I recall that 1954 game, the first ever against Plymouth as mentioned by Powmill.
It was memorable for two reasons. It was Boro's first game in the Second Division after the war, following relegation the previous season. Boro managed a draw,2-2.
It was a memorable point because of what followed: we lost the next ten games on the trot giving us our worst start in living memory. We were marooned at the bottom of the league with one point out of a possible 22.
I saw all of the home games in that run and it left a host of players who had performed at the higher level the season before with their reputations completely shredded.
The spell was finally broken thanks to the signings of a great little centre-forward, Charlie Wayman, who was coming to the end of his career, but proved to be just the man we needed, and the completely unknown Joe Scott, plucked from the lower divisions, who ended up as Boro's top scorer.
We finished the season in respectable mid-table.
Speaking of Argylls, Tommy Trinder, the comedian and chairman of Fulham use to say of the Duchess of Argyll, the socialite with a racy private life, that "She shouldn't have married the Duke of Argyll, she should have married Plymouth Argyle"
@clive-hurren I had the league ladders, too. Mine were from Shoot! that my mother bought for me and my brother weekly.
Yes, I now remember the green of Plymouth - was definately very different to others. The red of Boro with white letters was very typical and similar to my brother's Arsenal, that was usually above Boro in the ladders, too.
As a green shirt is very rare in England compared to other countries, I remember reading somewhere in 1980's or 1990's that it was considered unlucky. Cannot be true as every goalie was wearing one back then, can it?
Up the Boro!
This is a good example of how to communicate with fans:
https://www.pafc.co.uk/news/argyle-launch-new-five-year-plan 😎
I recall that 1954 game, the first ever against Plymouth as mentioned by Powmill.
It was memorable for two reasons. It was Boro's first game in the Second Division after the war, following relegation the previous season. Boro managed a draw,2-2.
It was a memorable point because of what followed: we lost the next ten games on the trot giving us our worst start in living memory. We were marooned at the bottom of the league with one point out of a possible 22.
I saw all of the home games in that run and it left a host of players who had performed at the higher level the season before with their reputations completely shredded.
The spell was finally broken thanks to the signings of a great little centre-forward, Charlie Wayman, who was coming to the end of his career, but proved to be just the man we needed, and the completely unknown Joe Scott, plucked from the lower divisions, who ended up as Boro's top scorer.
We finished the season in respectable mid-table.
Speaking of Argylls, Tommy Trinder, the comedian and chairman of Fulham use to say of the Duchess of Argyll, the socialite with a racy private life, that "She shouldn't have married the Duke of Argyll, she should have married Plymouth Argyle"
So memorable you must have memorised it twice 😉
Former Middlesbrough striker Chuba Akpom scored his first goal for Ajax Amsterdam in their 2-0 victory over FC Volendam in a Dutch Eredivisie match played at Johan Cruijff ArenA on Thursday night.
https://www.allnigeriasoccer.com/read_news.php?nid=49325
Up the Boro!
@jarkko . Pleased for him. He is a good professional and deserves to do well after giving us a memorable season. 😎
We were beaten on Saturday by Stoke. But looking on the bright side, Michael Carrick's Boro has won eight out of their past nine matches across all competitions.
So I will predict a draw or a 1-2 win. Actually we have played well away from home under Carrick this season. I think someone said we score more away than home, where it is more tight as the visitors often defend more.
I hope to see Latte Lath to start the game and score a goal. Up the Boro!
@powmillnaemore and @clive-hurren - Me, too, for those cardboard league tables with the coloured tabs to go up and down depending on each week's results. Probably from "Shoot!" or some similar magazine.
@forever-dormo. Count me in as well. I used to get annoyed as my Dad would spend hours reading the Sunday paper whilst I wanted it so I could update my league tables. 😎
@lenmasterman - The Duchess of Argyll! Now there was a Lady (some would say). I remember her case being referred to in my undergraduate Law Degree. I recall a case involving the importance of marital confidentiality and the facts and the number of family members involved made it difficult reading (the fact it was about confidential issues no doubt made it a difficult Judgment to write without spilling those facts!). She was much married and in a number of relationships including, as a 15 year old girl, having to undergo an abortion after having slept with an 18 year old (but then unknown) David Niven.
She and her divorce were the subject of "A Very British Scandal", a 2021 three-part TV series (not to be confused with "A Very English Scandal" from 2018, about the Jeremy Thorpe affair).
Boro fans might want to lay some claim to the (now deceased) Duchess as her maiden name was Whigham (her father was a Scot, David Dundas Whigham but clearly she wasn't THAT closely related to the former and fondly remembered Boro keeper, Willie Whigham, which must be obvious from the fact that the Duchess was a famous beauty of her day). If you have quiet moment, look up the Duchess of Argyll on your favourite internet browser because she certainly had an "interesting" life, being linked in all sorts of ways with so many well-connected men in the UK and the USA.**
** You can very easily go down a rabbit-hole in things like this on the internet. For example, the Law Society of Scotland website lawscot.org.uk has an article entitled "The Argyll Charade" from 1999 which includes in its final paragraph the great quote: "The Argylls were the orginal hard-cases who made bad law."
@forever-dormo I’m sure you’re aware that “Duke of Argyll’s” is rhyming slang for a particularly painful condition.
@martin-bellamy - I wasn't, but I've worked it out, although it was at the bottom of my list of priorities.
First of all, I know nothing ,it's just me putting my conspiracy hat on, but the Riley Mcgree situation is strange, whenever asked Carrick just blows it off ,disinterested, I'm wondering if Mcgree hasn't been tapped up by outside forces, hence out of the loop, hope not
Watching Leicester v Leeds didn't realize the number of loan players in at Leicester, think they have five or six, there are four starting tonight for them
@gt. Its more likely that it is what it is, ie Planta Faciitis.
A painful foot injury which can take months to heal and despite all the physio and medical support available it can be difficult to know when the problem will resolve itself.
I think you are putting 2+2 and coming up with 5. 😎
Apologies for not Posting
had an injection in my eye for cataract and couldn’t see for a while !
well it’s got to be Boro3 !
anyone else believe me ?
OFB
Belated thanks for opener, Powmill. Terrific stuff!
From The EG
Whatever Michael Carrick is saying right now to his Middlesbrough players during half-time team talks, it seems to be working. The stats very much suggest Boro get stronger as games progress.
Twelve goals Middlesbrough have scored in their past six matches. All of those goals have come in the second half.
Head coach Carrick said: "It's good to know we're capable of doing that. There are varying reasons for that, maybe how we play. Maybe the amount of possession, maybe it's a case of wearing teams down, whether it's game control, whether it's us becoming stronger as the game goes on. There are a lot of reasons.
Read more: Ray Parlour has say on Middlesbrough's promotion bid but points to key January transfer window
"Of course we want to start games better. We don't want to have to chase games, we want to be ahead and we want the first half to be just as good as the second. There are challenges. You take the positives, of course, and what it probably does do, as it did last season, that whatever the circumstances we feel we're always in the game and we're capable of scoring goals towards the end of the game."
You have to go back to September 30 for the last time Boro registered in the first half, with Riley McGree bagging a double in their 3-2 win at Watford. Fifteen of their 19 Championship goals this season have come after half-time.
Carrick said: "I think there are two sides to it. There's the mental side. You talk about belief a lot and confidence. You have to keep believing in what you're doing. It's not always easy to do that, especially if its a tight game.
"The boys, that side of things, have shown to get the rewards in the end, to keep believing, keep trying, to stick to the plan and the principles. I think a lot of it as well is the squad and the boys that are on the pitch finishing the game just as much as the boys starting the game and how important they can be. Whether that's changing it at half-time, whether it's changing it after an hour or 70 minutes, it gives us a real impetus at the end of the game."
There have been a few matches that have swung Boro's way after Carrick has made substitions. "Players win you football matches," he stressed.
"We try to give them the message and a positive message at times, we need to give them other messages at other times. For me it comes down to that belief and being together and the boys have been fantastic at that. Whoever has started or finished, they all have a huge part to play."
Middlesbrough are back in action today with a trip Devon to take on Plymouth Argyle. It is the first time the two clubs have played each other in the league since 2010.
Carrick's men are chasing a fourth successive win on the road.
So. It appears both Plymouth's first choice centre forward (if we can still label the main central striker like that) Hardie, and second choice Bundu both sustained grade two hamstring strains against Ipswich last week. This puts them both out for a few weeks meaning today it is the 3rd choice, 22 year old New Zealand International Ben Waine that will almost certainly be leading the line.
Waine has made only 3 appearances so far this year, but regardless of that the disruption to the frontline that has been quite potent at home, could work in Boro's favour.
In my opener I predicted 3-0 to the Boro should Hardie not make the team today and I think I will stick by that.
CoB
I hope your eye is doing better now and that you don't have any discomfort.
i see (or rather I don’t !) that you are also a great supporter of Boro3 !
I 👀will also go along with that and forecast a Boro3 today!
OFB
@original-fat-bob - I'd like your second sight, OFB. I'd be very happy with 3 away goals because I can't see us conceding three. An away win by any score would be fine, thank you very much!
By coincidence my wife had a cataract operation yesterday. Slept last night looking like a pirate with her eye patch on. Now wandering around the house wearing sunglasses, looking like Roy Orbison, but will be back to the patch at bedtime tonight (to avoid any inadvertant rubbing of the eye whilst sleepy).
@KP and @gt - I suspect (but don't know) that Riley McGree has plantar fasciitis, in which case it isn't possible to be precise as to when he will come back into the team. That is a pity as McGree is a creative player and Boro can do with more of those. He is the sort of player one can imagine other teams will be looking at and, if he knows that (I guess he will have an agent who will keep him informed), that can in some cases have consequences on a player's form and commitment. I guess the manager wouldn't be too impressed by that either, and some managers have been believed to show players in that position the cold shoulder. But I think PF is more likely at this stage.
The way the things are best dealt with is (surely?) openness as regards injuries. I feel that Boro is a club where cards are played very closely to the chest. It's the same with transfer fees etc. with so many coming or going with the "fee not disclosed". I'm not really sure why that should be the case because other teams will have their ears to the ground anyway, their own coaching staffs should be capable of being fexible in their line-ups and tactics if Player X or Player Y suddenly becomes available or is suddenly missing, so I doubt the cloak-and-dagger stuff will have any benefit for Boro.
But mostly I think openness is important because supporters surely deserve to know what is going on. Customers, we are often told as we hold on the telephone, are "very important to us". Well, why not let the club's customers know what is going on? If I go to the pub and my favourite beer is not on sale, and if that situation continues for a lengthy period, why not let me and other customers know that there has been a problem at the brewery and that it is likely to be 6 weeks (or whatever) before the line is repaired and that beer is going to be available again? Obviously it might be different if some player has a health issue he wishes to keep confidential (let's say Player X has been diagnosed with some form of cancer or maybe a sexually transmitted disease) in which case people simply need to be told that because of medical reasons in respect of which the player's conffidentiality is being respected, Player X is not expected to be training again for 6 months or whatever but it is hoped to update the position in 4 months, or whatever.... However if a player has torn a groin muscle, has ligament damage to an ankle or some other muscular problem (which is clearly vital to football players' availability and very common), where is the problem with letting the supporters know?
We live in a time of conspiracy theories. If you keep things secret, those theories are fuelled.
@forever-dormo. To be fair to MC he did say at the outset it was a problem with the bottom of RM’s foot and later that it might be PF. It could be one week, one month, one year, you just do not know until the pain has gone.
He subsequently said they were having to just see how things went on a day to day basis which is exactly what happens with PF.
I am not sure that he is able to tell us much more at this stage and because of the nature of the injury is unable to put an exact timeframe on it.
I agree that there tends to be limited information provided on the injury front which I suspect is a trait MC learned from Sir AF. 😎
On the face of it, this is a game Boro should win even with a few key players missing - notably McGree. Though away from home, Greenwood has proved a good understudy and has provided the spark missed with McGree - however, at home he has not looked the same player, which is maybe a sign of pressure or expectations.
Should be a game for Hackney and Barlaser to control the midfield and I'd also like to see Dijksteel play at right-back to have a return of the Crooks-Jones-Dijksteel axis. It's also probably time Coburn bagged a few goals and where better than at the club who wanted to take him on loan.
So three points needed today to keep pace with the playoff pack and exercise that rare defeat against Stoke!
So three points needed today to keep pace with the playoff pack and exercise that rare defeat against Stoke!
I take it you meant "exOrcise", Werder? 😉 Sorry, couldn't resist picking up on that.
@k-p-in-spain - I was trying to be fair to MC and I don't put it all down to him. Whilst McGree and his PF is the one I mentioned (because it is the injury/illness currently at hand), when referring to Boro being less than open about player illness/injury/availability I was talking in general terms over many months and in fact even longer. And the "undisclosed fee" situation has being going on for ages and certainly long before Michael Carrick came into view. It seems as if the culture of keeping things under wraps is in Boro's DNA. The culture in a business tends to come from above, so this maybe a Steve Gibson thing...
I’ve just noticed that the cartoon character of Fat Bob that I use as an Avatar has a black eye. The left eye which is the one that I also have a black eye at the moment and can’t see with! Is that an omen that the Boro3 are going to win ?
OFB
@original-fat-bob. Certainly hope so. 😉😎