I know our next game is quite a way off, but I’m heading back to Shropshire next week and thought I’d better post whilst I’ve got reliable WiFi. Anyway here goes:
As a club fan, it’s hard to be enthusiastic about the International Break – teams like the Boro don’t often have England players in their ranks, but do have a number who represent countries further down the international rankings, taking them away from the training pitch and making them vulnerable to injury. We’re injury prone enough without risking our fragile defence on distant shores.
The break does give us chance to catch our collective breath though and to take stock of our start to the season, which has been very much the curate’s egg approach, rather than in the style of a sprinter out of the blocks. 7 points out of a possible 12 and a league position of 7th may not be quite what we wanted, but it’s definitely an improvement on last year at this stage.
We return to action against Preston North End, who’s roller coaster start to their management team can’t be the best way to begin their campaign. I spotted this extract in the Guardian which highlights what’s happened and gives an example of an even crazier situation in Holland a few years ago.
“Rolling roll-call of managers
“Preston North End sacked Ryan Lowe after one league game of this season,” writes Sam Coare. “His interim replacement Mike Marsh left after their second league game, replaced by new boss Paul Heckingbottom. This will mean three different men will have taken charge of the team’s opening three league matches. Surely that must be a first?”
We can’t find another case of a team having a different manager for their first three league games. But there is a cracking mid-season tale from the Netherlands, retold here by Bas Vlaming: “In the 2016-17 Eerste Divisie, De Graafschap decided to sack their manager Jan Vreman in December, but his permanent replacement Henk de Jong was not directly available.
“To bridge the two games, Jan Oosterhuis was appointed as interim manager, but got sent off in his first match in charge against MVV. This brought Dennis te Braak in the fold for the remaining game against Almere, with De Jong finally taking charge afterwards. Result: four matches, four different managers in charge.”
Te Braak, the last resort, was the only manager to avoid defeat in those four matches: his team whipped Almere City 4-1.”
Back then, to our next opposition at the Riverside, and I’ve once again enlisted the help of PNE fan, Dave Allen, to give us his thoughts ahead of the game. A big thanks to Dave by the way, as he kindly emailed me some words the day before he flew out to Lanzarote for a well deserved holiday. Here’s what he had to say;
“Martin has once more, very kindly, asked me to write a few words as part of the build up to your home game with Preston on 14th Sept.
To be honest it’s quite a difficult thing for me to write this early in the season on the back of the totally unexpected upheaval we’ve just gone through after just one game of the season!
Let’s go back to last season as a start. We got a drubbing at your place in November but gained some sort of revenge with a narrow win in the return fixture. I stated in last season’s piece the the fans were divided on their opinions of the manager Ryan Lowe and this continued all the way through the season, although the dissenting voices became louder and greater in number by the end of it. We flirted with the play offs briefly but a run of 5 consecutive defeats in the final 5 games of the season with an aggregate score of 11 - 0 put paid to that!
We finished 10th, a feat that was lauded as progress by the manager and hierarchy ( 12th and 13th the previous two seasons) The fans , however, in the main had a different view, and for them it was time for a change of manager. None of the free flowing football Lowe had promised had been delivered, he stuck rigidly to the wing back system when the club didn’t have a wing back in the squad, one up top, poor use of substitutes and an inability to change things when it clearly wasn’t working! Most importantly the entertainment value was zero, I can’t recall being so bored so often as during his tenure! He did, however, always have nice white shiny trainers!
Amazingly, the powers that be stuck with him, went through a full pre-season with him, signed a couple of players, released others only for him to walk after losing the opening fixture 2-0 at home to Sheffield Utd!
They put his assistant in charge for the Swansea game away, which we lost 3-0 after which he walked too!
The club moved quickly and appointed Paul Heckingbottom as the new man to take charge and most supporters seem to be reasonably happy with that as he does have a good track record at this level.
In his first game in charge we beat Luton 1-0 at home to end our 7 game, no goals for, 16 goals against losing streak! We lost last weekend away to Oxford 3-1 but I’ve seen enough in both games to think we are in a better place with Heckingbottom in charge than Lowe! Only time will tell.
Defensively we are fragile, keeper Woodman seems to be short of confidence right now. Our centre backs aren’t the quickest and whilst we now have a recognised wing back, Kesler - Hayden (on loan from Villa) he’s being played on the wrong flank to accommodate Potts on the right! Liam Lindsay will be missing after picking up two yellows against Oxford!
Midfield wise we’ve added Sam Greenwood* on loan from Leeds, Stefan Thordarson and Josh Bowler to the squad. The Icelandic Thordarson looks a good acquisition from what I've seen so far.
Up front Riis found his shooting boots last weekend, with Will Keane playing just behind and Osmajic coming off the bench.
Difficult to say how we will line up against you on Saturday due to the new manager, but the international break has come at a good time for us allowing the new man a little extra time to get his ideas across.
I’ve not seen any of your games this season but I’d expect a win for you given our current state and also our record at your place!
Anything other than defeat would be an unexpected bonus!
See you next year!
Dave”
Many thanks to Dave and I hope his prediction is correct. I’m also pretty confident of a win against PNE – surely we can eventually turn all those shots into goals, but who knows which team MC will choose? Fingers crossed for no injuries from the players on International duty and that Latte Lath has put any thoughts of Ipswich Town behind him. I’m going for a foam handed 3-1 win – what say you?
*remember him?
Thanks Martin/Dave for the informative piece on our next opposition, an interesting and enjoyable read.
I feel that we should have too much for PNE and would like to think we should manage to win by at least two clear goals.
I just hope that Sam Greenwood doesn’t suddenly find his scoring boots! Cob 2-0. 😎
Martin
Thanks for the opener. Just seen this on the live reporting of the Scotland game
Ben Doak's pace, how Scotland have needed you.
Nothing comes of it, but, speed... yaaasss. The build-up, though, much better and brighter. Ben Doak really has brought a spark.
Wonder if he might be another Adama
Looks like we're watching the same live reporting!
Thanks Martin Dave much appreciated and a welcome post describing what success is needed to be a promotion manager
Nice white trainers !
I’ve looked at the runes and seen the future it’s the 👁️ 👁️ s in the skies !
Oh woe is me and thrice woe as Boro miss a penalty and have a goal disallowed for off side !
OFB
@original-fat-bob No! Don’t say that, this Perisher will be very disappointed!
Thanks Martin for a very interesting and informative opener with some excellent source material. Sets us up beautifully for the game.
Interesting reference to Riis, who was on a lengthy list of strikers Wilder's would have liked at the beginning of the 21/22 season. Had any one of them been delivered, including such cheap options as David McGoldrick, who went on to score 22 goals in 39 games for Derby, we would almost certainly been promoted that season. McGoldrick was, of course, rejected because he did not fit the desired formula for club signings.As it turned out we dominated many games in the opening months of the season but lacked the striker to make our dominance count.
Scott had delivered Hoppe and Forss. Wilder could not hide his anger and disappointment, referring to the over-priced pair as "projects". It was a very public humiliation for Scott and the beginning of a split for which Wilder ultimately paid with his job.
It will be interesting next week to see how Riis has developed .
@original-fat-bob This link’s for you, OFB. https://web.archive.org/web/20100130101830/http://www.theauthenticperishers.co.uk/menuindex.htm
Thanks Martin for an interesting and informative opener, including the contribution from Dave Allen.
Come on BORO.
Thanks for another great read @martin-bellamy, and pass on my thanks to Dave Allen for helping out with a great contribution from the other side. Dave isn't missing a half a finger, dissolved in neat whisky is he?
Safe journey to Shropshire.
Thank you Martin; very good preview. I really appreciate the time writers take to make their contributions. Way beyond what I could attempt!
It will be interesting to see how our injury list pans out in the coming weeks/months. I have heard it said that of all a professional footballer's abilities, the ability to be available to play on a regular basis is the most valuable. Some in our squad who may be rated as potential premiership quality may unfortunately be too injury prone to make that grade. UTB Chris
Here is an interesting interview with Kieran Scott after the transfer window closed:
https://www.mfc.co.uk/news/2024/september/06/kieran-scott-on-summer-window/
Come on BORO.
Btw, Teesside live have listed our squad now availabe for this season. At least we have more players.if we have some more injuries. So looks more strenght
Up the Boro!
Just before everyone starts to think about the game with the Lilywhites on Saturday, here is another reminder about the COTS challenge (that is Clairvoyant Of The Season) for this year. You have until 8pm on Friday (just as the Hull v Sheff Utd game kicks off) to get your entry posted. So far we have 9 entries recorded.
All you need to do is predict which teams will:
- FINISH TOP 6 = Team1, Team2, Team3, Team4, Team5, Team6, Optional1, Optional2, Optional3
- FINISH BOTTOM 3 = Team1, Team2, Team3, Optional1, Optional2, Optional3
- WIN AUTOMATIC PROMOTION = Team1, Team2, Optional1, Optional2
- BE CHAMPIONS = Team1, Optional1
- BE AN OVER ACHIEVER = Team1, Optional1
- BE AN UNDER ACHIEVER = Team1, Optional1
- AND FINALLY IN WHICH POSITION BORO WILL FINSISH THE SEASON = 1st
A team will be considered to have over-achieved if:
- it finishes 10 places higher than last season
- it is a promoted team that finishes in the top 9
A team will be considered to have under-achieved if:
- it finishes 10 places lower than last season
- it is a relegated team that finishes 10th or lower
You will score less points for predicting a team in the top 6 or bottom 3 if you have predicted from more than 6 teams (top) or 3 teams (bottom) and similarly for predicting from more than 2 teams for automatic promotion. On the other hand you could score more points for accurately predicting 2 over (or under) achievers, than for predicting just the one.
All the details are in the main post on the COTS thread, The Diasboro COTS Challenge 2024/25 (remember, you need to be logged in to be able to see threads in the "Social Club" forum in the Members area)
Thanks @jarkko and @clive-hurren COTS entries 10 and 11 received.
Are there any of the more recent Diasborians out there that fancy putting their predictive prowess to the test? It would be great to see some new names in the mix.
Hi Powmill
I hope that you can repeat your excellent idea from last season of putting in an entry that represents the majority view of Diasboreans.
As I recall it did very well. Didn't it come second?
it demonstrated one of my core beliefs that pooling collective experiences/knowledge/ wisdom produces better results than are attainable by individuals within that group
Hi @lenmasterman.
I agree it was a good marker of how good our collective footballing brains are. I will absolutely collate all the entries and make a combined Diasbora entry of the most popular selections.
I will also put in an entry of randomly selected teams, using the spreadsheet's random number generator to pick from the valid teams in each category. If you recall. Forever Dormo ran out of time to put in his considered choices and asked me to put a random entry in on his behalf.
Like last year, I will also post an update every 10 games or so, to see how we are all doing.
To everyone. Come on and get your thinking caps on and get your entries in before Friday's deadline.
This article may be of interest to Teessiders of a certain age: https://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/gallery/2024/sep/10/ian-macdonald-north-east-in-pictures?CMP=Share_iOSApp_Other
@martin-bellamy Wondeful pictures, thanks for sharing. I hope Anthony Vickers could see them, too. Has he ever been invited to join us in here?
Up the Boro!
Martin,
Thanks for the link, there's a fabulous book by Len Tabner and Ian Macdonald called 'Images of the Tees', it's published by Seaworks, it's very inspirational with fabulous imagery. Highly recommended.
UTB,
John
Thanks Martin evoking memories of the past which I remember so well.
So the good old days didn’t look that good did they ?
OFB
@john-richardson I’ve just looked for that book on Amazon. I might have to pass.
(I’ve just seen that Barter Books in Alnwick have it for £66 - if you’ve not been to BB it’s deffo worth a trip)
Speculation from the Lancashire Evening Post: https://www.lep.co.uk/sport/football/preston-north-end/preston-north-end-middlesbrough-team-injury-news-jack-whatmough-4774892
Martin, I bought my copy in the early 1990's but there is a small paperback volume printed by Cafe Royal books of Ian Macdonald's Tees Estuary photographs around Greatham Creek 1969 - 1974. They are still going and publishing a huge amount of 'social photography', it won't be as expensive as the other book!! there is a film about him and I'll try and find the link tomorrow.
All the best,
John
Look my friend Gavin's website The Smell of Water on www.teessidepsychogeography.wordpress.com and search Greatham and/or Ian Macdonald, the two posts are next to one another. The film is well worth a watch.
UTB,
John
@john-richardson Those photos are brilliant: https://www.amber-online.com/collection/tees-estuary/
They're fantastic, Sue and I saw the exhibition at the Side Gallery, I think it has closed now. There's another book called The Coal Coast' I've got it somewhere, I'll find it and send you the details.
ATB,
John
Martin,
Thanks for the link, there's a fabulous book by Len Tabner and Ian Macdonald called 'Images of the Tees', it's published by Seaworks, it's very inspirational with fabulous imagery. Highly recommended.
UTB,
John
My dad was in the same art group as len tabner taught by dickie dalton, david mulholland was in the same group and there is a picture of them all in david mulhollands book. My dad swears blind he was the best artist out of all of them.
Martin and John
Thanks both for the links to amazing photos. They’re incredibly atmospheric. I’ve always loved Paddy’s Hole as a unique place with a special atmosphere all of its own. These pictures capture that perfectly. I often used to take my elderly mother there in the 90s when I made frequent visits back to Middlesbrough to look after her at weekends. I recall that she wasn't quite as keen on the place as I was(!), but she could usually be persuaded to join me as long as we could then go for a cuppa or a lemon top in Redcar.
The Coal Coast is a catalogue/book about an exhibition at The Baltic in Gateshead a few years ago and the photographer, Sirkka-Liisa Konttinen is Finnish. The County Durham coast in the photographs is quite fantastic, all the pits that closed in the 80's and early 90's. Worth a look if you can find it.
UTB and ATB,
John