Blunderland did win the yellow card count - by 4-2 (Jones & Coburn) + the second yellow that turned Neil's initial one into a red. CJ:
What a big win for Boro. No doubt the red card changed the game, but the way Boro clinically took advantage of it was impressive. What a way to head into the international break! Four wins from four now.
Unbelievable! Haven't enjoyed a second half as much in a long time after Boro's biggest win ever at Sunderland 😆
Well that's the way to make a man advantage count as Boro could have easily scored another four goals on top of the four they got. Perfect way to go into the international break and as things stand only two points off the play-offs.
Some good performances again but am liking the look of that Hackney-Barlaser midfield partnership as they are both always available for a pass, can make a good pass and turn and break through the lines. Also pleased to see Engel build on his midweek performance with another good one and then Jones came into his own in the second half as the space was there to run at.
Plus in case I forget another clean sheet to boot - safe to say Boro have now turned the corner and all without Riley McGree as well. A nice good early weekend!
What a way to go into the international break, especially with two late injuries.
Come on BORO.
Thought I'd post this from the Beeb's live commentary on the run-up to the main kick-off in the EFL because of the comment about Isaiah Jones:
Middlesbrough take the derby-day spoils in style against 10-man Sunderland.
An even first half was drifting towards the break when Dan Neil was sent off for the home side for dissent, having been booked earlier in the half. Thereafter Middlesbrough absolutely turned it on.
Sam Greenwood gave them the lead before Matt Crooks made it 2-0 just two minutes later.
The classy Isaiah Jones made it three with a cool finish and sub Marcus Forss wrapped it all up with a tap-in late on.
Four wins in a row for Michael Carrick's men, a day to forget for the Wearsiders.
Ok so I was wrong !
Where did Boro3 go to?
But, but, but a huge welcome to Boro4
Get in ⚽️⚽️⚽️⚽️
OFB
Match report + photos from The Daily Fail (& another reporter who can't spell "Isaiah" (first reference; he gets it right later in the article):
Could I just say, as a frequent critic of Jones, I always said that he was a lightweight, saying he needed a crash course in bodybuilding. Well, it's time to say sorry, he is now throwing his weight about, for the second time in five days he is forcing his way into situations and proving an absolute pain in the neck. How Good are we? Answers on a postcard.j
Well nice to win after their fans giving it large and another clean sheet long may it continue UTB
Despite my forecast that Sunderland would win I was quietly thinking that “ I’d really love it “ if Boro could prove me wrong . Unlike Kevin Keegan who didn’t get his wish , I did.
I have to say that whilst the sending off had an impact on the game the performance of the players individually and collectively was excellent.
Philip of Huddersfield 👍👋🤗
I think I’m cracking up. Since 2.30 pm, I’ve been smiling, laughing maniacally and doing virtual jigs around the living room, and I can’t seem to stop it I can’t think why!!
In a post a couple of days ago, I hoped that Boro would weather the Sunland storm, play some good football and perhaps get something from the game. Next week, I’m going to hope I win the lottery!
I’d also like to apologise to Michael Carrick. I was one of the blog’s foremost worriers at our early season lack of form. Needn’t have fretted. The boy has turned it around superbly. Crisis, what crisis?
Fantastic win today. There were no poor performers and we managed the game brilliantly from minute one.
Isaiah Jones will rightly get the plaudits for his MotM performance but I thought that Dieng made some crucial saves in the first half and was assured throughout whilst Dael Fry was back to his best all afternoon. The sending off undoubtedly changed the game for us but those two played a big part in giving us that platform to take advantage.
Hackney and Barlaser is starting to look very promising as a partnership. They ran the game especially in the second half. We’ve seen Boro sides struggle to capitalise on a man advantage many times in the past but the way those two dictated the play was impressive.
I also thought Latte Lath looked an absolute handful off the bench again and was pleased to see Forss get a goal. I can imagine he was frustrated at not starting today with McGree not included and he didn’t look too happy even when he scored!
Shame there’s an International break really after 5 wins on the spin and two consecutive clean sheets.
Boro are back.
Hello, it's incoherent here in West Norfolk.
I'm still eight miles high and I still haven't touched down. I know they were down to ten men but you still have to score to win against what's in front of you and there have been times in the recent history when Boro would not have scored and been busy trying to keep a point. Full marks there and for Izzy, he's becoming a real wasps nest to the opposition.
Tomorrow morning I promise to be a little more coherent, And the Boss keeps asking why I'm so happy?
All the best everyone.
UTB,
John
@andy-r. Excellent summary Andy and I couldn’t agree more, I thought Dieng and Fry were immense and the whole squad put in a shift and were deservedly rewarded; they also played some excellent football.
I also agree that the sending off (silly boy) had a major impact but you can only beat what is in front of you. Boro teams of old would have failed to capitalise on such a situation but not today.
Are we seeing the changing of the guard, Hackney and Barlaser as opposed to Hackney and Howson?
Izzy seemed to be back to his best and we managed our best win of the season without our number one player, McGree!
What is not to like, well we could do without an International break but we can’t have everything and Sunderland 0 Boro 4, I said Sunderland 0 Boro 4 will do for me.
Happy days and the next two weeks; enjoy, I certainly will. 😊😊😊😊😎
Did you see Forss after he scored ?
He took both hands one either side of his face and pulled his face into a grin 😁!
A hidden point ?
OFB
Brilliant
Fry was my MOM, solid, I can't figure him out you know it's there, big game today, immense, against Harry Kane immense shut him down, then other times looks lost, hope he finally gets consistent, heard Wheater say he'd pick McNair alongside Fry, I agreed at the time, McNair is not the best defender around , but he can read things and brings it out of defense subsequently retaining possession, better than Lenahan.
After a very shaky start, seems the players have settled and rather than individual play understand the Carrick way.
That, my friends, is how to begin a really GOOD weekend. I have no idea what the prematch odds would have been for a 0-4 final score, but not many would have expected that outome, despite Boro's recent form. Let's not forget that our northern neighbours were, themselves, in good form. The end result was an absolute spanking, and very enjoyable. We now have a couple of weeks to savour it.
Maybe a Starter for Boro v Birmingham, should appear in about a week's time, to allow enough of an opportunity to gloat over Sunderland 0-4 Boro.
Did you see Forss after he scored ?
He took both hands one either side of his face and pulled his face into a grin 😁!
A hidden point ?
OFB
Yes, I saw that and wondered why. Forss does have a genuine problem with Jones playing this well and Coburn and Latte Lath battling for the starting place up front, I'm not sure how he gets a place in the first team. I don't see him coming off the left or in the number ten slot. Maybe he is destined to be the 'impact sub' for the moment. On the Coburn/Latte Lath situation, I understand why Coburn starts n games where we could be under pressure. He is big and quite fast and good at playing with his back to goal, thereby providing a way out. However, I must admit to being very impressed with Latte Lath when he came on. He outjumped the monster centre half and is lightning quick and really hits a hard shot. I could see him scoring 15+ goals this season. He may get the nod for games in which we ae expected to have a lot of possession.
I accept that Fry was much more solid than recently and Jones was sparkly and devastating at times but Hackney is the heart and soul of this team. He is always available to the rest of the team and has an almost supernatural ability to keep the ball and just find the moment for a pass. He is also very strong in one on one situations. He has a real chance to become one of the top midfield players in the game.
This victory felt a little bit odd because Sunderland were so poor in the second half. It was almost as if they were having a team sulk and that could be partly due to the very young age of a lot of the players. Boro did almost everything right and showed how devastating Carrick's style can be when a team has room to get on top. We have just about caught up on our poor start to the season. Despite only being sixteenth, a couple more wins will suddenly see a major move up the table.
UTB
Still buzzing after that. We were the ones who ended up in Wonderland.
We won that match the same way we have lost matches in the past. It was pretty even up until the sending off but Sunderland's response was naive. They conceded a goal then another one quickly while reeling. After that they just went to pieces and couldn't handle us. We have done the same, say against Huddersfield.
@werdermouth said earlier that Mowbray's weakness can be overthinking things and he seems to have fallen into that trap. Apparently he set up Sunderland differently to adapt to us and seems to have knocked the players off their stride. After half-time he then put Jack Clarke directly up against Izzy which means Jones must have thought all his Christmasses had come at once.
It is fantastic seeing the old Crook & Jones combination back in action. I still remember that run of matches under Wilder where deep in extra time, game after game, Jones would terrify the defenders and cross to Crooks to tap in.
I think Greenwood could end up being a special player for us. He's probably still at only 80% but he has an eye for goal, great engine and a bit of devil about him. Like most of us, I was surprised when he turned up at the end of the window.
And Fry running down the wing. Its funny watching him get the ball, check behind him to see who he can pass back to, see no one and think "eff it, I'm going to Downing this sucker."
14 points from 11 games going into the international break. It's towards the lower end of what I was expecting by this time of the season but the way we have got here was not what I expected at all. Next step is sustaining this improvement. I don't mean winning 4 out of every 5 games, that's unrealistic but if we can keep up around 8 points every 5 games between now and Christmas then we'll be set fair. I keep coming back to Woodgate winning manager of the month the season he almost got us relegated. Almost every team in the Championship can have a golden run but to do well you need several.
Well, I certainly would not have put my last Euro on that score, hoping for a result and more than happy with a draw.
It now appears that some of the imports are starting to bed into the team structure and system.
I for one hopes this continues and I have to eat humble pie on that. However they and all the squad have to attain consistency. As deleried alluded to, we will not beat everyone or draw even. When we come up against the Leicester’s and Ipswich’s it maybe a different matter.
But, let’s enjoy the turn and upward movement in the League.
As for the International break, again maybe it has come at the right time. A bit of recuperation for some of the squad, but not for those playing in the Internationals. If McGree was injured yesterday, then he should not in reality be allowed to join up with the Australian Squad, but stay at Rockcliffe and recover.
Of course McGree will want to go and play if possible. Hopefully this will not cause a rift between him and MC, because I believe there was something going on between them /MFC during those early games and the transfer window.
However a great game to watch, great result and some great performances. Even Fry, with his cross for the goal, hit would you believe with his LEFT foot. Unbelievable as Jeff Sterling would say. 🤣🤣
For balance, I read the match report on the Sunderland Echo website and they were also critical of Mowbray's tactics after the sending off and felt he left them too open in midfield. Having said that Hackney and Barlaser dominated the midfield with their passing and moving so ten men stood little chance when they left themselves too open.
I'd also agree that Greenwood has stepped up in the last few matches and is proving a good energetic player that helped to compensate for the loss of McGree. Still not sure about Rogers but I did note he had a couple of good plays when he came on mixed with a few could-have-done-better moments and while it was nice that Carrick could give most of fringe players some time on the pitch as Boro coasted to victory, it will be hard to see the likes of Silvera and Rogers getting much more of that in the coming weeks.
I did note that McGree had limped off at the end of the Cardiff game but it didn't look too serious but probably had some swelling the next day so best not to risk it being aggravated - just look what happened to van den Berg in the pre-match warm-up!
Anyway, I'm sure McGree will be more than keen to be fit for Friday's big friendly at Wembley and will be interesting to see how he performs against England - hopefully not too well as the January window is not that far off now...
What a sporting day yesterday was - I recorded the Boro game and managed to avoid seeing the score, so it was quite a shock to see the game later. What a tremendous performance in the second half.
To put the icing on the cake, Wigan Warriors won to take us through to the RL Grand Final. Add in a day at the play farm and beach with family and you’ve got a Saturday Carlsberg would be proud of!
@werdermouth Yes, as yourself and others have said, previously.
If you are a Championship Club, or most of the EPL Clubs in fact, then the downside of playing well on the back of two or three players, is it attracts attention.
HH has continued on from last season, so not a one season wonder, McGree will have his suitors, as will Jones, with his rediscovered form and goals.
As we saw with Tavernier (not so much Spence, we were lucky with him) when the bigger clubs come calling and lay down the cash in Fee and improved wages, it is hard to turn down.
Lets hope that some of the “Projects” and of course, the under 23’s, can step up like HH has done.
Did you see Forss after he scored ?
He took both hands one either side of his face and pulled his face into a grin 😁!
A hidden point ?
OFB
Just my take on the point, it has to be taken into account that all the goals were scored in front of the Sunderland faithful (like our South Stand) and after Smith ushering everyone away when the previous goals were scored, maybe it was Forss way of taunting their fans without being to provocative, if it had been in front of our fans then maybe something more could be read into it 🤔. After 5 impressive results I, for one, do not want to try to read something negative into team morale.
Come on BORO.
Just to let everyone know that my smile remains broader than the smile shown by Forss after his goal. But I don't need the fingers.
I wonder who's fans are having the most fun - Burnley, Luton, Sheffield United or Middlesbrough.
@peter-surtees Good point - I’ve said many times that getting promoted is a bit of a poisoned chalice sometimes, although I’m sure we’d all drink it down.
@werdermouth It is always interesting listening to the opponents commentators and their take on incidents during the game.
Normally when the Boro are away, the stream I watch is by the home team commentators. Likewise, when at home it is Drury and Maddison, which I turn off. (only joking)
I missed the penalty appeal against Crooks and never heard any more about that incident. The sending off, they were apoplectic. Why could Neil not swear at the Referee. I guess they must have been choice words?
Second half they were very complimentary towards Boro’s style of football and bearing that in mind, thought that TM got his formation wrong. It was one of those days, we move on.
How many pigs did we see flying over the Stadium of Light yesterday?
I counted at least four- and I don't mean one for every goal.
First of all that wholly improbable 0-4.
I can say with some confidence that no one in the entire land will have predicted that scoreline on the grounds that anyone foolish enough to part with their own money on such an unlikely outcome would have rendered themselves bankrupt or homeless many years ago.
It was the best result for us ever on Wearside and I'm only sorry that Ken did not get to witness such a momentous, history-breaking occasion.
And the result did not flatter us. It could have been more, and would have been had Crooks and McNair not missed earlier chances and had we not taken our foot off the pedal by substituting our most potent attackers in the final 20 minutes.
Winning against ten men is rarely as simple as we made it seem. Who can forget our abysmal failure to beat nine man Wolves at home under Pulis's management? Get the ball into the box, put it in the mix and hope for the best was our sole strategy. That we managed to get a goal back was down to a piece of individual brilliance from Bamford. But we never looked like getting a point let alone winning the game.
How different yesterday. We probed, kept possession, recycled the ball and got behind their defence on numerous occasions. All credit to Carrick. The team had been well coached to meet precisely this kind of situation, just as they had been at West Brom when the shoe was on the other foot and our ten men put up spirited resistance and remained in the game until the final few minutes.
The second pig was another 'never before' moment. I'm pretty sure that never before in the history of the game has a football manager complained about a referee, not because he made a mistake or was biased or in error or failed to control the game. No, this time Tony Mowbray's complaint was that the referee had not been sufficiently "empathetic ".
This has surely opened up a rich new vein for managers on the lookout for reasons not to blame themselves or their team for a poor performance.
It cannot be long now before Neil Warnock berates a ref for his lack of emotional intelligence.
Or Sean Dyche says an official should have taken into consideration the effect his decision would have on his team's mental health.
And as for players being sent off just for telling a ref to "eff off", well the human rights lawyers and free speech advocates would have a field day.
Speaking of which, my third pig features something no less remarkable than the previous two.
This was Lee Cattermole- Lee Cattermole!- opining at half-time on the Sunderland lad's red card that the abuse of match officials " is an area of the game that for a long time now we have been trying to get out of the game, going back 20-30 years...but he is going to have to learn from that".
I could swear that I saw even that third pig, passing overhead, raise a quizzical eyebrow at Lee's self-definition as a Great Reformer in the tradition of William Wilberforce, Elizabeth Fry and Mrs Pankhurst. But good luck to him in his tireless fight against the uncouth and thuggish elements that still tarnish the game.
My fourth pig concerned another Lee . This time Lee Hendrie's summing up of yesterday's game. Now i have many memories of Mr Hendrie as a player, but I never suspected that he might be a consummate wordsmith. But all credit to him. He managed to sum up in one fine sentence the absolute essence of the entire encounter. It should go down in commentating history as a highpoint of the genre, far more impressive that the too-oft quoted,"They think it's all over..."
Here is what Lee Hendrie said. It was spontaneous and unrehearsed, but please note the perfect balance and symmetry of the sentence, its rhythm and cadence, and the way it carefully balances two evocative images, one auditory, the other visual, in such a way as to vividly conjure up for his audience both the relevant sound and image.
The Boro, he said, "not only silenced the crowd, they emptied the stadium".
On its way across the stadium that fourth pig just said "Perfect, simply perfect". But whether it was commenting on Lee Hendrie's words or the Boro performance I was quite unable to tell .