Good goal poachers finish
Lanky Will bags his maiden League goal for Boro in the 62nd minute, assisted by Castledine, whose shot on goal he diverted.
Arfsten, Peart-Harris & McGree on for Borges, Kanté & Castledine at the same time.
Boro get the breakthrough after upping the tempo and Lincoln perhaps tiring - triple substitution a bit risky for me from defensive point of view but Boro need to survive next 10 minutes so subs can settle
In the meantime, Big Josh has bagged a brace for Millwall at Ashton Gate...
Phew! The Imps have a goal disallowed in the 84th minute.
What a brilliant bit of play by Riley McGree to set up Lankshear for the winner. 😎
SUCKER PUNCH! Lanky Will bags his brace & gives Boro the lead in injury time (90+1), assisted by McGree.
It seems Werder's broken his duck! 🙂
A bit of magic from McGree
That was more like it in the second half - much better tempo and I wondered if Lincoln could live with the fast slick passing and as they tired they couldn't cope. Great play from McGree and Will Lankshear is looking like the centre-forward we have been missing.
Oh and looks like I don't need to change my name as I finally finally get a preview win - watch out Championship!!!
In Italy on hols so it has to be: Forza Boro…la Vittoria! Bellissima.
BORO GET OUT OF GAOL ??
Undoutably, but they deserved it.
First half Lincoln were the better team with Boro playing like strangers with passes going astray. Only started to really get into the game in the last 5 minutes.
Second half , all change with Boro dominant and the passing and movement much better.
Fully deserved to equalise and the only question was could they score a second goal. Then almost disaster as Lincoln had a goal disallowed.
Phew !!
Then joy as Boro score in the last minute.
So, the home supporters go home with big smiles on their faces.
Don’t tell everyone but Boro have a real centre forward. Two opportunistic goals by him. He certainly looks the part as a goal scorer plus the overall effort he puts in. Also a Camino by McGree- Boro are a better team with him playing.
Good start. Long way to go . It’s a marathon.
philip of Huddersfield 👍😁😄👍
A game of two halves? What a difference those subs made. Lankshear looks like just what we need up front. My perfect Saturday continues…
What a difference it makes when you have quality players who can come off the bench. McGree (who is brilliant at finding space), Arfsten, Peart-Harris (who looked great) and Sarmiento all made a difference.
First half we were poor but we have to give credit to Lincoln for having played a near-perfect version of their adapted route 1 style. They also, as it turned out, had pretty much run themselves into the ground.
That was quite a special win and now...I'm going to bed.
UTB
Much better second half - it couldn’t have become much worse to be honest!
The subs definitely made a difference against a Lincoln side who had run and fought themselves into the ground.
I thought Berhalter really grew into the game and became quite the creative force with his crosses and set pieces by the end. Lankshear is the obvious Man of the Match for his decisive double but Berhalter wasn’t far behind in the end.
Mostly though, phew.
Whisper it softly, but we may have a real striker on our hands, we wouldn't have won that game last season.
Well as Philip said, we picked the get out of jail card, twice with the offside goal.
Before the game started, it was a fantastic atmosphere, full house and Ashley Phillips introduced to the crowd.
Then the game started and it was all downhill until halftime, and we could count ourselves lucky to be only at one-nil. Some very poor performances, especially from Berhalter IMO and Borges.
Second half and after ten minutes or so, we finally got into the game as Lincoln tired and also took off the effective Draper. One all.
The substitutions then made a difference, especially the enigma that is Riley McGree. For the first in the match, we started attacking down right, and apart from the scare from the offside goal, took the game totally to Lincoln, with the game changer supplying the excellent cross for the alive number 7.
2 - 1 and three points that most of us thought would be beyond us at HT.
I cannot understand Hellberg and his use of Sarmiento. He is so ineffective on the left, cutting in a cluttering up the middle. Would not be better being used on the right?
I just do not know how Whittaker gets a start. He is living on his 14 goals in two stints last season, with Hellberg expecting/ hoping he will do something. It is just not happening.
I also thought young Kante did OK and was certainly no worse than Berhalter in the first half.
Arfsten does not look like a defensive FB.
It will be interesting if we can get everyone fit, just how the defence could line up. Phillips, Malander and Jones, could an immense back three that Hellberg could use, if the new lad proves his worth. Arfsten can attack and so can Britain, but the latter needs to do it more often. We need more balls in from behind the defenders, and it looks as though Lankshear will gobble them up.
@werdermouth Congratulations on breaking your duck, I can sleep easier now when you are due to do the preview 😂😂😂.
Come on BORO.
SKY PLUS
And thank you Martin for telling us the game was on Sky Plus
👍😁
philip of Huddersfield
As had been said by others (and my mate who sits in the seat next to me at The Riverside) that really was the proverbial game of two halves.
In the first half Lincoln dominated and looked the better team to me - pressing well and taking Adam Reach's chance so well when Adam found himself alone entering the penalty area. A good goal. I can't believe the stats suggesting Boro had 73% possession in the first half. How do they measure that?
Lincoln City played to the team's strengths and Boro players seemed unable to do anything about it. 1-0 to Lincoln at HT could have given no complaints. Lincoln dominated the midfield.
In the second half it really was a different game. Two good goals by Lankshear who does look like a goal scorer rather than someone who can pop up with a few every now and then. The second goal owed everything to McGree who lit up the game when he came on, with his movement and passing. Boro might have been fortunate not to concede when Lincoln's "winner" was disallowed for offside but, to be fair, I was in no position to judge the line from my seat in the stadium. The winner came just on the 90 minutes. I think the expression used in social media is "Limbs!"
Boro seemed able to get behind the Lincoln defence in the second half and Lincoln seemed to tire.
Substitutions seemed to work well. I have seen Alfie Jones on the pitch(admittedly only briefly at the very end). And the news just before kick-off that Phillips had been signed means the club now has the centre-back position more comfortably covered.
It was worrying at HT even though we all know there was another 45+ minutes to come. Even losing the game would not have been fatal to Boro's automatic promotion ambitions, but a win makes everything feel MUCH better.
I saw the people leaving with 5 minutes to go. They must have heard the roar as they walked away from the stadium. My heart bled for them missing the move which won the game. It was VERY good work by McGree and a finish worthy of a Rav or a Bernie, from all of 2-3 yards by Lankshear. GET IN!
A sell-out. A win. A very animated crowd in the second half. This is why we follow the Boro.
#UTB.
I see that Dael Fry was an unused sub in Birmingham's 0-0 draw at SheffU.
@forever-dormo - Now that I am back home and fed and watered I have been able to catch up.
Agree very much with this assessment of the game - at half time, the comment could have almost been “Welcome back my friends to the show that never ends - it’s Middlesbrough FC”! It certainly had an all too familiar feel to it.
Congratulations to Wedermouth on breaking his duck and I also got my prediction of 2 1 with the Imps scoring first correct although I didn’t think so until we scored. Absolute magic from McGree and I had the perfect view from where I was sitting on row 13 in the North Stand although I did think that the ball was going to go out for a goal kick before the pass to a perfectly positioned Lankshear!
Interesting to hear his interview after the game where it was clear they have been practicing movement in and around the box and I do think we have maybe got another Bernie Slaven as a goal scorer. Impressed with Joseph as well and I thought Sarmiento added something to the team although would be better getting the ball when moving rather than from a standing start.
Whittaker remains a frustrating player to me, moments of skill and then wastes the ball as he looks for the perfect pass or shot. I think with the squad we have, a move to West Ham wouldn’t be a tragedy.
As others have said, the squad looks good although somehow we just need to tidy up defensively a bit and whilst we like a quick transition, at times it felt a bit too hurried and led to mistakes such as their goal.
FInally, I wasn’t impressed with the ref, he was far too inconsistent and in my view missed a fair few fouls where they were impeding our players by pulling them back. Also he didn’t apply the new rules in throw ins or goal kicks on a consistent basis - it was almost as if he had forgotten that he had to do it at times.
I will enjoy watching the highlights just to savour our second goal over again!
UTB
PS - I have absolutely no idea why so many left at 85 minutes - around me there must have been about 20 empty seats then and said to my son that they will have heard the roar! The atmosphere after that was the Riverside at its best as it was at the start. So glad that we have kept Steel River as well - I always want to hear the whole song!
Even when Boro scored in the 91st minute I was thinking surely Boro can't win on my watch - but somehow they've beaten the curse 😌
It was very telling that when McGree was introduced he immediately produced far more creativity than anything we had seen in the first half. That was well before his last minute piece of magic which won us the game.
Telling, because it exposed the limitations of the rest of our midfield, limitations which were all too evident throughout the first period.
Young Kante was given an opportunity to show us what he could do. He spurned it, being content to recycle the ball without even attempting to pose any kind of penetrative threat. His one attempt at goal will have done nothing for his confidence
Whittaker was pedestrian, Castledine offered occasional promise rather than assured quality and the lack of a leader who could produce the kind of midfield quality we will have to show if we are to be serious contenders was painfully evident in that first 45 minutes.
We were better all round in the second period, but the familiar pattern from last season of control without penetration looked all too likely to repeat itself. What changed that pattern was McGree's quality and Lankshear's finishing.
Where would we be without them? We will find out if and when either of them gets injured, because at the moment we lack anyone in the squad who look remotely capable of standing in for them.
Ticks for a much more motivated display from Sarmiento. I would love to see the young man make me eat my words. And I thought Berhalter grew into the game, giving credence to my hope that he may prove to be the one who becomes Hackney's natural successor.
I have been a big supporter of Brynn, but if we have recruited an exceptional replacement then so be it.
Early days, of course, and no judgment from me. But what I saw today was a 6' 7'' keeper who was stuck on his line, made no attempt to take command of the multitude of crosses that came into his 6 yard box or do what Brynn does to give his defenders so much confidence, which is to catch the ball cleanly under pressure in a crowd scene.
As for our new man's attempt to emulate Brynn's ability to create an attack via a long ball out, the less said the better.
Thoroughly enjoyable second half though and eventually the kind of result that eluded us too many times last season
At least KH had the guts to admit publicly that he got it wrong in the first half:
https://www.thenorthernecho.co.uk/sport/26467981.kim-hellbergs-verdict-middlesbroughs-win-lincoln/
Hartlepool Mail player ratings:
The Gazette's are behind a paywall, surprise, surprise.
@lenmasterman - agree with Vitek and his distribution- it wasn’t the best and at times rather slow.
@lenmasterman Like you I was disappointed with our new keeper but I guess it’s unfair to judge him on one game. If he’s to be a success he needs to claim more high balls into the box and improve his distribution but I’m prepared to be a bit more patient.
@boro-beckys-dad Agree. Whilst it is early days and he did not have a lot to deal with, I did think he would have commanded his box and some of the crosses that came in.
From previous reports I have read, he won’t be as good as Sol Brynn with his distribution.