Well it wasn't in injury time ! and where did 8 minutes come from?
Boro retakes the lead - TC in the 64th minute - Maddo on the Beeb's commentary:
It's about mixing your game up and there we go down the sides. Strelec does really well to hold it up and it's Alan Browne who squares it. Brittain gets it, goes for goal, it comes back out and there's Tommy Conway to tap it in.
Still ahead 16 minutes later. Can they hold out for the last 10+?
What did MW say? Ipswich penalty (Clarke) in the 87th minute., conceded by Malanda, who is booked. 🙁 Boro does a Spurs...
Still ahead 16 minutes later. Can they hold out for the last 10+?
What did MW say? Ipswich penalty (Clarke) in the 87th minute., conceded by Malanda, who is booked. 🙁 Boro does a Spurs...
Three comments on the penalty on the Beeb's site:
WOW, YET AGAIN the officials get a decision wrong, there is NO WAY that's a penalty, how have the officials got so bad in recent years, they're ATROCIOUS!!!
(Lee, Southampton)
Never a pen. Hirst was nowhere near the ball and threw himself to the ground. Normally in the Championship it had to border on assault to get a penalty, why give such a soft one in a key game?
(Steve, Powys)
Soft penalty. Two weeks in a row. Just throw yourself down in the penalty area and Ipswich get a penalty. VAR for the Championship - Please
(Derek, Norwich)
Much better in the second half. No way that penalty should have been given.
All the soft decisions ........
Much better in the second half. No way that penalty should have been given.
The Beeb agrees (after the final whistle):
Ref Jarred Gillett is in the middle of a throng of players, and Boro boss Kim Hellberg has headed out to him too.
That soft penalty might have ended Boro's hopes of automatic promotion and that is what a lot of red shirts and their Swedish boss are likely pointing out...
I agree with all of those comments. That was a really soft pen. Poor decision that’s really cost us.
We did all we could to win that game second half and put Ipswich under serious pressure for long spells. So much better. In other circumstances, a point away at Ipswich would be a great achievement, but today it wasn’t enough, sadly. However, we looked back to our best second half and that should give us great encouragement for the last 3 games and create the momentum we’ll need for the playoffs.
And both our main strikers scored! Surely, they must get some more now? Strelec had his best game for Boro, I thought.
Dael Fry and Callum Brittain joint men of the match for me.
They get a lot of penalties, many late and many dubious.The second half was so much better and we probably deserved to win, but yet another defensive error as at Swansea. so we lead the penalties conceded table and Ipswich the penalties given.
Mick Mills again
For me, I think Boro were the best team on the day, they deserved to win it
Well so close but no cigar today after a smoking second-half performance from Boro and now hard to see 2nd place being achieved. Was it a penalty? Unfortunately, Malanda allowed the ref to make a decision by placing hands on their attacker even if he was never getting on the end of the cross - shame really as it looked like a famous win was on the cards and indeed a first preview victory...
Still a pulsating game that was more like a cup-tie and maybe Boro have rediscovered their mojo at least and the play-offs are going to be cup-ties so still reasons to be optimistic!
The story of our season post-Coventry, really. For the most part.
Once again, an instance of rotten luck.
Once again, an instance of an easily avoidable mistake being punished in the worst possible way.
Once again, a concession with minutes remaining turning delight to devastation.
The difference being that on this occasion, though we clearly needed to achieve more, this reads as a proud performance. Where, for all the dubious defending I heard of, we didn’t allow the absence of Hackney and McGree to hold us back, and Strelec and Conway came up with the goods. Along with - almost - Sarmiento.
Sadly I have to emphasise “dubious defending” and “almost”. Yet another “if only” moment.
Well that was a game of TWO completely different halves. One could not really have argued too much if Ipswich had scored 2/3 goals in the first 45 minutes.
Hellberg also got his system wrong in the first 45, with Malander probably having his poorest game for us, and his MF role not working. His passing is normally good, but today it was awful, along with a few other defenders. Ipswich just cut through us like a hot knife in butter.
However the second half was a different matter and one has to be disappointed with only a draw. Just like Bangura and Brittain, against Birmingham was it, Malander did not have to make conract with the player, the ball was already lost.
As Clive said, probably Strelec’s best game to date, and should not have been pulled. Also Conway for once in the middle when needed.
So we now need to continue where we left off today. against Sheffield Wednesday, Watford and Wrexham. Get some points on the board, try and get players and confidence back for (hopefully) the playoffs.
We did actually get a little piece of luck this afternoon. Britain should definitely have received a second yellow card and a one match ban, but for the referee letting play go on, then it was probably too late then.
PS just seen the BBC stats, 15 shots 9 on, off target. zero. I guess six blocked.
I see Bamford scored another two goals yesterday against Watford
@pedro “So we now need to continue where we left off today against Sheffield Wednesday, Watford and Wrexham.”
Easier said than done I fear as I don’t believe any of those teams will try and out play us, it will be back to well organised defences with everyone behind the ball and looking to hit us on the break; KH and his coaches together with the players have yet to show that they can overcome teams who set up to frustrate and hit us on the break or from dead ball situations.
Today we proved our forwards can score from open play but to do so we need the opposition to attack us and leave gaps for us to exploit; we played some really good football in the second half but managed once again to shoot ourselves in the foot.
Malanda should never have given the referee the opportunity to make a decision, especially as he appeared from the off to be very much a “homer”. 😎
I haven’t seen the match or the highlights so will pass judgement on the penalty at this stage. however, based on the general comments, we was robbed (again)!
Based on the matches that I have seen live, the standard of the refs does appear to be very mixed and there is little consistency.
Still if we had put away all the chances we have squandered over the season, it wouldn’t be an issue and we would have been comfortable in 2nd! It is what it is as a former manager used to say.
All we can do is hope that we have regained some confidence and that with are strikers having both found the back of the net, then the next 3 games will see 9 points and that other teams fall at the wayside. Even 9 points isn’t enough on its own.
TIme will tell whether it is Us or Them who gain promotion!
There's no guarantee that Patrick Bamford would have been the answer, and although I understand the clamour for his services I also understand why we didn't take him on. I've discussed this before in my Plan "B" insight, so I'll move on...
Having caught up with the highlights, I was so delighted for Tommy Conway and David Strelec when they put the ball in the net, and would have been equally as happy for Jeremy Sarmiento had his run and shot, and his later blocked shot, come off. There has been an enormous amount of pressure on them to deliver lately, especially with the absence of key creative sources and Adilson Malanda's loss of form.
Poor Malanda. Another confidence player, I think, and I really feel for him at this moment in time. I think he sadly did what I'd call a "De Roon vs Leicester" or "Edmundson vs Bristol City", in that he was keen, too keen, to make an impact and made a mistake which turned out to be dramatic and hugely costly. It was a harsh decision, no question, but the contact was absolutely needless and you've surely seen those given before.
As for George Hirst, well... I sadly have to ask the question of what a Boro player would have done in his shoes. He must have known it was morally wrong to fall like that under minimal contact, but, alas, morals and fairness do tend to fly out the window in the heat of a battle, when every point and every goal really matters. The referee still had to make a decision, whatever the "influence" from the home fans and the Ipswich players, and I think the Tractor Boys would simply say that the opportunity was handed to them and they took it.
Distasteful ruthlessness, that's what it feels like - and I have read before that progress at this level demands that very thing. Sad, but true.
But...
I take huge delight and pride from this performance. Especially since it's not another West Brom 2010. Just to remind you all... Gordon Strachan was in charge then, and three wins and two draws out of five, along with a defeat for Swansea and Newcastle's hammering of Blackpool, had somehow put eighth placed Boro four points behind sixth spot with three games to go. My research informs me that sixth placed Swansea had won just one in eight, too. So the right result at already promoted West Brom may have put us back in the mix.
At the Hawthorns, we looked worse than bad. We looked somnabulant. We looked apathetic. We never looked a threat. The game had live terrestrial coverage that day, and I still remember that I switched channels when we went 2-0 down after fifty-five minutes.
Today, though? It looks like we dug in, didn't lie down and kept in the game even when they swarmed all over us in the first half, as Alex Neil's Millwall have been known to do of late while teams are swarming over them. And we almost found a way to do the double over Ipswich. Of course, I hate to say "almost"... but, given the context and the circumstances, there is the potential for today's efforts to give us an enormous lift.