is TP clinging to some very overrated and overpriced Men at the expense of Boys who can actually make a difference.
That performance was nowhere remotely near good enough from anyone in a White shirt which was a good colour choice based on the display. As a third kit I can’t see many sales ensuing based on the memories it created today. I’m guessing we will have Hummel working on a Yellow kit as we speak.

TP: We need to get more goals, we have to take the chances in the final third and be more clinical. You’ve got to be 100 per cent every game, but today I didn’t think we controlled the ball enough. We had some great chances. But after we got that first goal, we had chances to get more and take the game but we didn’t. We just need to be more clinical and I think we are getting there slowly.

⚽ Full Match Report…

October…

W2 : D2 : L1 : F5 : A4 : 8/15pts

11. Boro plough on with promotion ambitions

Pos. 23rd (6pts)	TUESDAY 2 OCTOBER 2018			Pos. 2nd (22pts)
Ipswich		0-2	Boro
	58% 8(1)	POSSESSION SHOTS (on target)	42% 14(4)	Besic (12) Downing (16)

BBC: Redcar Red couldn’t make the Ipswich game so here is how the BBC saw it: Tony Pulis switched to a 4-3-3 system in a bid to deliver more goals for Middlesbrough after successive draws and left leading scorer Britt Assombalonga on the bench. The Welshman’s tactics paid instant dividends as they raced into a 2-0 lead and the victory left Paul Hurst still searching for his first win as Town manager. Boro have now lost just once in their past 15 league games.

TP: It was as good as we have played all season. The big disappointment was that we got sloppy in the second half. Ipswich got the ball up the sides in the second half and I knew this was going to be more of a football game with a slick, quick pitch. It’s the third game on the bounce away and that’s tough, the way they worked I thought we looked a little bit tired.

⚽ Full Match Report…

12. Boro Bottlers Stumped

Pos. 4th (22pts)	SATURDAY 6 OCTOBER 2018			Pos. 5th (19pts)
Boro		0-2	Nottm Forest
	53% 17(4)	POSSESSION SHOTS (on target)	47% 16(5)	Lolley (49) Grabban (77) S/O Robinson (80)

RR: A crescendo of boos greeted the final whistle which in my opinion was far too complimentary. MOM was Downing whose nearest competitor was a young lass who served me in the concourse who without a single days training at Rockliffe was managing to serve burgers, pints and operate a till simultaneously. Today wasn’t just a bad day at the office, to say that would be to sweep evidence under the carpet. Signs were there at Ipswich despite the scoreline on the night that we can’t dominate and impose ourselves on teams. The eulogy of Wing and Tavernier just grew by several volumes today (and I haven’t commented on the heated “Bamford out and Hugill in” debate a few rows behind me that was in overdrive mode in the dying minutes). Something has changed recently and not for the better, what that something is will be up to TP to identify or perhaps admit to.

TP: The first 20 minutes we were like a bag of potatoes. We’re playing on our home ground in front of a decent crowd and we never, ever looked as though we were at the races and that’s not just one of the players. I’ll take Stewart Downing out of that most probably and say he was head and shoulders above everybody else today. The rest of them were well below par.

⚽ Full Match Report…

13. Owls comeback kept out of Reach

Pos. 6th (19pts)	FRIDAY 19 OCTOBER 2018			Pos. 1st (25pts)
Sheff Wed		1-2	Boro
Reach (82)	51% 14(3)	POSSESSION SHOTS (on target)	49% 15(5)	Besic (49) Assombalonga (55)

BBC: Redcar Red missed the game at Hillsborough so here’s how the BBC saw it: After a poor first half, Boro hit the Owls with two goals in six early second-half minutes – one beautifully worked, the second self-inflicted and both involving on-loan Everton midfielder Besic. Former Boro man Adam Reach gave his side hope with an 82nd-minute volley from 20 yards. And the visitors had to survive an almighty last-minute scramble on the line in an incident that could have gone either way as bodies piled up like a rugby ruck. The win edged Boro above morning leaders Sheffield United on goal difference heading into Saturday’s fixtures.

TP: The game should have been out of sight. You’re controlling the game and, from nothing, they’ve suddenly got a goal from nowhere and they sniff a chance. In the end, that one stayed on the line. I don’t mind how we kept it out as long as it didn’t cross the line but we should have never been in that position. We have to see games out better. Now we’ve just got to stay level, keep calm and remain competitive. We’ve won a game of football, that’s all. People get too carried away when you win and too carried away when you lose.

⚽ Full Match Report…

14. Blank Boro ground down

Pos. 1st (26pts)	TUESDAY 23 OCTOBER 2018			Pos. 20th (13pts)
Boro		0-0	Rotherham
	66% 20(5)	POSSESSION SHOTS (on target)	34% 8(2)

RR: Tony tinkered far too much and the failings of the night rest upon his shoulders and his decisions alone despite Britt’s glaring miss. The continual failure to score at home and the poor tactical shuffle which screwed us on the night will be punished on Saturday against much better opponents than tonight. Strange how we can be top of the league yet upon leaving the Stadium feel almost as bad as when Trashcan was here. Patience wore thin tonight and the fans let their feelings be known. You can fool some of the people some of the time but tonight just stunk the Riverside out and left a bitter taste to boot.

TP: We had 49 crosses – I don’t know how many times we hit the near post. Martin Braithwaite’s chance in the first half, you’ve got to finish those chances and then it’s a different game. The problem we’ve got is the top end of the pitch and I keep saying, we’re getting into really good positions and those opportunities are not being turned into chances.

⚽ Full Match Report…

15. Randolph rescues outclassed Boro

Pos. 3rd (27pts)	SATURDAY 27 OCTOBER 2018			Pos. 6th (25pts)
Boro		1-1	Derby
Bogle (84 o.g.)	41% 10(0)	POSSESSION SHOTS (on target)	59% 18(7)	Friend (19 o.g.)

RR: There was an obvious MOM, Darren Randolph was incredible and single-handedly saved TP and half a dozen of his team mates from a deserved savage outpouring on the final whistle. Excuses about missed chances and so many crosses wear very thin when it is blindingly obvious what the problem is or at least in part. Today the youth of Derby tore us apart and humiliated static, staid footballers who could not live with them let alone cope. We have endured four games now without a Riverside Boro goal apart from Bogle getting TP out of a hole of his own making today. Three points from a possible twelve; this isn’t survival form let alone promotion.

TP: In the first half we started really, really poorly, really on the back foot. We did some work this week about getting up to the ball and we started on the back foot. We got really sloppy and it just gave them the momentum. Randolph has kept us in the game and at 1-0 you’ve always got an opportunity and a chance. Second half, the game wasn’t as fluid but we ground it out. We worked very, very hard.

⚽ Full Match Report…

EFL Cup Round 1. Wing Wizard’s Magic Strike

	WEDNESDAY 31 OCTOBER 2018
Boro		1-0	Palace
Wing (45+3)	37% 12(2)	POSSESSION SHOTS (on target)	63% 14(4)

RR: The game was one of two halves; the first half saw us get at the opposition with pace and tenacity. The second saw us sit tight and defend in numbers defiantly. Statistically we had nine shots to Palaces eight with only one of ours on target but it counted and showed the value of Lewis Wing in breaking deadlocks. MOM is difficult as there were many in Red who merited it. Wing is the obvious one as he scored the winner but for me Tav was the threat, the one wizard that worried Palace when he got on the ball, and the one who provided an outlet. Ayala was great, George Fiend was immense and arguably equally deserves MOM, Batth was solid and dependable and McNair looked a different player to the one of late so fair play to him. Hugill was a real handful and caused problems and when he came on Fletcher showed a new side to his game in getting back defending as did Saville and Gestede in the closing stages to add height at the corners. Braithwaite looked class in the first half and Dimi rolled back the years near the end and I suspect wickedly enjoyed himself. The only negative was the injury to McQueen which looked like a long term one sadly.

TP: The first-half performance was excellent and again we got into a lot of great positions and had opportunities, said Pulis. It takes a wonder goal from Wingy to give us that lead. He’s signed a new contract and I’m really pleased he’s with us. He’s got a long way to go and there’s things that he needs to improve on, but his enthusiasm to play and to want to play and to learn is first class. We’ve got to make sure we encourage that.

⚽ Full Match Report…

November…

W2 : D3 : L0 : F9 : A2 : 5/2pts

16. Goalless in the Potteries

Pos. 15th (21pts)	SATURDAY 3 NOVEMBER 2018			Pos. 3rd (28pts)
Stoke		0-0	Boro
	62% 13(1)	POSSESSION SHOTS (on target)	38% 11(4)

RR: It ended 0-0, which wasn’t exactly the surprise result of the weekend and kept Boro in third spot at least until Leeds play on Sunday. MOM was between Friend, Clayts and Batth for me but it has to be Batth who was making his first Boro Championship appearance. He was cool as a cucumber all evening and can rightly consider himself harshly treated if Ayala reclaims his place on the basis of this evening’s performance. If only we can sort out the sharp end of this side but how many times have we said that. I do feel however that there is something between Hugill, Wing and Tavernier if given the chance and persevered with.

TP: Finishing has been our Achilles heel, even Tav, who I think has got a fantastic future in front of him, when he goes through, he’s at a very tight angle. When he’s in training, he’d shape and and would pass it with his right foot. If he’d done that, we had two players in the box he could have passed to, and it would have been similar to Sheffield Wednesday, where they’re tapping it in from five yards. I thought Jordan went down far, far too easily a couple of times today. I don’t want that as a manager. That’s not right. I don’t like all that nonsense. That’s got to stop, and he’ll know that now.

⚽ Full Match Report…

17. Hugill brace Penalises Latic’s

Pos. 2nd (31pts)	SATURDAY 10 NOVEMBER 2018			Pos. 16th (20pts)
Boro		2-0	Wigan
Hugill (38 pen, 44)	42% 19(4)	POSSESSION SHOTS (on target)	58% 13(1)

RR: We won two nil; it was an unconvincing start, a decent bit of pressure followed and two welcome goals and all in all a happy ending to the first half. The second half is best forgotten about and was worryingly similar to the Rotherham game. Despite winning it still didn’t feel like any corners have been turned and yet incredibly we are second in the division. MOM is a difficult one as there were no stand outs, Clayts was his usual influential self, Fry was excellent in saving our blushes twice early on and put in a solid display at RB, Friend was flying down the wing without the safety of his mask and Downing was taking on defenders. All OK but nothing great or outstanding so for his two goals and all round efforts it goes to Jordan Hugill.

TP: I was really pleased that Jordan got the two goals. What people have missed, and I’ve said it before, is that the lad went from Preston to West Ham and was never involved in any football at all in the Premier League. Then in pre-season he got an injury, so he hasn’t really done anything for six months. He came here really cold, his fitness levels were nowhere near those of the rest of the group, but he’s worked really hard and, in the last few games, we’ve seen some good signs. The great thing about him is that he’s got that little bit of steel about him. He’s a local lad and he’s desperate to do well for this football club.

⚽ Full Match Report…

18. Tavernier stings Bee Keeper

Pos. 15th (21pts)	SATURDAY 24 NOVEMBER 2018			Pos. 2nd (34pts)
Brentford		1-2	Boro
Judge (75)	58% 17(9)	POSSESSION SHOTS (on target)	32% 11(4)	Hugill (56) Tavernier (61)

RR: Despite the late Brentford onslaught Boro held on for all three points and jump back into second spot again two points behind Norwich.Job done even if it was a bit of a rollercoaster at times, MOM had a few contenders, Randolph for his save, Tavernier for his goal and overall game, George Friend for his endeavours in the first half but once again it has to be Clayts for fighting, battling, never giving up and never giving in.

TP: This is a very difficult place to come, it’s a very tight ground and they move the ball around really well. They are a good side so this is a very good win. Once we were two up I thought we could have consolidated and looked to add to it, but we fell back a little and that allowed them to get back into the game which was disappointing. But we were resilient, well organised and always posed a threat going forward, so I can’t complain too much about the outcome.

⚽ Full Match Report…

19. Tav trumps Tony’s tactical torpidity

Pos. 15th (22pts)	TUESDAY 27 NOVEMBER 2018			Pos. 3rd (35pts)
Preston		1-1	Boro
Browne (43)	64% 13(4)	POSSESSION SHOTS (on target)	36% 11(3)	Tavernier (46)

RR: Seeing the positives, two away games in quick succession yielding an average of two points a game is good form but the worry is that had Gestede not picked up an injury we would have likely lost that game and perhaps by a damaging margin so poor were the tactics, organisation, set-up and selection. Let’s hope lessons have been learned and we get back to basics against Villa. Despite the four points from two away games our defence has been uncomfortably overly reliant on Randolph of late and looks far from the lock-out kings of the EFL. The midfield didn’t function tonight but it’s hard to pin the blame solely with them given the shuffling both there and at the back, over-thinking nearly cost us a point that could prove crucial come May.

TP: We take a point, and we’ve taken four points from two away games at Brentford and Preston, who are the form team at the moment, especially at home. It’s always difficult going to Brentford. Four points, it’s not too bad. It’s the second one on the bounce, and it’s the second one where we have to travel and bed the lads down again and we didn’t get much time. I’m really pleased again with the effort, but there’s certain things we didn’t do that we did the other Saturday, but having said that I still think we deserved what we got.

⚽ Full Match Report…

December…

W2 : D1 : L3 : F5 : A7 : 7/18pts

20. Bolasie batters bruised Boro

Pos. 3rd (35pts)	SATURDAY 1 DECEMBER 2018			Pos. 8th (31pts)
Boro		0-3	Aston Villa
	42% 10(3)	POSSESSION SHOTS (on target)	58% 21(8)	Chester (20) Abraham (64) Whelan (83)

RR: This Villa team scores goals under Smith but they also concede and have a Keeper who has a trick in him but somehow the normally dependable Randolph picked up that bug tonight (which was about the only thing he did pick up cleanly). Prior to the game I had been reading about how great the team spirit is and how the camaraderie is top notch with the players turning up for training in fancy dress. I would like to suggest that the pantomime tactics stop and next week they turn up dressed as footballers because it looked distinctly like familiarity breeding contempt or abject confusion.

TP: On the day we weren’t good enough, not bright enough. Right from the start, Marcus Tavernier ran round the wrong side of Jordan, and from that moment on we didn’t look bright enough, didn’t play as well as we can do. The difference against these teams, every player has to be on it. They were better than us. Full stop. People can have a go at Randolph, others, I am not. We look at the league, and we look at today and we got beaten badly. I can pick holes in everything, from the back to the front. I am not going to because I don’t think they deserve it.

⚽ Full Match Report…

21. Britt’s best thaws Besic brain freeze

Pos. 6th (36pts)	SATURDAY 8 DECEMBER 2018			Pos. 11th (30pts)
Boro		1-1	Blackburn
Assombalonga (62) S/O Besic (21)	34% 12(5)	POSSESSION SHOTS (on target)	66% 15(5)	Mulgrew (22)

RR: Shotton returning was a huge plus and his re appearance today was both timely and impressive. Hugill and Britt looked a handful together and whether it was because of the ten men mentality or just the additional body to create a foil up front, for the first time they looked a real formidable and credible offering. Besic should be under strict instructions to track no further back than the half way line, his self-belief is several levels greater than his actual ability. MOM for me was Ayala with Shotton a hairsbreadth in second spot but Dani did stop a few nailed on opportunities in both halves without which we would have been dead and buried. Britt’s goal was the first from outside the box this season ending the dubious only 100% such record in the Championship.

TP: The referee doesn’t send him off – it’s the fourth official and the linesman on our side. I’ll say it now – Besic does pull his shirt. But I believe our goalkeeper was getting to the ball first before their lad. I think it’s a yellow card, not a sending off. How they make that decision from that distance and a decision that ultimately changed the game is beyond me.

⚽ Full Match Report…

22. Rangers Reffing pains pointless Pulis

Pos. 13th (31pts)	SATURDAY 15 DECEMBER 2018			Pos. 6th (36pts)
QPR		2-1	Boro
Wzsolek (4) Wells (60)	49% 17(2)	POSSESSION SHOTS (on target)	51% 8(1)	Saville (51)

RR: More puzzling tactics and again nothing to show for it as Boro succumbed to their second away defeat of the season. I can’t award a MOM award in what was really poor and unconvincing fayre. Things were very reminiscent of this time last year when the Manager just didn’t seem to know what he had or how he wanted them to perform. Apart from Saville’s goal I can’t recall Lumley being tested at all. How we hope to get promoted by sitting deep defending from the off and no longer with a resolute defence to rely on but with no attacking threat whatsoever can only end one way. It seems that Boro fans are once more having to watch an intransigent, defiant Manager sticking to failing tactics have that all too familiar Groundhog day feeling.

TP: We need a few breaks. We certainly don’t need decisions going against us like they did today. We had an incident in their box, from a corner, where Assombalonga is actually rugby-tackled down and the referee is just five yards away from it and doesn’t give it. Then we’ve got an incident in the second half where an offside is given but their player had touched the ball last, so Jonny Howson is 100 per cent not offside. Not only does he give offside, but the goalkeeper then takes it from the edge of the box from a rolling position when the incident has happened 25 yards away. We had four or five players then past the ball when they scored the second goal. It’s got to be an even playing field. The referee has got to look at those and we’ll see what he says.

⚽ Full Match Report…

EFL Cup Quarter-Final. Pulis goes for a Burton

	TUESDAY 18 DECEMBER 2018
Boro		0-1	Burton
	63% 8(3)	POSSESSION SHOTS (on target)	37% 11(2)	Hesketh (48)

RR: The whistle went and I suspect with it quite possibly Tony Pulis’ tenure on Teesside as loud boos from the 17,000 or so home fans echoed around the Riverside on an evening that even edged out Southgate’s Cardiff Cup Tie. Everything that has been wrong and that has gone wrong over the last few weeks was repeatedly magnified. All the flaws and known weaknesses were laid bare in glorious Technicolour. Ultra-cautious nerves allied to negative tactics and a distinct lack of pace and an opposing Coach who wasn’t afraid to attack, change tactics and then sit deep and hang on to what they had justly earned sealed our fate. In fairness Burton thoroughly deserved their win. MOM, yer jokin aren’t yer!

TP: They started better than us in the first five minutes and then we got hold of the game, got a good grip of the game and we had four opportunities where we are through with just the goalkeeper in front of us. What summed it up was Flinty’s miss in the second half. How he’s missed that, goodness knows. I’m desperately disappointed.

⚽ Full Match Report…

23. Friend fires binary Boro victory

Pos. 21st (19pts)	SATURDAY 22 DECEMBER 2018			Pos. 4th (39pts)
Reading		0-1	Boro
	57% 12(4)	POSSESSION SHOTS (on target)	43% 18(6)	Friend (77)

RR: There were many questions on tactics, selections and performance at the Madejski Stadium but importantly we left with all three points and it was far from convincing. MOM for me was Johnny Howson but a special mention for McNair who came on and put in his best performance since arriving at Boro and for Randolph who kept us in it. With two fortuitous Penalty claims going our way this was far from a resounding away win and could have very easily ended far differently. Playing a lone Striker against a very poor side and then keeping to the same format but with different personnel did not go down well. The result was the right one but the manner of it did little to convince or sway growing sceptical attitudes.

TP: When things are going well, everyone gets too excited. When things aren’t going well, everyone gets down in the dumps. Week in, week out, it’s tough and it’s hard. But we’ve got an honest group. We need to add to it because there’s a lack of real pace and power that we need to find. If we can do that, then we’ll push on and we’ll be fine. If we don’t, then every game is going to be a tough one.

⚽ Full Match Report…

24. The Pulis that stole Christmas

Pos. 5th (39pts)	WEDNESDAY 26 DECEMBER 2018			Pos. 16th (30pts)
Boro		0-1	Sheff Wed
	56% 12(3)	POSSESSION SHOTS (on target)	44% 4(2)	Reach (20)

RR: As for what happens now and what the club should do is open for much debate. No doubt TP will point to the restrictions in his squad and diabolically poor recruitment but whilst they are absolutely genuine charges to be levelled at Steve Gibson and his senior club management team the selection and tactics are down to Tony Pulis. Neither Steve Gibson nor the Recruitment incompetents decide that Britt Assombalonga can operate as an isolated lone striker, they don’t decide to play against a struggling opponent at home and line up as though they were facing Barcelona with an overkill of slow defenders and midfielders. Today was the worst of everything and not for the first time this season, any slight improvement came about as a reaction to the negative failure of Pulis’s preferred methodology and favourites. As unbalanced and poor as the squad may be in certain areas it is ridiculous, futile and unprofessional to force square pegs into round holes instead of playing to the strengths and abilities of what you do actually have to work with. The continued omission of the likes of Wing and Tav in favour of non-productive expensively assembled flops was laid bare this afternoon as the lone Striker insistence failed yet again and yet again failed miserably.

TP: I thought we started brightly enough and got into some great positions. They got their goal with their first shot on target. One or two of the lads dropped their heads a little bit, and didn’t play with the brightness and confidence that they should do. In the second half, we had a go. The team worked hard in the second half, they gave it everything. The majority of them really showed some character and kept going.

⚽ Full Match Report…

25. Boro double eases tension

Pos. 5th (42pts)	SATURDAY 29 DECEMBER 2018			Pos. 24th (15pts)
Boro		2-0	Ipswich
Hugill (37 pen) Tavernier (72)	42% 19(9)	POSSESSION SHOTS (on target)	58% 6(4)

RR: The game was dire in the first half, improved from a Boro perspective in the second and when Tav came on we played our best football. Friend was solid and put in some immense challenges and got some good crosses in. Howson was lively and alert down the right and caused problems and Wing was playing intelligent balls for Howson to both run into and onto instead of those dull midfield passes to standing targets. MOM for me was Howson but Randolph kept us in it and Friend was impressive, Wing was a breath of fresh thinking and Tav scored again!

TP: It was a good result, I thought the players played well but, again, we could have scored more goals. But the two goals that we get, we’ve had easier chances, but it’s a great win and I’m really pleased for the lads. We’re in the top six, we’ve got an opportunity now to add to the squad in the transfer window and push on. I think the way the lads kept going, at 1-0 we had a couple of chances, we should have had a penalty again that we don’t get, it was more a penalty than the first one, but in the end we could have scored three or four. I’m really pleased for them and the confidence is important.

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