Engel booked in the third minute!
Seems I was misled there by the Beeb text commentary & that it was, in fact, Matt Clarke who was shown the yellow card.
That was a performance almost worthy of Powill-naemore's opener.
We needed some luck and it's quite funny the way we have become Leicester's version of Rotherham this season but we deserved something out of the game. Also shows that we are capable of defending when we set up to do it.
I worked in Leicester for a couple of years and liked the city so despite everything I have a bit of a soft spot for the team.
I also think yesterday shows that if we can hang onto our best players and recruit well, that we ought to be challenging for promotion next year. Requires Carrick to sort out our home form and tweak his normal "Carrickball" to work with Championship footballers. The home straight for this season will tell us a lot about the prospects for next season.
@deleriad. “I also think yesterday shows that if we can hang onto our best players and recruit well, that we ought to be challenging for promotion next year. Requires Carrick to sort out our home form and tweak his normal "Carrickball" to work with Championship footballers. The home straight for this season will tell us a lot about the prospects for next season.”
Spot on Deleriad, particularly your penultimate sentence. 😎
If you wanted to while away some time, you could amuse yourself by looking up such names as Featherstonhaugh (FAN-shore), Cholmondeley (CHUM-lee), Marjoribanks (MARCH-banks). Names more often heard in a period drama set in a stately home like Downton Abbey than in Dormanstown! Or some high-falutin' person called Powell might pronounce it "Pole" whereas the lad from Berwick Hills calls himself POW-ul. Your social climbing Mr Mainwaring from "Dads' Army" (who in WW2, being a grammar school boy and a bank manager, would certainly have been at least in the centre of the Middle Class, despite his social fears) pronounces it "Mannering" but the plebeian air raid warning officer in the show is much more likely to call him MAIN-ware-ing. An interesting diversion from the Tesr Match which is not currently going well, or this afternoon's football.
Don't forget Wemyss (Weems), a name with which I've become familiar through watching BBC programmes such as Bargain Hunt & Antiques Road Trip (especially the pottery pigs), Beauchamp (Beecham), Ayscough (Askew), Cowper (Cooper), Brougham (Broom) & Pennycuick (Pennycook). Then there are the countless fascinating place names: Altrincham (Oltringham), Beaulieu (Bewley), Salisbury (Sawlsbury), Happisburgh (Hazebruh), Brough (Bruff), Market Weighton (Weeten) - the latter two I know from my time at Hull Uni - Leominster (Lemster) &, up in Scotland, Glamis (Glarms) & Kirkcudbright (KurKOObree), to name but two. 😉
It obviously makes sense to tailor your style of play to (1) the players available for selection (2) your opposition and (3) the situation.
(1). It makes no sense to try, with average or even "quite good" players, to try to play like Barcelona or Manchester City because they have, or have had, the players with the skill to make that work against even the top teams in World/European football. BORO doesn't.
(2). If you are playing a team which appears considerably inferior, you might "try" a few tricks, or to impose YOUR style on THEM. But if your opposition is good you'll need to be more careful. You need to adopt the right plan of campaign. The vast majority of up and coming fighters would have been INSANE to stand to-to-toe with the younger hungry version of Mike Tyson because to do that would play right into Tyson's hands (or fists). The odds are heavily in favour of Mike Tyson being stronger, harder-hitting and more aggressive, and almost inevitably there would be an interchange of punches resulting in the majority of up and coming fighters doing that, ending up unconscious as the referee completes his count.
(3). But even champions make mistakes. Even great teams sometimes concede goals (ask Manchester City yesterday) and great boxers sometimes walk onto a punch and are floored. When that happens the intelligent boxer may take time to clear his head. Even if he himself is a puncher, he may get on his toes, try to duck and weave. If he's a big man like Tyson Fury (as opposed to Mike Tyson) our man might try to wrap up his opponent, smother any attempt to throw punches, lean on him to tire the opponent, until our man feels he has recovered from the punch he had taken earlier. THEN he may try to impose himself again.
Even undefeated Tyson Fury has been knocked down and had to come back from that: early in his career (2011) he was knocked down in R2 by undefeated Canadian Heavyweighjt Champion Neven Pajkic and was hit hard in the next round but rallied to stop Pajkic. In 2013 Fury was badly knocked down in R2 (maybe he should skip R2?) but went on to win in the 7th against American Steve Cunningham, having done what he needed to get back into the fight including having a point taken off for a headbutt (!) in R5. Fury was floored TWICE in his fight against Deontay Wilder for the WBC championship in December 2018 which was a split-decision draw, and during which Fury spent some time boxing southpaw. In their rematch in November 2019 Fury went on all-out attack, flooring Wilder in R3 (and two more visits to the canvas which the referee adjudged "slips"), and once again in R5 with Wilder's corner throwing in the towel in R6 with Fury well ahead on all the judges' cards .The third fight of their trilogy was different again with Fury knoccking Wilder down in R3, Wilder putting Fury down twice in R4 but Fury spent time recovering and boxing well in the middle rounds before knocking Wilder down again in R10, and then throwing a right hook in R11 that saw Wilder counted out face-down. He was again ahead on all Judges' card when he won the fight. Fury's subsequent mandatory defence of his WBC title against Dillian Whyte saw Whyte stopped by the referee right at the end of R6 after a hard kockdown and in October 2022 (having earlier announced his "retirement") Fury returned to stop Derek Chisora in a TKO in R10 after being on top throughout. Sometimes in boxing, as in football, you have to learn to mix-it rather than only play the dainty stuff or float like a butterfly.
I guess it must be the same in all sports. Good teams are better than their opposition but even weaker teams can plan ahead and strike at their "betters". Sometimes when that happens, tactics must change if you want the desried outcome to take place. "Game plans often go out of the window after you are hit on the jaw" etc etc. Planning and tactics may allow a team to play above itself. Perhaps the tactics adopted against Leicester City (in both games this season) could be dusted down and make a re-appearance against other teams in The Championship? Isolate what happened in those two games and learn from it, and maybe we'll be in a position to do the same to other teams rather than have them do it to us...
@stircrazy - ESPECIALLY in Scotland ! They have a secret weapon - Scots Gaelic ("GALLIC" rather than the related Irish "GAY-lick") which is the root of many place names, mountains etc, and which has all sorts of pronunciation traps for those of us originating in Southern Britain. They do it on purpose! Apparently pronunciation becomes easier after a few Single Malts.
@forever-dormo Kirkcaldy?
Also Redcar comes to my mind, too. Up the Boro!
The trailer got me and was only 2 mins 41 seconds long! UTB
I say Red-car* but some say Red-kuh (some even say Ret-Kuh or Re'kuh).
* Many of us in plebeian Dormo used to look upon Redcar as the bourgeois dream achieved. I remember going to Newcomen School when Dormo played football there. No outside loos with hard cakes of green soap, with brown valleys on the surface which had formed over several months. Oh no! Newcomen had INSIDE toilets and changing rooms and liquid soap dispensers on the wall. No wonder the kids there washed their hands. Further into Redcar, let's say at West Dyke School or Riverdale or Ings Farm, they probably had fur-lined toilet seats to prevent the little ones suffering chilblains during the winter months. I suspect times have changed for Redcar since then.
@forever-dormo I have heard only the Red-kuh (or Ret-Kuh). I think my wife say more like you, though. Up the Boro!
The trailer got me and was only 2 mins 41 seconds long! UTB
Eboroacum: the link doesn't work for me. i get a message saying that the page can't be found. Wouldn't surprise to learn that it's because I don't "do" Twitter/X, Facebook, Instagram or any similar social medium.
@stircrazy - ESPECIALLY in Scotland ! They have a secret weapon - Scots Gaelic ("GALLIC" rather than the related Irish "GAY-lick") which is the root of many place names, mountains etc, and which has all sorts of pronunciation traps for those of us originating in Southern Britain. They do it on purpose! Apparently pronunciation becomes easier after a few Single Malts.
Completely forgot to add to my earlier post that I noticed for the first time while watching the most recent series of the Beeb's Shetland crime drama that the local characters pronounced the archipelago's capital, Lerwick, as we "southerners" pronounce Berwick, i.e. with a silent "w": "Lerrick".
The euphoria after yesterday’s magnificent and wholly unexpected win is understandable. Great credit to MC and all the lads. Given that we had Fry, Thomas, Smith, Lenihan, Howson, Hackney, Jones, Coburn and Latte Lath all unavailable, and that we had 4 youngsters on the bench, the performance was all the more remarkable.
Now I’m a bit loathe to spoil the mood and burst the bubble, but here goes. As werder pointed out, wins for almost all our playoff ‘rivals’ (except Sunderland, beaten ironically by Mogga!) meant that we made up no ground on the others, which was a shame. We’ll still need a miracle, including a host of other results to go our way. But yesterday kept us in touch, and no doubt lifted morale and confidence in the Boro camp. Who’s to say we can’t now string a good run of unbeaten games together that might at least see us getting close to the top six? Hope has once again been rekindled!
WARNING WARNING WARNING
Since hope seems to have been rekindled in even the most pessimistic contributors on this blog, EXMIL CHALLENGE 2024 will start after the Plymouth game, so the first fixtures will be on Friday 23 Feb, namely Coventry v Preston and Leeds v Leicester.
I will publish the NEW format and the first set of fixtures during the week after the Plymouth game, although there are 4 “catch up “ fixtures on Tuesday 20 February, they will not be included.
Hope everyone is willing to take part.
Come on BORO.
@exmil. Thanks Exmil, much appreciated. Count me in although I can’t be guaranteed to find some red tinted spectacles. 😊😎
I was not as pessimistic about our top six aims after the Preston match as I am now after the Leicester win.
Why, you might ask? Because of the injuries to Howson and especially to Hackney. We need to find a solid starting eleven and finally start to play constantly well. If MC needs to change 3 ... 4 players for every match, the results will vary, too.
Last season we played well unti we got some first injuries. I think Akpom missed some of the last matches before play-offs. But as long as we could field the same core players, we played well and results followwed.
So all I hope from now on, is that we will have as few injuries as possible. Have a settled side and finally get the team play well.
Up the Boro!
@exmil I'm little confused.
You will publish the fixtures in the week after the Plymouth game, which is next Saturday. But, the first fixtures are the two games being played on Friday.
Do you want to us to make predictions for both those Friday games and the games on Saturday... i.e. before you have published the format and the fixtures? Or did you mean that it will be the games after next Saturday that we will need to predict?
One of my favourites that catches all the English out is Milngavie....(Mil-guy)
@eboroacum I seem to have something in my eye. What a day that was - easily my best day in Sport.
Brilliant Martin. Thanks for sharing this - I may use this as I teach in a secondary school in Eboracum. Lots of life lessons for the kids of today plus some Boro-centric indoctrination. Mostly Leeds plus the big clubs supporters down here so won't do them any harm at all!
Yes I know so many of us had a tear in our eye that day.......just had a feeling that without the Wembley curse we had a great chance.
Stircrazy - try the below - it is the first tweet if you scroll down - hopefully you can access this?
https://twitter.com/BBCTeesSport
UTB
Good Read from Graig Johns including season ticket fiasco.
Reports on social media that the Red Faction are organising a protest about the season ticket increases at the Plymouth game; they plan a mass walk out on 30 mins.
Apparently the club had “previously agreed to discuss increases with them before hand but did not do so and that a proposed meeting with the Chairman to discuss the decision and to explain why fans in one of the most deprived areas of the country are expected to pay extortionate prices that exceed those of some PL clubs has been cancelled”.
This is being reported by Scott Wilson of the Northern Echo. 😎
Hi K P, yes I have read that too. Also, there are other groups showing their anger as well. It seems that MFC are taking the fans for granted and have made a massive and commercial decision without looking into the situation properly. It certainly shows the hierarchy in a bad light.
The two fixtures on the Friday are part of the weekend fixtures and I will be including them when I set out the fixtures in Part 1, the games on the Tuesday night prior to the Friday are catch up games and won’t be included in Part 1, all will be come clear when I publish the Part 1 fixtures.@exmil I'm little confused.
You will publish the fixtures in the week after the Plymouth game, which is next Saturday. But, the first fixtures are the two games being played on Friday.
Do you want to us to make predictions for both those Friday games and the games on Saturday... i.e. before you have published the format and the fixtures? Or did you mean that it will be the games after next Saturday that we will need to predict?
Come on BORO.
As previously discussed, it was the cursory manner of the email reminder that really stuck in the craw. If they had consulted fans or at least explained the rationale behind the increases, they would have had a far more sympathetic response than they are currently getting. My worry is that we will confronted with the "we will need to cut our cloth accordingly" argument if season ticket sales are disappointing when the valid arguments for a more flexible and realistic pricing structure have not been addressed. Rock and a hard place for fans me thinks. UTB
@malcolm. The links I posted previously showing the Season Ticket prices in the Championship tells the tale of the current pricing issue.
Assuming that the articles showing the most expensive and cheapest ST's are more or less correct, then MFC have not really thought out this whole poor communication.
Our ST'S are generally on the high side compared to the other teams. As much we all appreciate Mr Gibsons support, at what cost to the fans.
@exmil. I am still not getting it.
I am sorry if I am missing something obvious, but I don't want to miss the boat by not getting all my predictions in to you for Part 1. You said the challenge Part 1 will start "after" the Plymouth game, but then say the two fixtures on the Friday "before" the Plymouth game are included. That implies the challenge is starting "with" the matches on next Friday/Saturday, not "after".
i appreciate you won't be setting out the format for this season's challenge until after next Saturday, but I am still not sure if you are including those matches next weekend in the challenge or not.
In other words, are asking us to send you our predictions for all of next Friday's and Saturday's Championship fixtures before kickoff on Friday?
Sorry that I am being a little bit slow on the uptake here.
Greetings everyone. The preview for the Plymouth game is now online. I didn't cover any admin issues and am not sure whether perhaps the season ticket argument and the latest Exmil competition should be carried into separate topics so that the previous comments don't get lost.
UTB