Great set of results.
Lots of excellent performances. Only real soft spot was Iheanacho who just didn't manage to get involved. The big plus was the effort, the press and the general attitude. Enough for me to keep on hoping.
UTB
I lost the feed for 10 minutes in the second half only for it to return as QPR scored - if certainty made for nervous last 15 minutes and especially that last gasp header by their keeper - Phew!
Boro still hanging in there and would be good to go into the international break with 3 points on Saturday too!
Phew !! Bit tense last 10 minutes but Boro got over the line.
Overall, Boro were the better team and deserved to win.
A number of pluses. Travers looks good. Forget Borges as a left back - he did well with Howson and i will be happy with these two for the next game. Hackney and Morris were busy and showed a lot of endeavour. Dijksteel deserves credit for his goal as did Conway who did a lot of running when out of possession. Burgzorg again put the effort in - he looked disappointed when substituted near the end.
Overall, a lot more energy than in some recent games.
Bad news ? - Azaz looked to damage his hamstring in the last couple of minutes.
The other results could have been a bit kinder but if Boro are to make a late push for a top 6 position then it’s their results which matter..
Philip of Huddersfield
👍👍😁😁
Pity Bristol City got a last minute equalizer at Sheffield United 🙁
That was much more encouraging, with good performances from most players in red. The 2 fill-in centre-backs played really well and Iling-Junior looked the part at left back. Have we perhaps soothed that troublesome sore spot quite by chance? Dijksteel had a very good game and his goal, a carbon copy of the one he got at Leeds in the Carabao Cup, was a thing of beauty. I also really liked the strong contributions made by Morris, Hackney and Burgzorg. In truth, though, nobody had a particularly poor game. It was good to see Azaz tackling back when necessary and better still to see him get another assist with a fine pinpoint cross. Even Iheanacho got more involved and in flashes showed that he may have something good to offer once he’s fit enough.
QPR were poor generally, and it was a shame to concede to them, especially as that led to a nervy finish. But we held on. It sounds more positive to note that we have now won 3 of the last 4 games, rather than focussing on how many we’ve lost in this longer run of games. I know those 3 wins were against struggling sides in Stoke, Derby and QPR, but they’re the kind of games we lose all too frequently. The season is still alive, somehow. Now, we simply have to build on that by beating Luton and Oxford before we come to some potentially more challenging matches.
Hartlepool Mail player ratings = 8s for Dijksteel & HH:
& the Gazette's:
Sorry, I posted the above before Bristol City got the equalizer at Sheffield United late on.Last four games with 2,25 points per game average.
Back to seventh in the table.
A good performance until the corner and goal for QPR.
Did I see OFB with his missus in the main stand, too?
Live is good. Up the Boro!
So we are eighth in the table now, but still only three points behind WBA and Covenrty in the 5th and 6th places. Blackburn have a game in hand tonight and can go above us. But still the gap will be three points to the playoffs.
Life is good. The first half was really enjoyable last night.
Up the Boro!
I missed the first half and joined the action with a couple of minutes to spare to catch Dijksteel's brilliant goal. Like Clive mentioned, almost identical to the one he scored at Elland Road in the Carabao Cup.
We looked sharper and not giving QPR too much time on the ball before closing them down. That said, Rangers did begin to work their way back into the game and we did begin to retreat into our shell. Borges looked good at the back. Howson's presense appeared to make all the difference. How much we need an experienced head like his for the next few seasons. I do hope he gets to stay with the club as part of the coaching team.
We might be only three points outside the top six, but it is not ours to win. We are dependent on three teams from four, all in good form, each dropping three points in respect to us over the next nine rounds. Arguably. It is three teams from three unless we also improve our goal difference by five relative to WBA.
We can only do what we do and hope.
PS. I don't think I said thank you Jarkko for your excellent introduction piece written in better English than many natives could ever dream of using.
@jarkko - Colleague who is half Finnish. He might even have attended college in Finland.
But at least Boro snaffled three points last night in a match that was better to watch than some recent games I could mention.
@powmillnaemore - MFC's Finnish Ambassador is a bit of a star, isn't he?
Indubitably 😊@powmillnaemore - MFC's Finnish Ambassador is a bit of a star, isn't he?
@powmillnaemore A new word learnt.
Indubitably. Thank you.
The first half was excellent - pity you missed. Should have been 3-1 at HT.
Up the Boro!
All the more annoying that Boro didn't turn up at Swansea as we should be in the top six now!
@werdermouth - It is things like this that amuse me. (What did I do there? "IS" with thingS!).
In some countries there are bodies which have been set up to formalise spellings and grammar in the local language. Rules are set and it may be that the members of those bodies hope and expect the rules will be followed*. Most famous here are the Academie Francaise which was originally established in 1635 to set out the rules for the use of the French language. The RAE (the Royal Academy of Spain) was set up in 1714.
* I'm sure everyone in France dutifully follows the strictures of the Academy in avoiding the use of "streamer" and "e-sports" but uses instead the French equivalent of "jouer-animateur en direct" and "jeu video de competition" respectively.
England does not have such a body. Obviously there are books on grammar and there are dictionaries. You may not be fined if you disregard those rules though you might be marked down for doing so in an examination. There are teachers and other professionals whose use of language or words in certain terms may have to be precise in order to avoid confusion (at its mildest) or real disputes - for example in legal documents or in a medical report. And the language used in a more formal setting (a university or a job interview or in a book) may be different to that used on the terraces of a football club or when talking to friends at the bar of the "Dog & Duck". Writing often uses a more formal version of the language than speech.
So in the UK we don't have a definitive England language rule-book. We do have Fowler's Modern English Usage but obviously that doesn't have any legal authority behind it. Fowler tells us that for collective nouns (as in the sentences "Manchester United are playing well" and "The Government have tabled a proposed amendment to The Theft Act 1968"), in the USA the singular form would be used whereas in Britain it would more often be the plural. Fowler suggests that in Britain the common usage "allows for and sometimes prefers plural verbs" in those circumstances, when referring to sporting teams, families, governments and companies etc.
I tend to use the US singular form rather than the plural form which is more commonly used in Britain. Which probably demonstrates that I am not as consistent as I'd like to believe. Maybe as inconsistent as the English language itself, or Middlesbrough's form.
So, what it boils down to is this - there is no RULE governing this, but in Britain the plural is used more often for some collective nouns. But I'd still say: Middlesbrough is a football team. The club is in The Championship. Middlesbrough's form has recently been inconsistent. (Probably little dispute there!). But I'd also say, Boro currently stands 8th in the league table. Middesbrough has no fit centre-backs at present. Yesterday Boro was leading 1-0 at HT. (For those, many would use the plural - Boro WERE losing 1-0 etc). And as for the Government I'd always say "The Government has put forward proposals to change the law on privately rented property" or "The Government intends a complete review of public spending" (rather than HAVE put forward, or INTEND...).
So you can choose which you prefer. Unless you write a book for Publisher A rather than Publisher B, or an article for one newspaper rather than another (when the "House Style Guide" will apply if you want to see the work eventually appear in print!).
And to show how it all works in reality: Elvis Costello probably didn't write his songs with the intention of being quoted on a Boro Blog. He may or may not hold himself out as an authority to be quoted on English usage. But if you look at the lyrics of his song "Oliver's Army" you will see :
Oliver's Army is here to stay
Oliver's Army are on their way.
So, both versions, immediately one after the other in consecutive lines of his song. Elvis is saying we can use both! Could there be any higher authority?
@forever-dormo of course and with ever growing dependence on auto corrected text, accidents will happen, sometimes leading to a brilliant mistake, but whatever I do write in here, please don't let me be misunderstood. Not forgetting to add, as this is a football blog that quite definitely, I don't want to go to chelsea 😉
Pleased with the win, won't predict we will now get playoffs, given we are almost down to our last 14 fit first teamers, did Azaz get injured?
Special praise for Borges who has stepped up and seems to be giving it his all, nervy end to the game and we shouldn't lose sight of the fact that our last 3 wins were against poor teams. But you can only beat what is in front of you, taking a stance as groups doom monger it's the hope that kills you.........
Very good and amusing too - as someone who hasn't really spent much time studying English grammar (which certainly put me at as disadvantage when learning the more complicated German grammar) I often just operate with a subconscious knowledge of grammar and seem to know what sounds right - though that must have some kind of personal preference given the ambiguities you mention and that may be based on what I've read or listened to.
I bow to the authority of Costello on Oliver's army but maybe he knows more than we expect in terms of English grammar and collective nouns.
Oliver's Army is here to stay - this perhaps refers to the entity of his army - whereas Oliver's Army are on their way - speaks of the soldiers that are collectively on their way. Whether he didn't care for the line "Oliver's Army is on its way" is another matter.
I think in that regard, Middlesbrough Football Club could be regarded as an entity and thus singular - Middlesbrough [the club] has announced the new season ticket prices - but Middlesbrough the team is treated as a plural - so, Middlesbrough have no fit central defenders.
Though as you say, English changes due to usage so it may well become a different language as the world continues to absorb it as a second language and grammar gets transposed to fit into the structure of other languages - probably much in the same way I am attempting to create my own German grammar 😉
I suppose the situation may be explained as follows. The 5 consecutive defeats didn't define Boro as a poor team (even though it might have felt so at the time) and the subsequent wins against Stoke, Derby and QPR (we'll ignore the Swansea game as it deserves no further attention) don't define Boro as a good team. Boro, in Championship terms, is currently an "OK team". Boro will win some games and lose others (sadly some of the defeats will come against poor teams we think Boro should beat). There will be both pleasure and pain, as almost always, in following Boro.
Boro's current place in the table (8th) may drop a rung on the ladder depending on tonight's results for other teams - we are watching you, Blackburn - and if the team were to end up finishing 8th or 9th it would be difficult not to feel disappointed. As if this amounted to an underperformance.
The other side to that coin is that Boro COULD in some very warped universe qualify for the Play-Offs and if one has a ticket one could always win the Lottery. But realistically if Boro had the stroke of luck to finish in the Top Six, it would take some stetch of the mind to imagine Boro beating one of, say, Bristol City, Blackburn and West Brom over 2 legs, and then to beat one of the current Top Four (Sunderland, Burnley, Leeds or Sheffield United) at Wembley. I suppose other permutations are possible with 30 points for some teams, and 27 points for others still available, but the Top Four seems set in stone. Middlesbrough COULD beat a Top Four team but it is hardly likely.
Imagine that Leeds "bottle it" again and end up in the Play-Offs, with Boro beating Leeds at Wembley. Now that would be SOME dream, and a universe I'd like to inhabit!
@forever-dormo we have this in Finland: https://en.kotus.fi/
But I don't think they can fine anyone. But every paper or radio is following their recommendations.
Mind, language is changing constantly. Hence these authorities are needed. Something that was taught at school 50 years ago, might be taught differently in 2020's.
So younger people might have a different view on the correct English.
I prefer Dormo's analogy. How do you know if a word like radio is the company or people doing it. Some might think the BBC is/are a house rather than the workers.
Up the Boro!
I suppose it may feel to many outside Teesside as an injustice if Boro were to win the play-offs given the huge gulf in performance between us and the top four - currently Boro have only lost 2 games fewer than the whole of the top 4 combined. Boro could indeed still make the play-offs having lost a third of their games
btw I'm now conscious of using the plural "their games" instead of the singular "its games" - strangely it would sound odd to me to use the latter. Incidentally, we can be grateful that we have no gender in English as the German for team is 'Die Mannschaft', which is feminine, so you could end up saying Boro [the team] has lost a third of her games!
Gender in languages is still something that sounds completely alien to me and often has no obvious connection as to why it's masculine, feminine or neutral - all seems just an added complication to get your head around along with needing to know what is the direct object and indirect object among many other things.
A family favourite story on predictive text:
My mother-in-law once texted a friend to enquire how her winter holiday was going. “Fantastic”, came the reply, “Sipping wine by the fire”.
At least that’s what the reply was meant to say. What it actually said was, “Fantastic. Ripping wind by the fire”.
Just to add on the grammar of football teams - if someone asked you "how did Middlesbrough get on yesterday?" - since you would never say "it won 2-1" would you reply with a singular 'they' or a plural 'they' - as in "they won 2-1" or even go for the collective "We won 2-1".
My original grammatical reply to @Jarkko is increasingly looking more valid or, at the very least, less incorrect. I’m a big believer in flexibility of language - as long as the gist is conveyed and understood, I’m happy to be fluid in usage.
Although I draw the line at the confusion over “fewer” and “less”!
I’ve just rewatched the highlights of last night’s game - can you imagine the scenes and the despair on here if their GK had scored with that header near the end?
Football’s a game of fine margins.
@werdermouth - Funnily enough if anyone, for example in the pub tonight, asks me how Boro had got on yesterday, I'd probably say either "Won - yippee!" or, more likely, "We won 2-1!" because when talking about Boro like that I include myself as part of the Boro despite my not infrequent moans. It's like moaning about a family member. I've had the same seat for 30 years since the Riverside opened its doors and the seat has my name on it.
But I get your point. Sometimes it might seem stilted to use "it" instead of the club. When typing I'd probably structure the sentence to avoid "it" or "they". I suppose I could go back to previous threads to see what I have done in the past. But food is currently calling me...
@ Martin Bellamy
Although I draw the line at the confusion over “fewer” and “less”!
So do I, Martin. I’m so glad you want to see these two used properly. If I hear someone say on the TV, eg ‘Newcastle have scored less goals than most of their rivals,’ I want to scream out loud: ‘No, you idiot, it’s FEWER goals!’ But these days, I just mutter it quietly to myself through gnashing teeth. If I say it out loud, most people don’t get the difference, while others just think I’m either bonkers or a raging pedant. Actually, I’m both!
I'm trying to control my inner pendant, but every time I hear or read "For free!", which is usually several times a day, I'm off again.
It's a hopeless cause. Much like the play-offs.
I hate it when the BBC talks about interest rates moving by " a quarter of one percent" instead of " a quarter of a percent"