One of the remaining Carling Cup winners still at Boro will be leaving after the Blackburn match. (I think Steve Gibson is the other one).
The Northern Echo wrote that head physio Chris Moseley is leaving the club after more than two decades at the Riverside to take up an exciting new challenge in New York.
Moseley has been a constant in the Boro first team set-up for more than two decades, having first joined the club at the start of the 2002/03 season.
He was part of the backroom team that led Boro to the 2004 Carling Cup success and enjoyed the glorious UEFA Cup journeys followed. Today will be his 1012th match for the Boro.
Up the Boro!
Thanks again FD for yet another great opener and filling in the holes on my knowledge of Blackburn Rover - expectations for Rovers have certainly gone down since they had their own Steve Gibson under Jack Walker. Since the Venky's ownership and they are another one of those clubs hoping to find better days with tighter purse strings but never look a stable operation.
This is another opportunity for Boro to gain another three points today and we'd certainly be disappointed not to win after three on the bounce. Be interesting to see if Carrick continues with his back three or opts to go with the extra forward with Jones being a likely candidate to get a start after three bench appearances.
I'm looking forward to game after a busy week, which will give me a break from various projects that are just about concluded now in time for the deadline of Mrs Werder's birthday party tomorrow with a dozen girls (sorry women) arriving as I take on the role of grill-meister in the background 😉
Andy I know has been pretty busy at work this year, which is why he stepped back a bit from doing previews. He still comments while he can and of course still does his share of the odd preview like most of us this season.
Andy and I discussed the new format for this season and he drew up the spreadsheet for contributors and matches.
To be honest it’s exceeded all our expectations! A constant stream of new and enlightening posts which have made this blog the best in the business.
I do hope that all those who’ve done a match preview this season will continue over to the next season and hopefully one or two more might put a toe into the water and have a go. It’s great when you’re in !
Many thanks for the acknowledgment.but there are a lot of people who contribute and hopefully AV Will be looking at his Untypical Boro child with fondness.
Boro3 oh sorry wrong sign off!
OFB
Not a lot of time to post. Bit delayed thanks to FD for a Stella performance turning around another opener without being allowed the customary recovery time since his last opening. Loved the cultural references.
Anyway, I gave kept up to date with reading the thread this week. Great conversation and chatter as always.
As for today. Hang it all. I'll have a whiff of some of OFB's Boro3 foam fumes.... Another clean sheet for Dieng ad well. We are more convincing at the back when he plays.
So Boro3 Rovers0.
CoB
FB,
Can I please endorse your appraisal of this being the best blog on the go, no bitching, no swearing, no back biting and tons of appreciation and respect, what's not to like.
Can I also please apologise for my current lack of contribution to the verbals, I'm currently suck up the back end (me being polite) of a jungle in PNG and up to my neck in mud and swamps, but thankfully the local head hunters have deemed my neck not important enough to remove it from my scone, long may it continue. I'd love nothing more than to contribute to the openers and dip my whole foot in to the pool as opposed to my toe, but it looks as though next season will be my first attempt at making a ness of it. Please keep me in mind OFB.
RvdB apparently injured 🙁 - starting XI courtesy of the Echo:
Dieng, Jones, Ayling, McNair, Clarke, Engel, Howson, O'Brien, Forss, McGree, Latte Lath
Subs: Glover, Barlaser, Gilbert, Dijksteel, Silvera, Azaz, Greenwood, Thomas, Finch
At least Izzy's back in the line-up from the off. 🙂
Beeb is saying 4-4-2.
CJ in the 9th minute:
How has that not gone in for Boro?
Howson corner flicked on by Ayling at the front post. Looked to be going in from our angle but wasn't. Forss arrives at the back post and looks like he's going to prod it home, but he misses the target too. Probably should score.
Good early signs for Boro though. Settled into a nice early tempo that Blackburn look uncomfortable with.
Beeb is saying 4-4-2.
CJ, on the other hand, says:
Very fluid. Out of possession Ayling tucks in and Jones drops deeper. But in possession, Jones gets very high and involved with the attacks. Once or twice though, it has opened up at the back for Boro and Szmodics has had a couple of opportunities. Something to be wary of.
ELL booked in the 31st minute - handbags with Wharton, who was also booked.
Missed the first 15 minutes and by all accounts Boro's best spell of the first half - not many clear cut chances since then from what I've seen and quite few misplaced passes when not under pressure. Loss of Forss to a hamstring is another blow and hopefully it's not a bad one with a two-week break coming up.
This is a game that Boro should win if they can get their passing together - Jones back in the side but looks a bit tentative in that first half - though the back four seems to be coping ok without RvnB who I guess is also injured as not on bench.
Boro should May be have made more thier chances in that early spell. Up font Blackburn look to have a goal in them. Both McNair and Clarke look a little uneasy at times.
In midfield Howson and O’Brien losing the ball too often with McGree hardly in the game.
We need to step up a gear to get something from the game. What we do not want is another home defeat.
Luke Ayling booked in the 57th minute.
CJ on the start of the second half:
Started well
Still let down so far by sloppy passes and touches so far at the key moments, but it's been a solid start in general, quickly establishing control and winning it back quickly. Blackburn lacking final third quality themselves though.
And in the 55th minute:
Half a yard for Boro bogeyman Sam Gallagher to have a pop. Good height and not really to either side of Dieng, but hit with enough venom that he had to save it.
You can just sense, as Boro continue with their sloppiness, that Blackburn are growing in confidence and feel there is something in this for them. Boro need some kind of a spark. They're just giving it away too often without any real pressure either. That's the frustrating part. It's unenforced errors every time.
🙁
Azaz has been on since the 19th minute, when Forss was forced off (no pun intended) by injury. 🙁 Barlaser, Greenwood & Silvera on for O'Brien, McGree & ELL in the 72nd minute.
A scrappy game where Boro struggled to pass the ball and Blackburn never really looked a threat - I thought Boro wouldn't score all day until Jones hit the bar at the death and Silvera showed his clinical ability six yeards out by missing the ball completely. I guess it showed up Boro's limitations today as while Jones was back he looked well below his usual sharpness plus McGree continues to look the a shadow of himself for most of the 90 minutes. In the end a tired performance lacking any real quality and perhaps shows why Boro will most likely fall short this season. Still a third successive clean sheet but then again the opposition in those games have been poor in front of goal too.
Synopsis from she who must be obeyed "just not good enough" and she thinks we are going to win most games, so I I can't argue against her
I think 10 out of 12 points is encouraging but not enough to be within a chance of the top six, 7 points behind Norwich with 8 games to go, plus already ahead are Preston, Coventry and Hull all with a game in hand. I thought of resurrecting the challenge but even I, one of the more optimistic on this site, conceive the game is up and planning for next season needs to the order of the day.
Come on BORO.
Yes, it's hard to see Boro now getting a point a game more than Norwich unless they collapse.
We’ve had a great day out in the Dales with family today, walking from Grassington to Burnsall and back - 8 miles of God’s Own County.
I’ve just had chance to check out the score and from what I’ve read we could have just as easily lost, as won. We needed to score today and appear to have had quite a few chances but to no avail - watching the Boro this season is a lot like playing Snakes and Ladders, for every climb up a ladder, there’s a slippy snake to descend - what’s the betting we win most of our remaining games but have left it all too late?
Forss missed a sitter before his injury - he was really unhappy with himself as he kicked the goal post quite hard soon after. Also Silvera missed a sitter in the end after Jones had hit the bar and it rebounded nicely for Silvera.
The match was quite open in the first half but the second half was bit like the last match at Birmingham. Not very entertaining, scrappy. So we are not playing very well quite yet but at least we got 10 points from the last four matches.
Luckily we have two weeks to train next. Forss will most propably miss the International matches - so I won't see him playing in Helsinki. But I hope he won't miss too many matches for the Boro as we need him.
Up the Boro!
@jarkko. As you and exmil said, 10 from 12 is not bad and probably more than we expected.
However, the opposition has been poor, although we would not have beaten Norwich if they had, had 11 players.
Today just once more highlighted the lack of depth in the squad. Injuries are to be expected even if we have have more than our fair share to date. Even Forss' injury today was caused by an unpunished pull
But the reality is the three subs that came on together, were never going to change the game. We have very limited bench players.
I have never seen Howson have as poor passing game as this afternoon. O'Brien was not much better followed by most of the rest, including Dieng with his kicking out.
With the injury to VDB and the enforced return to a back four, it once more the limitations on our squad.
@pedro I agree about the subs eventhough Silvera was quite good yesterday. Perhaps Latte Lath was getting tired as well as Howson and O'Brien. And my wife said Jones needs to be substituted after about 60 min. As we all know, these men have been injured quite resently and are not yet 100 % fit as Carrick has said about Latte Lath.
Well, we are on the way back to normal but not there yet. It takes time. Up the Boro!
Thankfully Boro kept a clean sheet, for all the game's faults this was a game that could easily have been lost so I'm not happy but simply relieved. A big plus is that we did keep a clean sheet thank goodness. As far as I am concerned the play-offs are irrelevant, it's a case of finish as high as you can in the league and develop the resolve and attitude not to lose or concede.
Now it's half term again or do we have one more game before the International Break? Can't remember! As Jarkko says, we are on our way back to normal, whatever that is with the Boro.
Best wishes to everyone,
UTB,
John
Well, there are positives and negatives about that game. We kept a welcome clean sheet, weren't defeated and therefore continued the "unbeaten streak", and BORO benefitted from the lack of clinical finishing from Blackburn. On the other hand the game felt as if both teams were playing under par, BORO's own "striking" was strikingly absent, Forss received another injury (hamstring?) plus the news about VDB's injury before the game was particularly unwelcome as in recent weeks he has been a consistently good performer, and the quality of passing wasn't very high for most of the game. A draw may have been a fair, even though disappointing, end result.
I have just looked at the BBC Sport App showing the match stats and they reveal:
Possession - Boro 54% Blackburn 46%
Shots 18 12
On target 3 3
Corners 8 5
Fouls 10 9
What shouts out very loudly is that very poor 3 shots on target out of 18. And I guess that does not include "air-shots". And BORO currently sits 10th in the table although 7 teams have played fewer games than BORO as I type this. So BORO currently sits where the team deserves to be - just above the middle of the table, having put up a few amazingly positive performances but also putting out some rubbish (with probably the majority of performances being generously described as approaching adequate). The three successive wins improved the general mood but, really, mention of the Play-Offs on BBC Tees seemed likely to antagonise those who might have started the season with that (if not better) in mind, but who have now ruled it out.
The crowd didn't seem that big. The atmosphere seemed "OK" (certainly not "electric"). There had been sunny intervals but during the match the sky clouded over, it became rather colder and, on the walk back to the car it was raining a fine "fret". A metaphor for the season.
I mentioned season ticket renewal to my mate. He's got a few issues on at the moment with his daughter in hospital in the West Country following a horse-riding accident in the last few days and no doubt he'll have to go down there to visit her but it wasn't clear as we walked TO the match when that visit would be - as she was expected to be moved to another specialist treatment centre for an operation. So he MIGHT not have managed to attend the Blackburn game, though ultimately did so, but he will not now be attending the next home games after the international break. He thinks the next home game he will be able to attend will be the last one, against Watford (I think I'm doing the Opener for that one!). We discussed season ticket prices for BORO relative to other Championship clubs.
I told him I was minded to renew, but probably a few days before the (extended) Early Bird deadline. Although he has been a season ticket holder for many years longer than me, going back to Ayresome Park days, he implied that, if he renews, it may be a "last year to see what happens". He pointed out during our walk back that he could easily avoid a walk in the rain and the cold, though in the winter months that walk is even colder and the homeward walks at least are in the dark. He pointed out that it's free to listen to BBC Tees, that it's warmer and more comfortable to listen from the settee and the toilets at home are cleaner and with no queues (!). Full Sky and Discovery+ TV etc (which he already has) makes watching other games easy, with a glass in hand. He MIGHT do another year. After that, I'd be surprised. And he's been going for DECADES, including many more away games than me. I suspect ticket sales next year will disappoint the club but you can't force people to buy a product they are not happy with. The thing is that, a few years back, people would be asking if they could borrow your ticket, if you couldn't go to a match. People no longer ask. If my mate couldn't go, he has offered me his ticket for my wife but she has made it VERY clear that will not be happening. You can't give them away now.
@forever-dormo I’d be interested to hear your mate’s age. I think there probably comes a point in lots of people’s lives when you simple can’t (or won’t) commit to going to the game every two weeks. In the long run you’d hope that the next generation would take the place of those people, but who knows?
AND FINALLY - Aynsley Pears' performance against us yesterday (to say nothing of his outstanding performance against Newcastle Utd in the previous round of the FA Cup) suggested to me that the club would have lost nothing if HE had been between the BORO sticks rather than the keepers we've had in the last few years. He was already at the club, would have incurred no transfer fees, would certainly have expected a lower salary than the club had to fork our for most of our recent keepers (whether they were any good or not), and his heart would have been with the club especially as his father was in the argument about BORO's best keeper. Blackburn may have conceded quite a few goals this season but even a good keeper can't magic up a good defence in front of him.
And REALLY FINALLY - Going back to the question of consumer/voter's choice, and potential criticism of them for their decision, I think of Dick Tuck, a political consultant and strategist who has also been described as a "prankster". He had a long life (1924-2018, dying aged 94).
In 1966 Tuck campaigned to be a Democratic candidate for Senate and, hearing Tuck had entered himself as a candidate, Richard Nixon (President of the USA from 1969 to 1974 and whom he'd previously pranked) sent him a telegram to congratulate him on that decision and offered to campaign for him (despite Nixon obviously being a Republican). There were 8 candidates for the Democratic nomination. He had opened his campaign with a speech at the Forest Lawn Cemetery at Glendale saying that just because people had died didn't mean they no longer had voting rights. On polling day as the votes against him were stacking up, Tuck said "Just wait until the dead vote comes in" (and he wasn't channelling his inner Putin). Tuck finished third. He then made the pithy comment: "The People have spoken, the Bast***s!"
On the question of season ticket renewals, my brother has already decided that he will not be renewing.
Not necessarily on cost, although he feels the size of the increase is on the high side but he has not enjoyed what has been on offer as a spectacle/entertainment which, especially at home, has been poor this season.
Much has been made of our injury situation and that things would have been different if we had suffered a few injuries less but I disagree; the simple fact is that the squad, and it is a squad game, is weaker than last season with some of the recruits just not up to the required standard.
Even with a fully fit squad, when a few of the first choice players have an off day the replacements are not able make a significant enough impact; the position in the league tells its own story and sadly I can't see that changing quickly or soon. 😎
@forever-dormo So similar to me. I think I’d struggle to go to a match every fortnight, unless we were winning them all of course!
@k-p-in-spain Doesn’t that way of thinking lead to the sort of foam-handed supporters that were made less than welcome during the McClaren years? I was always disappointed that, unless you’d been a supporter during the difficult times, you were criticised for jumping on the bandwagon of success and excitement that Juninho, et al, brought to the Riverside.
I can easily understand your brother’s reluctance to part with his hard earned cash, but without fans the club is nothing. As my father in law once said to us, during a particularly difficult time with a step son, “ It’s when he’s at his most troubling, that he needs your love the most”.