Having driven to Ipswich from Yorkshire many times in the past I would think that 6am is a pretty optimistic starting time for coaches to be leaving Teesside with driver rest requirements etc. It was inevitable that the game would be changed, and none of them would have been beneficial to the travelling support. We played there on a Friday night under Karanka. The movement of the Sheff Wednesday fixture has a benefit for me, as on the original date I would have been somewhere over India at kick off on the way to the UK, so hopefully will be able to stay awake to follow the game. As to Saturday's game we have two out of the last three at Ewood and Rovers are second bottom in the Home league table having lost nine out of 19 home games and scored only 18 goals conceding 25, whilst we are top of the away table scoring 32 goals in 19
@simonfallaha - How could I have forgotten "It's a Wonderful Life"? I have/had it on DVD as well as watching it on TV just before Christmas for DECADES!
Accepting that Si has probably, for professional reasons, had many occasions to compile a Top Ten Films list, and accepting that our list has now morphed into a Top Hundred, obviously Jaws gets in. I remember the whole cinema making a collective jump two feet into the air when the head rolled in front of the hole in the sunken boat's hull.
The Cruel Sea, Goodbye Mr Chips, North by North West, The Pianist....
But if Boro could only, as in Groundhog Day, play the next eight games 10 times each and, with the lessons learned, THEN play the real games against each team. If only things would sometimes work out as in the films.
...and I type this as I watch "The King's Speech".
...and I type this as I watch "The King's Speech".
Having worked for many years in the film distribution business, I find myself with a huge list of favourite films and picking a top ten at any time is often subject to my mood. There are a few such as CASABLANCA or THE THIRD MAN (or GOODWILL HUNTING, a film that I love to watch) that never grow old but, equally, there are some which just seem to fit a mood of the moment.
Given that so many of the people on this blog have travelled far and wide and, I estimate, achieved a fair measure of success, I wonder if any you are also drawn to the idea of 'going back to where it all began". I have a sneaking love for GROSSE POINTE BLANK because it deals with this very subject in such a crazy yet quite profound way.
Probably time for a new topic if we really want to go down the 'films I love' rabbit hole.
UTB
@powmillnaemore - I don't know about you but I suspect that, from my point of view, poking my head into "my favourite films" is a kind of displacement activity. Realising how important the last eight games are, how much hangs upon them, thinking about the films is a way of distracting attention from the main job at hand. A way of trying to ignore the mounting tension.
The game against Blackburn will kick off in less than 28 hours. After which, only seven games will remain. Hopefully! Eeek!
Not related to current Boro but ex Boro Keeper,35 year old Jason Steele has been called up by England. I bet nobody saw that one coming.
😆 She ba rum ..... or something like that@simonfallaha What, no Babe? That’ll do pig…
Baa, ram, ewe, to yourself be true…
Jason Steele in the England squad.
I don't think anyone saw that coming, ever! Very pleased for him though.
@andy-r. It is certainly an honour to be picked but the press release and comments from Tuchel are that his inclusion is more to do with assisting on the coaching side rather than being picked to play.
Well done Jason nevertheless. 😎
No signs of HH in the training pictures released on the club website so does not look good for tomorrow; DF training. 😎
I would rather rest him for tomorrow, giving him 3 weeks (in total) to be fit for Millwall.No signs of HH in the training pictures released on the club website so does not look good for tomorrow; DF training. 😎
Come on BORO.
Hellberg updated: “Hayden is not at his best with his calf. He is getting better, but I don’t really have an answer about whether he can play or be in the squad now or whether it will take two weeks more or whatever. It will be somewhere around there.”No signs of HH in the training pictures released on the club website so does not look good for tomorrow; DF training. 😎
https://www.gazettelive.co.uk/sport/football/football-news/hayden-hackney-injury-latest-kim-33630990
So there MIGHT be a small, very small chance that HH could play at Ewood Park, but it is more probable he is available after the international break.
Up the Boro!
I agree with @exmil. Better to give Hayden Hackney the benefit of the International Break so he can come back hopefully 100% after that, rather than risk him when he's not really ready, and then he breaks down again and is therfore unavailable for the rest of the season.
It is vital Hayden Hackney is fit for the Millwall game, and the final run-in so if that means he misses the Blackburn game, so be it. To be without HH, McGree AND Morris would be far from ideal against the team which might be Boro's biggest rival for an automatic promotion slot. Maybe Fry would be available but it would have been good to have the first choice XI starting.
I also agree that if there’s any doubt over Hackney, he should be rested. He’s such an important player that we can’t afford for him to have an extended time out.
His absence solves the difficult conundrum of who to play out or Browne and Morris.
Now both can play, perhaps with Conway wide left and Castledine at no. 10, as we saw to good affect in the second half against Bristol City, with McGree coming in off the right behind Strelec.
A little change of subject seen a player if Hackney leaves in the summer
Very much like him , box to box ,energy
Plays for Lille in France, Icelandic International
Hakon Haraldsson
Thought Kim looked a little off today at conference
I noticed lately all his coaches getting involved , hope they're not interfering too much needs a clear head
COB
Hackney will be a big miss tomorrow. He is the engine- rolls Royce standard - of the team. He demands the ball at every opportunity and is so influential.
When some of us complain about the passing sideways and backwards Hackney is usually the exception . He is the player who drives forward and takes players on and is the ideal partner with Morris.
I am hoping Browne is his replacement and with Morris can be a formidable barrier to breaking up Blackburn attacks.
Hope Fry is fit enough to start the game. He is the best defender at headed clearances .
Expect a tough game with Blackburn still on a high after their impressive away win last week. They are peculiar with an impressive away record but poor at home. Let’s hope their home form continues and Boro can do enough to win the game.
Philip of Huddersfield 🤔🤔🤔
Dael Fry is one of a number of Boro players who, when fit enough to start games, should be wrapped up in cotton wool between games. Warm down properly after games and gently warm up before. He's 28 (I think) rather than an old man so playing two games a week should be enough to keep him fit to play centre-back. Gentle training only, not boot camp. Swimming is good, too. I wouldn't be making him do shuttle runs, running whilst dragging a tractor tyre roped to his waist (they probably don't do that at professional clubs these days!).
He's a centre back and I guess, apart from the goalie, that's the position where shuttle runs are the least important!
There! My layman's thoughts on the subject. Clearly worth SOMETHING as the coaching and other staff seem to be doing something to Fry that causes him to suffer a number of muscle pulls, tears, stretches etc. He just gets back to playing and he suddenly pulls up during the game with no obvious cause. It looks like a twinge at the time and sometimes he looks like he has twisted an ankle so he has to be substituted. We hope he'll be fine for the next game but it's sometimes the case that the absence grows - not something my heart is fond of - and frequently there is no clarity as to how long the absence is expected to last.
if a player is clattered into then, obviously, a serious injury can happen. There's nothing you can do about that. But if a player is predisposed to muscle strains or pulls etc, surely some account can be taken for that in the player's training and both before and after games. And you'd think experts could come up with some training or exercise routines to strengthen the muscles/tendons/ligaments to make those injuries less likely to happen. Get the cotton wool out!
Probably time for a new topic if we really want to go down the 'films I love' rabbit hole.
Arguably, yes, but late as I am to the party, I'd still like, if I may, to put in my two penn'orth. 😉
I was pleased to see Casablanca mentioned above, but there are a couple of films which hold up a mirror to some decidedly unsavoury aspects of American society which are worthy of mention: Inherit the wind, a dramatisation/fictionalisation of the Scopes "monkey trial", which took place in Tennessee in 1925 & highlighted the conflict between religious fundamentalism & scientific modernism (Stanley Kramer, 1960 & some real stalwarts of the Tinseltown fraternity - Spencer Tracy, Fredric March, Gene Kelly & Dick York - York perhaps better known for playing Darrin in Bewitched on TV); the film also tackled McCarthyism,albeit discreetly. It seems to me that the creationism debate is no less relevant today. Alongside that is the film adaptation of Harper Lee's To kill a mockingbird (Robert Mulligan, 1962).
A few years after those two came a film adaptation of the Carson McCullers novel, The heart is a lonely hunter (Robert Lee Miller, 1968), which starred Alan Arkin as the deaf-mute, John Singer, & a very young Sondra Locke (making her film debut) as the young girl who dreams of becoming a concert pianist & whom he befriends. Arkin turns in a terrific performance.
Back to the 50s, a couple of Billy Wilder films: Witness for the prosecution (1957), with Charles Laughton, Marlene Dietrich & a miscast Tyrone Power (IMHO - he was supposed to be English - it was after all based on Agatha Christie's play - but failed completely to disguise his American accent!)
No film list of mine would be complete without the inclusion of Some like it hot, BW's riotous comedy, which kicks off in Prohibition Chicago, moves on to Florida & has a cast that even includes George Raft. The closing line uttered by Joe E Brown after Jack Lemmon's "Daphne" character admits that he's not a girl, he's a boy: "Nobody's perfect." is priceless.
The film chat was great fun. But yes, it kind of took our attention away from the more pressing matter of the absolutely massive game tomorrow! So back to that. Two insights tonight...
STICK OR TWIST?
A friend of mine has recently made the points that Boro have sold £65 million worth of players and are in the best position they've been for ten years... and also that the Championship waters naturally ebb and flow. We genuinely looked like overtaking and leaving Coventry behind at one point before their momentum and belief was restored in that tragic, televised tanking.
It wasn't a tanking, of course. We dominated possession for long periods. But two wins in six since is a concern. It doesn't mean, however, that the levels of distress shown after the combination of dropped home points to Oxford, Leicester, Charlton and Bristol City were fair on our overall achievements, but they are also sadly understandable. A point was made after Oxford and Leicester, I think, that even if the Championship waters do naturally ebb and flow, the metaphorical equivalent of two huge lifeboats sailed past while Boro were treading water - and you might now make that four.
It's frustation, which is multiplied by the feeling that investment in a proven Championship striker who adheres to our system would have contributed to turning those draws and losses into wins. But, I'll say it again - even if we had signed a "proven" forward, and from what I hear, we did try, there were no guarantees. When we signed the likes of Jordan Rhodes and Britt Assombalonga, they were both hugely costly and on a giant wage, and an equivalent in this window would have been likely to have equated to a back up within a structure which has seen us spend up to £13.5 million on David Strelec and Tommy Conway, along with the time taken to integrate them.
Now, I do recognise the lift that new forwards can bring mid-season, which I believe I've mentioned in the previously discussed "Fuchsian Fillips" featuring Uwe Fuchs, Marco Branca, Alun Armstrong and Jordan Rhodes. I guess whether sticking or twisting is the right decision depends on how well the strikers already at the club, and strikers are generally confidence players, handle a club's choice to either bring in a new arrival or not.
A new arrival can inspire the striker already present to up their game and prove themselves either in the moment or at a later date. On the other hand, the mere presence of the newcomer could flatten the present striker's belief in their ability to do the job - it could be an implication that the present striker is "not good enough". But while no new arrival can be an inspiring statement of faith, it can also be an unsettling form of pressure, especially when the club is in a real "now or never" spell and can be dependent on the present striker to really deliver the goods. It really is a tough call...
IT AIN'T WHAT YOU DO, IT'S THE WAY THAT YOU DO IT
Analogy time, everyone. And this time, it's musical.
One of the last songs I performed in singing lessons I undertook over a number of years was Wet Wet Wet's "Angel Eyes". The lessons, and how I approached the song, are relevant here in terms of confidence and technique. While a vocal transition to falsetto was "a tad awkward" as my teacher and friend put it, she did praise me for learning to take a softer approach for the higher notes to the song in addition to lyrical clarity, vocal energy and great timing.
Reflecting on this made me ponder - what if scoring a goal is a bit like working to master a song? What if it's about recognising what you can already do well and focusing on learning to do all of that best of all before worrying about the moments that are seemingly holding you back - which may actually fall into place when you cease to try so hard and lose all inhibitions? Ella Fitzgerald did sing, "remember, if you try too hard, it don't mean a thing" and I reckon she was onto something. I didn't even chance Marti Pellow's high "aaaah" after "automatic" in the lessons - you know it - but I was able to find a way to hit it at a later date when the lessons were long over. Singing, goalscoring... as instinctive as it may seem, practice really can make perfect, with confidence primarily building from learning to be on top of what we are best at to start with.
In short - keep on training, Mr Conway, Mr Strelec, Mr Sene and every other striker at the club. It definitely pays off...
@andy-r Whilst I agree about Castledine starting, it has been said this week by Hellberg, that he hasn’t had sufficient training time to allow him to start a game.
However, surely he could start and then be subbed. Unless KH believes he is best coming on as the opposition tires and opens up.
It is finally a game time - today! Do not think more than one match at a time, because after today's match we must wait 13 days to see Boro in action again.
And before that we will be worrying if Hackney will be fit, if Morris will be back in time and ditto for McGree. And if Browne, Strelec and Conway are fit to play against Millwall after their international matches.
Long time to worry about THE game.
But let's enjoy the match today. As OFB is getting better with new bots, I will go for Boro3. So 1-3 win with a brace for Strelec and Fry scoring from a corner.
Up the Boro!
Very enjoyable post, and some cracking films there. I liked Lemon (as Daphne) answering the question, "Why should a guy marry a guy?" with a single unanswerable word: "Security".
And apropos Si's thoughts on our strikers, I was reminded of the occasion when Thelonious Monk, who could go for months without speaking, was appointed as external examiner to a University jazz course. He sat through an horrendous rendition of some standard by the college orchestra, gave his laconic verdict, "Keep trying" and left the room.
Incidentally, I think I may be able to claim to be the only Diasboro contributor (indeed one of the few Englishmen) ever to have had a conversation with Monk.
@philip-of-huddersfield I expect it will be the same back four with possibly Fry replacing Edmundson on the bench.
As good a Fry is, when fit, that is the issue and why we signed Jones and Malanda this season. This season he has 17 appearances. The previous 3 years are 21, 28, 30. That’s appearances not games played in full. I doubt MFC would give him even, another two year contract.
@pedro ...and all that is the more sad because, when he does play, he usually plays well. I have seen/heard comments from Hellberg praising Fry, saying he is the best header in the club etc. Malanda isn't bad in the air so if Fry if the best he must be good.
How much would a player be worth now, who you could with certainty name on the team sheet as a starter for season after season? Someone like David Armstrong. A cold/sore throat/tweaked thigh/bruised ankle/gash on his leg that took a team of seamstresses (capable of knocking up a Bayeaux Tapestry in 7 days) to stitch together/anything short of a severed limb...basically if he DID have a severed limb I'm sure he would have had a go to see if he could still. "do a job". Oh, for a player like that! Were bones and muscles made of stronger stuff in those far-off days?
@pedro. I am always confused that when players are returning from injury they are brought on as a substitute.
Would it not be better to start with them having gone through all the stretching and pre match excercise than let them sit on the bench in the cold for 60/70 mins. They are more likely to pull a muscle or incur another injury in this situation as opposed to starting to my mind. 😎