@stircrazy It would be good to see a proper punishment handed down but I suspect it’s unlikely. If they fine Southampton they might as well get rid of the rule altogether as the possible rewards make the risk well worthwhile.
Similarly, a points deduction next season isn’t going to help Boro who, after all, are the team being disadvantaged here.
I can’t see them kicking Southampton out of the payoffs - maybe both games could be played at the Riverside, depriving them of income, plus banning their supporters from attending the second game.
If I was a betting man, I’d place my money on the usual football authorities fudge of sone kind. Has any heard the punishment for Man City’s financial mismanagement yet?
@martin-bellamy. “Has any heard the punishment for Man City’s financial mismanagement yet? ”
I think it’s probably a bit early. 😉😎
Breaking news:
Southampton have been charged by the EFL over allegations of spying on Boro.
So go on, give us a goal’s start!!
Looking forward to the binoculars celebration when Conway scores.
Total domination but no goal to show for it. Fingers crossed for the second half. 🤞🏻🤞🏻🤞🏻
Played well but a familiar feel to it, total domination but no goals; hope we don’t make any silly mistakes in the second half. 😎
It's been attack versus defence for the whole half with Boro completely on top with 76% possession with 17 shots to Southampton's zero shots - Boro unlucky not to have a couple of goals.
Although we've seen this before at the Riverside where Boro dominate but don't score only to see the opposition sneak a goal at the end - let's hope we can put the ball in the net and take a lead to Southampton!
Chairman CJ agrees with you, Martin & KP:
Boro done everything but score. Complete domination of that first half. Fans superb. Players won every duel, every header, every battle. Saints haven't had a touch in Boro's box. But Boro, despite their chances, don't have a goal to show for it. Plenty of confidence to take from that, nonetheless.
Here's hoping that the momentum can be maintained in the second half. 
DELIGHTED AND DISSAPPOINTED
I am so delighted with Boro’s play, control of the game and complete dominance. There’s only been one team in this game. The game should be well and truly over. One way traffic with Southampton hardly getting a touch.Boro totally dominant.
But I’m also so disappointed. Conway should have scored 3 goals. First chance he was too slow and his shot was blocked. Then a clear chance with no one near him and he hits the post and then near half time he didn’t make a clean strike a couple of yards from goal.
Surely they can’t have the same dominance plus Southampton must make changes in how they play and be more attacking. So I’m now apprehensive.
If Boro don’t win this game it will be down to the obvious weakness we’ve seen all season.
Fingers crossed.
philip From Huddersfield 🤔🤔🤔
The first booking of the match goes to the Saintly opposition (the Canadian striker, Cyle Larin) in the 56th minute - the Beeb:
Aidan Morris goes down under a heavy challenge from Cyle Larin midway inside the Southampton half and referee Farai Hallam gets out the yellow card for Larin, who picks up the first booking of the game.
Comment on the Beeb's site from Derick in Wiltshire:
First half went to plan, now we will come for you. Haven't gone 19 unbeaten for no reason!
Browne on for McGree in the 68th minute - CJ:
McGree was visibly tiring there.
Sarmiento & Castledine on for Whittaker & Strelec in the 78th minute. Time for one or the other to write his name into the Boro history/legends book...
0-0 - & the (inevitable?) game of two halves... 11 corners for Boro vs only one for the Saints. 🙁
Tie not over. Ayling MoM and Fry and Morris v good too. Maybe our away form will continue to surprise us? Happy with the way we played and did well with the well known offensive limitations we have I feel. UTB
Well still in the tie but a familiar performance where we dominate the first half but run out of stream in the second half and Southampton looking stronger as the game went on and more likely to score which, had it not been for the crossbar, they could have done.
McGree looked rusty and Strelec and Whittaker offered little positive impact, as so often is the case regards the latter when opposing a top side; their replacements did little better.
Unfortunately, my pre match score prediction has proved correct, I just hope that my second leg prediction is wrong or I will be saving up for my Riverside Live subscription for next season in the Championship. 😎
A more even second half with Boro managing just 4 shots (1 on Target) to Southampton's 6 (none on target but hit the bar) - Everything still to play for but Boro will be perhaps disappointed not to take a lead to the South Coast. Still, every reason to be confident going into the second leg but it was clear that quite a few players ran out of juice after about an hour with McGree, Whittaker and Strelec flagging. Only 2 days rest as for some reason the second leg is played asap rather than allow an extra day.
Boro looked solid in defence but they didn't really have anything extra to bring off the bench once changes needed to be made and there's a worry McGree and Whittaker will feel the pace in their legs during next few days.
DISSAPPOINTED ………..AND A BIT RELIEVED
Ok, Boro should have been home and dry at half time and, as expected Southampton were much better in the second half.
The longer the game went on, the more Southampton controlled the game and started to play like a team unbeaten and confident.
I can’t remember Boro having a single shot in the last 30 minutes.
I’m also a bit relieved because Southampton could have nicked a couple of goals which would have been a tragedy after Boro’s outstanding first half performance.
So, it’s not over yet and Boro are still in the tie. I suspect Southampton will start the game as they finished this one and Boro will have a lot more defending to do. However, it’s another game and another opportunity for Boro to cement a Wembley appearance. It’s still all to play for.
philip of Huddersfield 👍👍🤔🤔
Best news of the day. Delighted to hear.Hopefully a visit by Boro 3 today, that would be very enjoyable indeed. However I can see them scoring too...
Thursdays list to the Consultant was good news and my next visit is in five months. He was delighted with my progress and two glasses of draught Guinness were very much enjoyed that evening.
All the best everyone.
UTB,
John
Just been reading the biography The Charlton Brothers and saw this and thought about us this season so I guess strikers never grow on trees even when we had such a super team in the 70’s. UTB
One has to be disappointed, following a one sided first half with enough chances to have scored at least one goal.
But we all knew that the second half would probably be completely different. And so it was with Southampton coming equally into the game and had their chances late on.
It has been evident all season and possibly more so since January, that we do not have any equal, never mind better players on the bench to rotate the tired legs that come from Hellberg’s style of playing.
There were some knackered looking Boro players there today, and as werder said, why the quick turnaround to play Monday/Tuesday. There is NO consideration given to player recovery times, only to SKY’s TV Schedule. Why did the EFL give away so much say to SKY for so little return in money.
The Championship is the fifth biggest league in Europe and should get similar compensation and consideration as all the others. However, that debate is for another day, if ever.
So all still to play for even at nil all. However it will be probably more in Southampton’s favour down there. I think Hellberg will have to be more defensive to contain them, and I would have Browne in from the off. There is no way can Boro play another game with that same intensity after only a couple of days rest.
I really feel for Hellberg having to try and make a silk purse out of a sow’s ear. We will need to create meaningful chances on Tuesday, with the shots on target and hope this time we can put away one goal more than them.
Did you see the young Boro supporter with binoculars and a piece of bush (a branch of a tree) on TV? There were some fans at the stadium acting like spyes. I and my doughter loughed lound while watching ...
The first half was best Boro have produced for years. Did the Saints Synners get over the half way line in the first half? It was that good with possesion of 75 % against the form team in England. A pity we did not score but we tried. Yes, we did.
All open still. I look forward to the match on Tuesday (if it will be played).
Up the Boro!
Friends of the DiasBoro... how are you?
I felt hollow and sad, worried even, as I walked through the streets of Belfast following the 0-0 draw and the ending of my 100% record at the Kitchen Bar even though I know full well I shouldn't have been.
Shouldn't have been, because on the whole it was a strong performance against a side with a squad who were, man for man, better than ours in terms of quality. But was, given the very heavy emotional investment clearly placed in what will be our final home game of the season no matter what. Combine everything that the players, fans, head coach and club as a whole threw into the game along with a Southampton side quite possibly reeling from the hullabaloo over Spygate, and it feels near impossible not to lament a failure to score against a team that was there for the taking. Half-time, and time for Southampton to regroup, recharge and bring in new recruits from the bench followed, and we nearly conspired to lose a game that could and should have been well out of sight before the Saints turned the screw.
Like Philip, my immediate reaction on the final whistle was a mixture of relief and disappointment, the relief coming from the fact that we, well, didn't lose given the Saints' control and chances, the disappointment coming from our own dominance equating to no goals and the replay of an all-too-familiar narrative. That of the away team at the Riverside finding a way to take a point or maximum points from a game that could or should have been out of their reach - see Bristol City, Millwall and Portsmouth.
(As I type, one of the best pop songs of the 1980s is playing in Belfast's Metropolitan Arts Centre - MAC - Spandau Ballet's True. Anyway...)
This wasn't the only all-too-familiar narrative that played. Pedro has brilliantly highlighted another, which I have traced to multiple matches under Kim Hellberg - lack of depth shown up by inability to maintain intensity throughout a match. Examples.
Hull A - Four goals to the good without reply at half-time, but out of steam in the second half. 4-1
Charlton A - Two goals to the good at half time, but out of steam in the second half. 2-1
QPR H - 3-0 up after fifty minutes, but no goals from open play, and one concession, in the second half. 3-1
Saints H, in the league - A four-goal burst in just over twenty minutes. 4-0
Preston H - Done and dusted after fifty-four minutes. 4-0
Sheff U A - No goals in the second half, again. 2-1
Not to downplay how enjoyable those wins were, as I loved them as much as anyone, but the pattern is there - along with the implication that when we are on top, we've really had to make it count. More than the likes of Ipswich, Coventry and Saints, who have squads with significantly more in the tank.
This does echo, in a way, one of the most significant 0-0s of the 2010s - the 0-0 draw with Bournemouth, who were top of the league when we played them and would go on to win the league that season. In that objectively it was a good performance and the opposition played well, but it was in front of a crowd that was relatively large in terms of attendances at the time, and if there's two things you definitely want for your extra money and additional emotional investment, it's a win and goals.
Today, as with Bournemouth, we got neither. And again, it is hugely unfair to judge it negatively in the context of everything that both Aitor Karanka's and Kim Hellberg's teams achieved, and what Kim Hellberg's team may still achieve, with a visit to St Mary's on Tuesday set to come, but contextually this was neither the win that the atmosphere and our efforts warranted nor the end to a run of no goals in play-off matches that now stretches to 552 minutes.
It may also appear that we have a lot of spirit-lifting to do after what was, as it was with Bournemouth back then, a relatively flat conclusion where our tempo fell away and we looked increasingly short of ideas.
All that said - writing the team off before the second leg has even been played? I wouldn't dream of it. I know how good we've been on the road this season. Southampton may also feel the need to play a more open style in front of their own fans, and this may pile pressure on them and leave gaps for us to exploit. All we need to do is take advantage this time.
What may help is making better use of David Strelec - even when we played brilliantly today, and we did in the first half, I didn't see enough direct involvement from him in our attacking play. It should be remembered how he can drop deep and expertly assist the likes of Conway and Whittaker - even if our crossing is off-colour and our supply to him is well cut off by an organised defence, that doesn't mean his impact has to be limited.
Furthermore, while it is very easy to feel demoralised after that - my post has explained why this is so - this narrative of demoralisation, this feeling of a wasted opportunity, is the sort of thing that should be learned from, not dwelt upon. Dwelling upon seeming hard done by from the late, late blocks, the thickness of the woodwork and the distraction of incidents like Spygate is exactly the kind of thing that may play into the opposition's hands - it suits them for us to be emotionally wounded because then we may become the ones who are there for the taking. There's still something there to be won, and it will speak volumes for the positive mentality I know is within us if we ultimately end up victorious in this two-legged tie and at Wembley.
All to play for.
@simonfallaha I guess each of us has emotions all over the place after the game.
I’m trying to think positively - we’re still in the game, have won plenty of games away from home and played incredibly well in the first half, albeit with no end result. Plenty of near misses, although Southampton’s header on to the bar in the second half was too close for comfort.
So we go to St Mary’s on Tuesday and I wonder how far the spygate legal action will have progressed by then.
We have only won both halves of a game three times this season and one of those was the last home game against Watford.
Well this time my journey back to Ipswich was seamless and stress free. I really enjoyed the game. I thought we played some amazing football against the form team in the division. I was actually disappointed in Southampton I was expecting much more from them. The atmosphere was amazing, although I did not see the team arrival which everybody said was a sight to see. I have never heard an opposition team booed as much as Southampton at a game in this country. It was akin to watching a game in Europe where teams are often booed relentlessly. As others have commented we were competing with a team that was able to leave and 18 million pound player, Archer, on the bench and bring on others with values upwards of 10 million. While we had two 18 year olds on the bench who have 1 minute of league play this season. I thought that it was telling that Edmundson and Sene did not make the bench. One thing I must say is the difference between the Middlesbrough town centre this week and Ipswich last week. In Ipswich last week everywhere had posters flags on all buildings and shop fronts, and many still do. In Middlesbrough nothing, you would not have known there was a game on.
Good news John and best wishes.
We were the better team today and should go to St Mary's with belief we can win against the second-best team in the play-offs.
Forget about spying; 46 games in they know how we play and we know about them. I believe that whoever wins the next game between us on Tuesday will win promotion.
UTB
@mw-in-darwin And yet, that first half against Watford was patchy.
A worldy free kick from Whittaker, which would have been shown a hundred times if it had been in the EPL, and a goal from Strelec that he did not know much about, with little in between other than from Watford. But 5 - 1, one cannot grumble.
I agree entirely that the non selection of Edmundson and Sene was telling. On a number of occasions now, Hellberg has made a point about the lack of depth in the squad and today that was probably his strongest statement.
@mw-in-darwin. An important point and which highlights a flaw with KH’s way of playing.
The players are unable to maintain the level of intensity of the first half throughout the second and if even if we have scored in the first half we remain venerable as evidenced against Millwall.
As a consequence teams are adopting a tactic of either a low block or a well organised massed defensive set up in the first half designed to wear us down and either hit us on the break or impose their own game on us later in the game.
KH may be able to continue with this style of play if he can change some players who will ensure we score frequently more often when dominating the play, or if not then he will need a re-think else we will see more games of the Millwall, Bristol and Southampton ilk. 😎
@k-p-in-spain perhaps the answer is to play less aggressively, more cautiously in the first 45 and deliver Hellball only in rhe 2nd half when the opposition is itself a little more fatigued after playing 45 minutes already.