Certainly feels like it has been a long winter so hope spring arrives soon to allow your recovery to pick up - actually we've had snow on the ground for six weeks now over here as it never fully melts before the next batch arrives. Still, at least the Boro are giving you and everyone else a warm glow!
@forever-dormo Is there a spare seat for Eddie Waring?
@forever-dormo Is there a spare seat for Eddie Waring?
Not a racing or an F1 fan, but also Peter O'Sullivan & Murray Walker. 😉
... and surely Kenneth Wolsenholme must be there, wondering if its all over
And the good news is…
… there are two Smart TVs in the cottage. Happy days.
Ooh, still one night to go!
Thanks Andy for your starter. Liked it a lot and I think I will do it once again. What is the English word - thumble tweeding?
Up the Boro!
not sure where you might have seen that Jarkko. It looks like something has been mis-spelt.Ooh, still one night to go!
Thanks Andy for your starter. Liked it a lot and I think I will do it once again. What is the English word - thumble tweeding?
Up the Boro!
Tumble weed is the name given to that bush (or "weed") in American deserts that gets blown about in the wind, "tumbling" along the ground. You see it often enough in movies of the Western genre, with tumble weed being blown around in deserted settlements. I suspect whomever it is that has written "thumble tweeding" [sic] is trying to evoke an image, or the sense, of a big empty, or vacuous space with nothing but big balls of dead "weed" getting blown along the ground.
For example, I might want to describe someone who hasn't got a thought in their head as having nothing but tumble weed in their head.
I have never seen the expression "tumble weeding" before, so I do not think it is a recognised verb in that sense.
Just picked up this comment from a piece in an article in Coventry Live, sister publication to Teesside Live:
”Boro boss Kim Hellberg will give Chelsea loanee Leo Castledine more time to prove himself fit for what could be a watershed fixture in both teams’ seasons.”
I thought we purchased Castledine!
Looks as if the reporting at their end is a bad as ours. 😎
Having now read the full article it looks to be a lot has been cut and pasted from comments made by Craig Johns in TL!
I dread to think what Cliff Mitchell would have made of it all.
@k-p-in-spain they (the "press") all use the same flawed AI companions...
I think you’ve inadvertently created a new phrase by compounding ‘Twiddling Thumbs’ - meaning being bored waiting for something and ‘Tumbleweed’ - which signifies an uncomfortable silence when waiting for a response.
I quite like Thumble Tweeding 🙂
I think once the season ends and before pre-season starts, we should have a Thumble Tweed thread.
Apparently some of the Coventry supporters are suggesting that teams have worked out how to play against them; don't give Matt Grimes time on the ball and let him dictate the play.
If he is closely marked then he tends to play the ball back to his CB's, neither of whom are good with their passing/distribution. 😎
For those that have not seen any of the YouTube *Boro/Hellberg" videos, here is a link.
https://youtu.be/wohn8PMTyjg?si=SmBsLInremegeKL0
@pedro Very interesting - let’s hope it works on Monday. I wonder what opposition managers will do to counter the threat.
Sorry for my terrible English. And thanks Werder for helping me out. I was looking for the 'Twiddling Thumbs’ - meaning being bored waiting for something. I am still learning!
Sorry, Powmill. My mistake. Up the Boro!
@jarkko No. I'm sorry I didn't make the right connection. Just as well Werder was on hand to get it right!
Grateful thanks for the excellent link which explains a great deal about "Heavenberg". Very clever, a real eyeopener and most educational for me. It makes me think we are really on to something this season.
Just a couple of sobering queries: why were we so much less affective after half-time against both WBA and Sheffield U ? ie why did we play more defensively? You could put it down to game management, but we seemed to lose most of our first-half fluency in attack in both games and we came close to throwing away our two goal advantage on both occasions..
And why were we so ineffective in the first half at Stoke? It is only three weeks and four games ago that we were witnessing our worst 45minutes of the entire season.
I'm still loving every minute of our current run and feel uncharacteristically confident that we can do the business at Coventry and put a significant dent in their own automatic promotion hopes. Ideally I would like us to take them apart in both halves rather than giving them a glimmer of hope by being content to hold on to what we have.
@martin-bellamy Unlike under Carrick and Edwards, were opposition Coaches knew how we set up and especially with MC, who was less flexible with his approach, I think KH has multiple systems, closely aligned.
This allows the players to carry out changes in game more easily, rather than having to wait for half time say or messages through substitutions. I think the term “fluid” is appropriate.
Of course there are many good Coaches in the Championship, and trying to be one step ahead is necessary. I guess Adi will have been crucial especially in those early games.
@lenmasterman I think as others have alluded to Len, we have had too many “one half” games this season, even under KH.
I believe one of the issues, although it does not account for against Stoke, is the amount of physical effort that goes into the system we use, once we get going.
As we get deep into the second half, you can see the tired legs coming into play, especially with the likes of Targett, Whittaker (think back to how little tracking he did before KH) even Brittain and Conway cannot maintain their total effectiveness for 90+ minutes.
Again as many have now said, the bench at the moment is a little short on like for like replacements. Maybe Castledine and Sarmiento can help and hopefully Jones sooner than later.
I love that video! Many thanks.
It seems to me a brilliant analysis of how we play so intricately and fluidly. I just hope Lampard hasn’t seen it, though I’ve no doubt he and his assistants will have done their own thorough analysis of our play. Let’s hope he hasn’t found a solution to the questions we ask of every team, or that, if he has, his new tactic severely limits Coventry’s own fluidity as they seek to counter our threat!
@martin-bellamy - He's expected back soon after his early bath. He knocked someone's Guinness over and had to clean himself...
@stircrazy - Walker and Peter O'S are racing each other to the bar as I type... Peter is in front by a short head.
@powmillnaemore - Wolstenholme + John Motson have been caught up in traffic but will arrive for the second half. (By which I mean before John Arlott and Richie Benaud start eying up that FOURTH bottle of Beaujolais).
One more sleep before The Big Game. Well, the biggest since last Monday and, no doubt, the biggest until we greet Oxford United for next Saturday's match. Let's hope that we are all basking in the joy and contentment of a clear lead at the top of The Championship by the Oxford game.
@forever-dormo David Vine has been in touch - any vacancies amongst the Superstars?
@forever-dormo David Vine has been in touch - any vacancies amongst the Superstars?
What about David Coleman, who was wrongly reported to have said in commentary on the 1976 Olympics (I think): "And Juantorena opens his legs & shows his class" (it was actually another athletics great, Ron Pickering, who said, "There goes Juantorena down the back straight, opening his legs & showing his class"). Vine was an idiot...
@stircrazy - Funny you should mention David Coleman's Olympic Games commentaries. In the 1968 Games held in Mexico, in the Men's 400m hurdles Final, won by GB's David Hemery in a world record time, the silver medal was won by a German Gerhard Henige. Coleman famously said, in his excitement words to the effect of: "And Hemery wins the gold with Henige in silver and who cares who's got the bronze?"
Well, I did, and millions of others in the UK did because the 3rd place medal was won by Sheffield (and Yorkshire) athlete John Sherwood. For that, and other classics, a magazine (was it Private Eye, Martin?) had a column for many years entitled "ColemanBalls" to celebrate the errors.
The reality is that the Heavenly Hostelry to which we were all referring is both enormous in size, yet still as cozy as a village pub, whilst having all the time in the Universe. It is the TARDIS of pubs with room in it for LOTS of legends...
We shouldn't forget the immortal Brian Johnston particularly as it gives us an excuse to remember his bloopers and the most famous, if possibly apocryphal, of them all. I mean, of course, "The bowler's Holding, the batsman's Willey".
One that he did utter was about 'Neil Harvey standing at leg slip with his legs apart waiting for a tickle." However, the suggestion is that this was a deliberate double entendre rather than a divine mistake.
UTB
This is a must not lose game for both teams tonight. If we win we will be 10 points ahead of Ipswich, although they will have two games in hand. Coventry would only be five points ahead of Ipswich with a loss. A draw would not be the worst thing to happen. Coventry hope to have Frank 'The Tank' Onyeka debuting tonight who is in a similar position to Sarmiento having only played 88 minutes for Brentford. Not sure if he will be up to speed.
An excuse can be made for any result tonight. The variations are limited only by the extent of one's imagination, but most of them are still "good" for Boro.
Boro might go to Coventry and lose. But Boro's previous 5 successive wins and the fact Coventry has lost only once at home so far this season would not make this result disaster. Boro would still be second in the table, only then a point behind the leaders, and could easily put things right in the next match by putting lowly Oxford to the sword at the Riverside next weekend. For Boro it would be a "blip", hardly damaging the general upwards trajectory. And, of course, it would have been away to Coventry, Boro's perennial bogey team. However bearing in mind Coventry's horrendous away form, there could still be a perfectly attractive path for Boro to achieve automatic promotion, and possibly still at the expense of Coventry who, from an almost impregnable position only weeks ago, would find itself a solitary point ahead of Boro at the top of the table.
In another universe Boro could draw at Coventry. That result, for almost anyone in the division, would have been almost a season highlight only 2 months ago. It would leave Boro still top of the division by two points, it might not signal the end of Coventry's string of less-than-desirable results, and Boro would be seen to continue the march towards automatic promotion. For all Coventry's "wobble" in form, most teams would still gratefully take a draw away there.
On the other hand... Boro, in a rich vein of form last seen in Big Jack's promotion giants, might go to Coventry and lay down the marker, the statement win lit in flashing neon signs saying "Champions Elect". A win at Coventry would see Boro 5 points clear at the top, on a run of 6 successive wins and with all the confidence in the world that the run would continue. Most other teams would be thinking "It will be Boro plus another for automatic promotion". Coventry would be devastated. All that Midas touched would suddenly have turned to lead. Bookies will take a scythe to the betting odds, and we would all KNOW where the journey would end.
Planning for next season could begin. The open-top bus ride through the town. could be planned. Joy would be unconfined. About time she had her freedom....
BUT we will NOT get ahead of ourselves. A job still has to be done. I'm sure that the Championship Manager of the Month will have the boys well prepared. And he might expect the Manager of the Season trophy, too, come May. I hesitate to predict, but I have a smile on my face as I type this into my phone.
I have had a little chat with the homunculus. A win for Boro is predicted. Maybe it was a dream...