@werdermouth Morris and Browne not in the squad? I assume Hackney is being asked to play a more defensive role.
VERY attacking team. If it works it could be 🔥
The second bit.
I must be seeing things: 0-4: McGree gets in on the action in the 44th minute, with a little help from Bangura. Boro a team reborn!
What is going on? Can we please replay the Coventry game?
🤣Has my wife slipped something in the tea I have just finished...?
Dear Len, you do not need a defending midfielder if you score FOUR in the first half. 🤣🤣🤣🤣Oh dear, the lack of midfield defensive cover leaves us wide open to being overrun in the middle of the park. We need to play with a solid defence away from home and quieten the crowd. I fear that our formation is more designed to encourage them to roar their team on.
And Hackney's best qualities will be stifled if he has to become the the last line of midfield defence
I think this is a mistaken strategy and I fear the worst.
And don't worry about Gilbert. He always scores at Hull - now he has two goals in two matches at Hull. Additionally he made one goal today, too.
Happy days. Up the Boro!
The Beeb on the McGree goal:
This is more slack defending as Alex Bangura is able to dart to the touchline on the left of the Tigers box untouched, pull back into the middle, where Riley McGree has far too much time to control and poke in a shot.
It's blocked, but he gathers the deflection and still has time and space to prod in another effort which flicks off Ivor Pandur's right boot and into the roof of the net.
Too easy for the visitors.
And at half-time:
Game over? Many Hull fans seem to think so and let their side hear all about it at the whistle.
Time will tell if they're right, but Boro have been clinical while Hull have been a bit sloppy in the testing conditions and been harried into slips by the rampant Boro press.
David Strelec spun to lash high into the net to put the visitors ahead, perhaps a touch against the run of play. But two goals in two minutes just after the half hour were not, a thumping finish from the returning Alex Gilbert, in his first appearance of the season, followed by Gilbert winning possession and finding Morgan Whittaker to whip home his sixth goal of the season.
More slack defending allowed Riley McGree to stab home a fourth just before the break and Kim Hellberg's men look well on their way to the points.
Wow! What a first-half display that was - absolutely the best Boro have looked this season and Gilbert has been superb in his midfield role - as has Hackney with McGree and Whittaker killing the Hull defence. What a transformation after a week of Kim Hellberg training - Boro look the most coherent they've been in ages.
Is this the turn around of our scoring fortunes or is Hull’s defence hopeless tonight?
I’ve not seen us play as many long balls behind another team’s defence and it seems to be working.
Wow
Who is this team? Surely it can’t be Boro! - 4-0 up at halftime !!
Ok, Hull are poor but all credit so far to Boro who’s passing, movement and overall team performance has been a revelation.
Boro got a bit of recompense (for some clear penalties not given in previous games) for the third goal when it looked like a clear foul by Gilbert before he advanced and created the third goal.
Overall I think decisions for and against teams tend to even out over the season.
So what would we like for the second goal half?
A repeat of the passing and movement we’ve seen so far and a clean sheet.
Am I expecting too much?
Philip of Huddersfield
👍👍👍😄😄
No meaningful contact. Exactly the sort of pen Conway is denied on a weekly basis.
No meaningful contact. Exactly the sort of pen Conway is denied on a weekly basis.
The Tigers get one back through a Joe Gelhardt penalty in the 62nd minute - the Beeb:
Sol Brynn wipes out Joe Gelhardt and City have a penalty.
On second glance, there's not a lot of contact there. Brynn raced off his line to get to a through-ball on the edge of the box, but Gelhardt nipped in just before to tap it round him and then went to ground after a clip on his heel, when he might have had the chance to tuck into an unguarded net.
Edmundson & Silvera on for Bangura & Conway in th3e 68th minute - CJ:
After the changes
Boro 4-2-3-1. Edmundson CB with Jones, Targett LB. Silvera to LW. McGree 10 and Whittaker right, off Strelec at the top.
1 x GK
1 x Right Back
1 x Centre Back
1 x Left Back
1 x Left Wingback
4 x Attacking Midfielders
2 x Strikers
4 x goals
1 x (dodgy) goal conceded
Welcome to Hellberg?
What a difference a new manager makes! And a completely unexpected game for young Alex Gilbert, who scored!
Biggest ever win for Boro at Hull. We done. Still second in the table. Up the Boro!
Do you mean at Wolves? UTB!What a difference a new manager makes! And a completely unexpected game for young Alex Gilbert, who scored!
@jarkko - We ALL want Boro and Wolves to swap places at the end of the season!
Fantastic result and absolutely wonderful for Gilbert and Bangura once more.
At this level though, Targett ouses class. Oh and no yellow for HH
I should imagine all Boro supporters will go to bad with a smile on their faces and sleep well 👍😁😁
philip of Huddersfield
Great away victory that saw Boro simply blow away Hull in the first half with some exquisite front-foot football. What's amazing is how Hellberg has already seen how Bangura and now Gilbert can add an extra dimension to the team - plus previously Hansen. It's also not taken him long to identify that a lone striker was not working and all of a sudden he has made a side that struggled to score look a very potent unit.
Finally, a big thanks to Rob Edwards for realising he'd taken Boro as far as he could and wasn't the man to get them promoted as he stepped down to pursue his speciality of securing relegation...
That was the very definition of a statement win against a team much better than Boro on recent form. I am feeling very positive without wishing to get too far ahead of myself. Let's see what happens over the next few weeks...
What was that I wrote about Hull conceding a lot of goals?
For the entire first half, we were absolutely magnificent, and for the second, when a Hull reaction was expected, we stayed defensively very sound. And to think we won that game at a canter with only one fit centre-half and no Browne or Morris speaks volumes for the overall quality of the squad, for team spirit and for what Hellberg has instilled in barely a week! And credit to Alex Gilbert, who played extremely well in a withdrawn defensive role.
I think we were very unlucky with the penalty. The close-up replay showed that as Brynn slid in his knee just caught Gelhardt very faintly. I doubt VAR would have overturned it though, because Gelhardt would clearly have been clear on goal otherwise.
But I’m dead chuffed tonight. We’ve just murdered a side who are usually a real threat going forward and we have put ourselves 5 points clear of the pack!
Well, I say a withdrawn defensive role, but he nonetheless got forward to score a belter, and also made Whittaker’s third! Perhaps he’s like having a new signing?!
Really interesting we went with 2 up top when the orthodoxy is 1 up front away from home. Feels like we have a manager who really thinks it through before a game. Bringing in Gilbert was left field but again worked. Long may it continue.
I’ve been puzzled for a while as to why Gilbert couldn’t get a game in the first team as I think he is a very good player. It seems Hellberg thinks so too and Gilbert repaid his confidence in him him with a terrific performance.
Kim Hellberg quote after the game - "We'll get better" 🙂
KH clearly rates Alex Gilbert:
Stand by for further outings! 🙂
@werdermouth Without taking anything away from the Boro performance, Hull were defensively very poor. However, if we can get some of the injured players back and generally keep injury free, then maybe we can be more optimistic going forward.
Goals win games, and Boro were clinical tonight. Only 7 shots in the first half, but five on target.
I have always liked Gilbert, good passer of the ball and sees the spaces. Maybe I thought a little lightweight. But he must have been doing something more this season, Adi had him on the bench and now in the team for the whole game in trying and tiring conditions.