Looks as though one goal will win this
philip of Huddersfield
It’s tight isn’t it? If only we could put our chances away - the whole shape of the game changes if RM scores early on.
Still every chance to take 3 points.
Pretty competitive first half with both sides looking compact and looking to counter and create chances - Boro probably have created the best chances but West Brom have had a few that they could have done better with. Doak looks like he has the beating of his full-back but has been closely marked and Azaz has perhaps been too slow in his passes - Ayling has produced some good crosses too but much of Boro's best play has been down the right again with nothing too coherent down the left. Looks like a game where one goal could decide it but all to play for with Boro edging the game so far.
Open game and what a miss from McGree. In my opinion, Boro are overplaying and the final pass has been poor at times. WBA catching uds on the break far too often
Hackney! Yippee! WBA 0-1 BORO!
Hackney! Yippee! WBA 0-1 BORO!
CJ:
Boro lead! Hackney gets the first goal against West Brom at the Hawthorns this season. Lovely infield ball from Doak to McGree. He turns, tees up Hackney, who places it well from the edge into the bottom corner.
🙂
Looking very positive and slick. I just wish Borges would go round the outside from time to time, instead of always cutting back.
I realise getting the ball over to Doak is the main name of the game, but now and again, surely.....
HH scored his second goal in two matches in the 73rd minute.
Burgzorg replaces ELL in the 76th. CJ reckons it's with the Watford match in mind.
Izzy on for Doak in the 82nd minute.
McCormick replaces McGree in the 89th minute. Five minutes of injury time.
Boro up to sixth in the table after this evening's matches. 🙂
Dormo got the winner right, even if the score was not as he predicted.
Good to have van den Berg back. He is class.
In Carrick we trust. Up the Boro!
A superb second-half performance with Boro controlling the game with some slick passing and solid defensive play but it was Hackney and Morris bossing the midfield and dictating play. Once again it was another terrific goal from Hackney following some great one-touch approach play that was worthy of winning any game. So a great team performance with everyone keeping their shape and some very good passing moves that could have seen Boro score at least another couple of goals but also some of the recovery runs to win the ball back were equally important as it looked like the players were determined to keep the three point - into the top six and looking much better as a team.
Just a word for Jones. He came on at probably the worst time, with Boro under pressure. However he stuck to his job, defended very well and did what Doak could not of done.
A good team performance.
A good TEAM performance with no obvious weaknesses but plenty of positives. To win at WBA is an achievement especially as they have lost only 5 games out of 41 at home under Corboran.
On this performance Boro should fear no one especially if the forwards can take their chances. I’d like to see Latte Lath rewarded with a goal or two which his efforts deserve.
Well done to all the team.
Philip of Huddersfield 👍😁
@pedro though he was stupid to punt the ball away when he had won a free kick, but then got given the obligatory yellow card for that action, after just after someone got sent off for doing just that to earn his 2nd booking.
That apart, I agree with you for calling out his contribution.
Magnificent win! Hugely impressive. Lots of terrific passing interplay, and great calmness under pressure. Don Goodman on commentary called us ‘a very good Middlesbrough team.´ He wasn’t wrong.
A few fascinating statistics emerging:
Boro are the first away team to score at The Hawthorns this season. Indeed, I read somewhere that it’s been ages since WBA last conceded at home.
We haven’t conceded a goal in the second half of any League game this season. Seny Dieng has faced only 13 shots on target in 8 games. Have we finally sorted out our defensive weaknesses?
Things are starting to get interesting.
From the Beeb's live text commentary:
Before the game we would have taken a draw all day long. But as the game went on I felt it was there for us. We were the better side, we created better opportunities.
- There were great individual performances from Boro as well. The two midfielders especially were outstanding. What a win that is - a statement win. (Maddo)
- Middlesbrough are soaking up the applause from the 1,500 or so visiting supporters who have travelled down from Teesside. Quite right, too! Probably a fair result, as Boro produced an excellent, controlled Championship performance.
- "It was a fantastic performance all round. We were solid defensively and we had good control for the majority of the game. It was a proper game, they're a really good team and we had to be at our best.
"There was a lot to be really proud about tonight. I enjoyed watching the boys and I thought there was a goal in us. It was a fantastic finish from H (Hayden Hackney), he just passed it in." (MC to Sky)
- "It was a very equal, balanced game between two good teams. But they had more accuracy in the final third. In our big chances, we couldn't find the goal. Our last cross, the last pass was not at the necessary level to hurt them more. They found better solutions in the last third of the pitch than we did." (Corberán to Sky)
Absolutely top drawer performance tonight. If we can keep that sort of form up, it's hard to see who can beat us.
Those two deadline-day transfers who just slipped through the door at the last minute, Edmundson and Doak, certainly came in handy tonight.
Without wishing to seem greedy, I hope that BORO can go on that "golden run of winning games" mentioned earlier, following Saturday's win at home to Stoke City & today's win away at WBA. It wouldn't be entirely unexpected if, after the Lord Mayor's Show that particularly the win at WBA represents, BORO dropped us all back to Earth with a bump when the team visits Watford on Friday 5th October.
However I hope that confidence, at the very least, has been improved by the performances and the two wins. The return to the team of Hayden Hackney and Riley McGree in the last two games (despite McGree's big miss today) and the part played by Doak are great improvements to the starting 11. Hopefully some momentum will be seen.
Confidence is a major contributor towards performance. If we could just find that cutting edge to finish the chances being created, BORO might really spank some decent teams soon in this division. Anything is possible from here.
Dreams sometimes turn into reality.
@forever-dormo I think you will find we play on Saturday 5th Oct at 1500 hrs 👍.
Come on BORO.
It was definitely worth getting up at 5.00am to watch that.
As Corberan said, it was a very good game between two good teams but we were definitely better. The way that Hackney, Morris. McGree and Azaz control the midfield is a pleasure to watch and the others play round them keeping more or less to their roles.
If one wants to categorise, Morris is the most defensive and acts like a vacuum cleaner. Hackney picks the ball up from Morris or the centre halves and either surges through the middle or spots the best forward pass or directs play towards the wings. McGree and Azaz find the spaces to receive the forward passes from Hackney, Morris and the defence but also turn up in support for attacks down the wing.
If one wants to see areas where we can still improve, it would be down the wings. Doak does well and because he stays wide on the right whilst McGree plays more centrally, we see more attacking down the right. Whether Borges is going to get better and better, I don't know but we do seem to be a little less penetrative down that side. To be fair to McGree he plays like at least three players, a left wing-back, a left wing and a number ten and often turned up on the right-hand side as if he had found a secret trapdoor.
The defence is getting better and better and it was great to see RVDB seamlessly drop back in. I do feel that Ayling could occasionally 'get it launched' rather than always playing it close - particularly when we are leading 1-0 away with ten minutes to go! I would have preferred to see a few balls played deep down the channels to push West Brom back.
In summary, we don't change our style and and that's great when we are level or get ahead. There is still an open question about Carrick having a Plan B. Maybe, now that we have such a good squad, his Plan B is just bringing on fresh players to do Plan A at a new level.
Looking at West Brom, I think that those who expected them to play a bit of both styles were right. They did try to play through us but simply could not get the penetration. This wasn't a defensive choice but rather that we stifled them and at times they were forced to defend against our midfield strength. Mowatt is a really good player and with hindsight it's a bit of a shame that he never managed to shine on loan with Boro. Maybe Howson was too good.
On to Watford
UTB
Hopefully a start of a run of wins again after game seven just like last season. A bit of concern saw the video of the players returning to the dressing room and Mcgree had a large ice pack on his left calf. Hopefully only a precaution.
Posted this again because I posted it in stoke thread, matron where are my pills
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
Nobody thinks about Howson now. It is that good, how Morris has been playing. Young, energic and bringing the best out of Hackney now.
Excellent signing by the club.
Not even the Echo remembered to ask about Howson from Carrick: https://www.thenorthernecho.co.uk/sport/24623785.marcus-forss-admission-middlesbrough-forward-squad-west-brom/
Marcus Forss is training, too. So we are flying now. Up the Boro!
@exmil - Can we all agree that any references I might make to the dates and kick-off times of BORO games on this site are "provisional" only? I mostly get them wrong! Even if, as in this case, my wife bought me an academic diary and, only a few days ago, I wrote into it all the BORO fixtures until the end of 2024, including the Watford away game on SATURDAY WITH A 3PM KICK-OFF.
The fixtures in the second half of the season can wait until nearer the New Year before they find themselves written in. Maybe if we are very near the top, some of those games will be moved, anyway, to fit in with the TV schedules.
Even if I looked it up 20 minutes earlier, I'd still get some of the dates/times wrong...
I’ve got a feeling that we’re going to give a team an absolute pasting before long. I doubt it’ll be Watford (whenever we play them, FD 😉) but maybe one of the strugglers at the bottom of the table. If our strikers click (as surely they must one day) we could have a rout.
