A comfortable win in the end for Boro with Hackney's superb solo run and strike worthy of winning any game - in his best performance this season. Stoke turned out to be ideal opponents after Boro had struggled to break down teams sitting deep - they wanted the ball but didn't really do much with it but left enough space behind them for Boro to exploit - particularly McGree who added that intelligence to find the space and team-mates.
Doak got the plaudits for an exciting energetic first-half performance and overall Boro looked more like a team today than they have so far this season. Perhaps we saw the benefit of starting with players who knew their roles today as those who were struggling to settle into the season were mostly left on the bench - Conway wasn't missed and Burgzorg and Hamilton look like they'll need some time to establish themselves.
A good win that gives the team confidence to go to West Brom knowing their hosts are beatable after losing to Sheff Wednesday in the early kick-off.
Player ratings:
Echo - https://www.thenorthernecho.co.uk/sport/24616572.middlesbrough-vs-stoke-player-ratings-liverpools-ben-doak-shines/ (Doak MotM)
And last, but not least - The Hartlepool Mail - https://www.hartlepoolmail.co.uk/sport/football/middlesbrough-fc/real-threat-middlesbrough-player-rating-photos-after-stoke-win-including-three-810s-gallery-4801451?page=1
That’s better.
A win, 3 points, scored from open play and no goals conceded.
The general view is the team played much better than previous games. Could it be that the starting 11 is approaching the best 11.
So, hopefully the team will go to WBA on Tuesday in a much more confident mood. The game is on SKY so ,we long distance supporters can enjoy watching our team.
Philip of Huddersfield 👍😂
The performance of teams can be so up and down - the locals here started the season really well but the last 3 games has seen 3 defeats and awful performances.
Enjoy watching the team, erm might be a slight stretch, admittedly we did look better today. It's nice to see a player running at people and making defenders worry. Also it appears we have missed the Aussie that much. First half was enjoyable but they were poor.
An excellent match. We were occationally so dominant, that Stoke looked poor. Mind, they are a better team than Derby or Portsmouth. So please do not underestimate the work Carrick and players are doing.
The start of the season was worse than expexcted this season, but before the Stoke match, we were still seven points better off than at the same time last season. So now on, we just need to play as well as last season. Not more is needed points wise.
The really good news are that now we have much, much stronger group number and quality wise. So hopefully we do not run out of fit players this time around. Let's hope there will be no more long term injuries this season.
I departed Barcelona at 10:40 yesterday. So after a nearly four hours' flight I was home about one hour before the match. After a six day week at work, I was able to relax and enjoy the whole match on TV via an official stream of Boro Live.
By far our best performance of the season - but still we should have won it by four goals. But at least it was a big step forward.
So really looking forward to the next match at The Hawthorns on Tuesday.
Up the Boro - the Boro is going up!
Well, a much better performance and a deserved win and welcome three points.
A much-improved tempo enabled the team to move the ball quickly and accurately with some defence splitting passes which were pleasing to the eye.
The return of McGree and the starting of Doak from the outset had a significant positive impact on both the game and also some of those around them; Hackney had probably his best game in a long time topped off with a cracking goal. Azaz looked far more assured and linked well with McGree at times albeit still showing some of his usual flaws.
Latte Lath looked brighter and was unlucky not to score. He is still not back to his form at the end of last season and in fact looks to be more like the player he was when he initially joined us. Hopefully he can revert to his end of last season performances soon.
It was good to see RvDB back on the field and hopefully the injuries to Clarke and Conway will be of a minor nature and short lived.
Clearly yesterday was a step in the right direction but we should not get too carried away as Stoke were a poor side and whilst they did not cause too much of a threat, they enabled an open game which suited us and it might perhaps have been different had they employed the low block.
Tuesday will be a difficult night against the Baggies, who surprisingly lost to the Sheffield Wednesday yesterday. Ideally, we could do with another win to maintain the winning momentum but I would gladly settle for a point as long as we get three at Watford next Saturday. 😎
As many of us assumed, there was no change in approach for yesterday’s game, just some much needed changes in personnel. Dijksteel was an enforced change but I wonder if McGree and Doak were always due to start this one, and boy did they make a difference.
The key was the tempo and crispness of the passing, which allowed us to find attacking players in space before Stoke had got themselves organised and into shape, though I do agree with Werder that Stoke allowed us to play more than anyone since Leeds in the cup.
McGree was so important to that tempo as he was so good at receiving the ball on the half turn and being able to move it quickly and accurately.
Doak was then able to receive the ball time and again in 1v1 situations which he absolutely relished. I did wonder what Isaiah Jones made of it. It’s easy to sit back and say Doak is far superior but Jones has so rarely received the ball in space against an isolated opponent.
Still, Doak was excellent as as well as running at his man with zeal he also showed a two-footedness (is that a word?) and willingness to shoot that Jones has rarely been able to or capable of. Doak’s shooting was largely rushed and off target but you can see a greater potential for goals there.
I thought Latte Lath and Azaz both had their best games so far but we still need more end-product particularly from Azaz, who gets himself into great positions but still doesn’t convince with his final pass at times and especially his finishing, which is often on target but weak.
Hackney was back to something like his best with McGree and Azaz both finding space between the lines for him to pass to.
The makeshift defence was largely untroubled by a Stoke side that were clearly trying to adjust to a new manager and hadn’t found themselves yet.
All in all, a really enjoyable game and a comfortable and deserved three points.
Great post and is exactly what I was going to post before Ms OFB insisted I watch the new series of Shogun last night for two hours !
So thought I would have a post this morning and you’ve beaten me to it!
Mind, my post wouldn’t have been so eloquently written!
OFB
Dom Shaw not happy with the standard of officiating:
Key paragraph:
That [HH's goal] came after Stoke substitute Sam Gallagher had spurned a glorious chance to level when he headed over from inside the box. Gallagher has a fine record at the Riverside, but his afternoon should have ended early. Already on a yellow, he somehow escaped a second caution after a foul on Hackney. It summed up a poor display from referee Stephen Martin, who didn’t need a second invite to flash his cards all afternoon and dished out 11 yellows – only to then bizarrely refrain from sending Gallagher off.
Any thoughts, Bob?
Dom on Doak:
@andy-r. Good post Andy and I think we have all agreed that the performance was probably the best of the season so far.
However there are still more improvements required. Stoke were a very poor team, possibly more so due to the change in Coach and system.
I watched the game, with the Stoke commentary (I cannot put up with Maddison's comments) and they were very complimentary about. Boro.
We did play some nice football at times, but I thought that we dropped the intensity and also defended a little deeper in the second half.
We now have two difficult games this week coming and a real test against any improvements we think we have made.
More are needed. We nearly got caught out from a very quick Stoke break (before Doak's goal) after losing the ball in the box. A better forward would probably have scored.
We need our shooting to be far better and the decision making along with it. Yes 26 shots in the game, but only 9 on target against a team not using the "low block".
If we are to make progress up the table into the top six and stay there, then we need more goals. Every team above and the majority below us, have scored more.
So, two hard games before the next break. We need to get something from them with regards to points, otherwise, we will be back where we started, ruing the points dropped against the previous poor teams played.
... McGree was so important to that tempo as he was so good at receiving the ball on the half turn and being able to move it quickly and accurately. Doak was then able to receive the ball time and again in 1v1 situations which he absolutely relished. ..
... Hackney was back to something like his best with McGree and Azaz both finding space between the lines for him to pass to. ...
I think most us - me included - expected both McGree and Hackney be the best players when the season started. But as they both were out so long injured, I think it always takes a few matches or more to get to the full action. The match fitness can only be reached when fully fit and by playing regularly for some time.
So I hope Hackney is back to his best now. McGree was excellent yesterday, but he might need a fortnight or more to be really back to his best constantly. So let's not expect we will see the Australian to play like yesterday in every match just yet.
So progress has been made as a team. And we can still improve. Up the Boro!
Thanks everyone for the good wishes but I expect to be in my East Upper seat for the Bristol game on the 19th.
It was great to see McGree back playing for the Boro yesterday and got a good 75 minutes, the only downside to his return is that he will be probably called up for their international matches against China 10 Oct and Japan 15 Oct, hope he comes back fit from them.
Come on BORO.
You’ve all summed up the game yesterday very well. Key points:
> We moved the ball with much greater pace and purpose, starting from the back. There was very little of the frustrating windscreen-wiper passing we’ve seen in recent games.
> Azaz was so much better in the number 10 role. He and McGree partnered one another really well.
> One of the reasons why I think Hackney had his best game is because Morris played the holding role (very effectively, too,) which allowed Hayden to play his more habitual advanced role. I like that combination, and I hope MC sticks with it.
> Boro’s press was highly effective throughout. The forwards continually blocked off Stoke’s attempts to play out from the back. This clearly helped us defensively by limiting Stoke attacks. The team as a whole defended very well.
> I like Isaiah Jones, but he’s got a lot of work to do to get his place back from Doak! That said, when he replaced the youngster after 70-odd minutes he did well, without the same magnificent impact obviously, but nonetheless causing Stoke problems.
> The ref did his best to ruin the game. He constantly blew for what appeared quite minor fouls, and somehow managed to issue 7 cards to Stoke and 4 to Boro. I thought a couple of theirs and a couple of ours were really undeserved.
Overall, this was an enjoyable game, which Boro completely dominated (even if the possession statistics don’t say that.) We played some beautiful, fluid football at times, carved out several chances and had 26 shots and 40 touches in the opposition box. This was a well-deserved win, though admittedly against poor opposition.
Did anybody else see what appeared to be a very negative reaction from the Stoke fans towards their own team at the end of the game? My brother and I both thought they were booing their own players intensely and with a good deal of hand-gesturing. If my interpretation is correct, that really isn’t a good sign for Stoke and their new manager. Is this a club nearing crisis?
Finally, belated best wishes to Exmil. All the best, mate. Hope it all goes really well.
I thought the ref had a poor game and tried to control using yellow cards and should have issued a red after previously booking a Stoke player in the first half and instead just administered a warning for second foul.
We’ve had some poor officials in the Championship this season !
OFB
I would say in the ref's defence that although it was not a dirty or even particularly robust game, almost all of the cards were well justified.
It's the ref's job to enforce the laws of the game and recent attempts to discourage the most annoying practices from the spectators' point of view and for the over all good of the game should be applauded.
All players know by now that time wasting by kicking the ball away is a yellow card offence and it's perverse to blame refs for enforcing it.
The same can be said for the almost universal practice of grabbing at an opponent who is making a break without any attempt to play the ball. This breaks up play, prevents dangerous attacks and is generally regarded as taking one for the team. In many ways a yellow card seems too light a penalty. But it should certainly be the mandatory offence it is for a yellow card.
So the fact that there were so many cards yesterday was down to the teams and players rather than the ref.
To criticise the ref for not giving so many yellows but not a red seems perverse to me.
Like it or not- and it seems to me to be a good thing- the bar for giving a second yellow is much higher than for a first, because there are now so many first yellow card offences which do not involve dangerous play.
I don't like to see reds given unless it is absolutely clear cut. They can ruin the game as a spectacle and generally have a determining effect on the result.
Gallagher's foul would certainly have warranted a yellow card had it been a first offence. As it was a second it's more of a touch-and -go judgment and rightly so.
But to say, as Dom Shaw did, that because the ref "didn't need a second invite... to dish out yellow cards all afternoon" (as if this were something he relished) that it was' bizarre' for him to 'refrain from sending Gallagher off' is itself a bizarre assertion.
All of the yellow cards issued yesterday seemed to me to be not only well justified, but mandatory. If Shaw didn't get that then he has a limited understanding of the laws of the game on which he reports.
It has been a busy weekend but the football was, for once, good to watch.
I thought BORO could easily have conceded a couple of goals and the Stoke header, if I remember correctly, that went into the side-netting from only about 6 yards in the first half was a let-off. Despite which BORO played nice football and deserved the win. BORO looked a very different team than previously and I'm sure that was down to the starts made by McGree, Doak and Hayden Hackney. They are the players who can create chances for others (or in HH's cadse, for himself because his goal was a really good strike!). Hopefully, now they are in the team, they can be kept fit as they appear to me to be the ones who can make a difference.
Best of luck, exmil.
Got to go now, as the food in the oven needs tending...
This is an interesting take on the game from the Stoke Sentinel.
I was right about their fans’ reaction, and the writer’s scores for the players rather reflect what was a poor away performance. He also thinks our first goal was offside (so did their manager), but how either can judge that from, respectively, the press box and the dug-out, is beyond me.
@clive-hurren As I previously posted, I watched the game with Stoke commentators.
They both thought that Doak may have been possibly offside when he scored. However neither dealt on it, blaming the Stoke defence for allowing McGree too much space to shoot.
Your comment about Hackney is spot on. He needs movement. He is not a great passer of the ball but he excels at carrying the ball forward and spotting the early passes in to colleagues who have made space ahead of him - McGree, Azaz, Lathe Lath - or wide - Doak, etc. That way Boro attack quickly which is made even more effective when sides try to take us on rather than sit back. Hackney is not as good as a static midfield master-mind.
I hope that WBA come at us but it will be interesting to see if Corberan instead adopts the Sunderland approach and tries to tempt us into a slow paced static defeat.
UTB
Aftet this comment about the first goal being offside I had a look at the replays (over and over again !)
I think they are right and our first goal was offside !
OFB
@original-fat-bob You might be right. I looked the replayes a couple of times, too. But I cannot say either way. The pictures are not very clear and the view is not good on TV.
So I would rather trust the linesman who has the best view and it is his job.
I think we scored a good goal in there. Up the Boro!
Got to smile, away win looked comfortable and played well in all departments except one of the most important, putting ball in back of net, just think how good we could be if we converted half our chances, not complaining though.
UTB