Boro 1 - 0 Jones
15th minute - from the Beeb's text commentary:
Goal! Blackpool 0, Middlesbrough 1. Isaiah Jones (Middlesbrough) left-footed shot from the centre of the box to the bottom left corner. Assisted by Marcus Forss with a headed pass.
Decent from Boro. Clearly the better side but lacking a ruthlessness up top.
One or two slightly nervy moments and I don’t trust us to keep the clean sheet. Second goal needed.
The game is absolutely there to be won or even run away with.
Boro up to the heady heights of 16th at half-time. It was, briefly, 15th until Rotherham, I think, scored at SheffU.
Boro have played really well and completely dominated the game. Blackpool have been poor. But , how many chances do Boro need?
The score could and should have been 4-0 or 5-0.
In the last couple of minutes Blackpool caused Boro a few problems which can only give them confidence particularly as they’ll be relieved to be only one goal behind.
Will Boro’s inability to take their chances come to haunt them ?
They need an early goal to seal the win.
Fingers crossed.
ps Hesgoal.com is proving very reliable tonight.
Philip of Huddersfield
A really good first half playing quality football and we could easily have been 3-0 up. No particular misses but just huge pressure that somehow didn’t lead to goals. Fluent ball movement and good movement off the ball. We’re looking like a different team.
They have to turn this into a win.
UTB
Boro continuing where they left off on Saturday and thankfully have taken one of their chances but maybe should have taken more of them. Boro are now much less predictable going forward with options on both wings as well as playing it to Akpom who can hold it and turn plus the option to play it over the top for Forss to run onto with pace. Hackney is looking like a young Howson with every game and is reading the game well. Anyway, let's get that early second so we can enjoy the rest of the game!
I don't want to sound as if I'm not satisfied with that, but Boro SHOULD be at least 2 and possibly 3 goals to the good after that First Half. Lots of possession and chances but only the one goal to show for it. We are clearly all over Blackpool yet, being only one goal up, you could easily imagine this going wrong. Let's hope we are a bit more clinical in the second half, and the best thing would be an early goal to make things more straightforward after that.
Very enjoyable to watch. I like how we play now.
Of course we should be 0-2 or 0-3 up at half time. But this is Championship football. But best we improve game by game.
Let's hope for a clean sheet. A good half so far. Up the Boro!
PS. Where is Martin? Perhaps our door bell is broken ... My missus said there was a frozen figure in the front garden, but I think it is a snowman ...
Absolutely agree Andy. Some nervy moments in the defence continue.
Also up top Boro have not made the most of some good opportunities, which could come home to bite them.Indeed some of the shots have been terrible.
Will Blackpool be as poor in the second half. Will Boro continue in the same vein. We certainly need a second goal as Andy said, I am not confident we can keep a clean sheet with Yates on the park.
Well there's that early goal! probably not a pen though.
Forss makes it 2-0 with a penalty in the 48th minute.
2-0 after Forss, "brought down" by the keeper, who gets a yellow card, scores from the spot. An early 2nd goal, as requested!
According to Maddison it was a Forss dive after goalkeeper had pulled out of tackle but 2 - 0 it is
No contact on Forss but only because he pulled his leg away to hurdle the keeper. Had he left his leg there, as is customary in those situations, he’d have been cleaned out.
The Blackpool keeper was unlucky to be penalised but lucky that Forss wasn’t cute.
2-0. We’ll take it.
3-0 with Akpom scoring again. Dreamland. Should be safe now, even for Boro. This is clearly an improving Boro side.
Akpom again! 3 - 0
65th minute - again from the Beeb's live text commentary:
Goal! Blackpool 0, Middlesbrough 3. Chuba Akpom (Middlesbrough) right footed shot from very close range to the centre of the goal. Assisted by Ryan Giles.
Is that 10 goals in three away matches, pinch me dreamland stuff
3-0 away win at Blackpool and as good a performance from Boro as we've witnessed for some time. When exactly? Can't say but it shows the players can't have been rubbish only a few weeks ago if they can do that. The question is why they were previously performing so poorly? And Akpom is clearly in the scoring groove. Get in!
Boro live stream showing on hesgoal.com
Thanks for the link. I managed to watch most of the game and thought we looked massively improved.
No contact on Forss but only because he pulled his leg away to hurdle the keeper. Had he left his leg there, as is customary in those situations, he’d have been cleaned out.
The Blackpool keeper was unlucky to be penalised but lucky that Forss wasn’t cute.
2-0. We’ll take it.
I agree with you Andy. The keeper put a leg out and then withdrew it as Forss had to hurdle over him.
That second half performance was even better than the first. If Carrick has done nothing else he has got them believing in themselves. In fact, the shape is excellent and we are suddenly looking like a side with potential. Saturday’s game is a real ‘nothing to lose’ game. Norwich will be expected to win at home and we can really surprise them.
UTB
Very enjoyable to watch. I like how we play now.
Of course we should be 0-2 or 0-3 up at half time. But this is Championship football. But best we improve game by game.
Let's hope for a clean sheet. A good half so far. Up the Boro!
PS. Where is Martin? Perhaps our door bell is broken ... My missus said there was a frozen figure in the front garden, but I think it is a snowman ...
I knocked on the door, but I could hear so much cheering you probably didn’t hear me.
Boro lost the yellow card count by 1-4, the Boro one being picked up by Hackney. He's fast becoming a rival for Crooks! *shakes head*
Three unbeaten and a very comfortable victory. Probably the most comfortable of the season. Genuine progress now.
Good to see a couple of younger players getting some minutes towards the end as well.
Another game where we’ve managed 20 or so shots but just the 5 on target tonight.
Blackpool aren’t the toughest test but at the back and through midfield we dominated them. A good night’s work.
Another enjoyable game to watch as Boro look a million miles away from the team that appeared to be bereft of confidence and ideas just a few weeks ago. Also notable was the intensity at which they played the full 90 minutes and the sharpness of the passing in contrast to the slow sideways variety they had adopted as they lacked belief. Pity the World Cup break is coming now as I would fancy Boro would have been looking forward to playing every week at the moment. Still room for improvement with the final ball and shooting but this is now a team once again with a good team performance that deservedly took all the points!
@stircrazy Yes the biggest disappointment of the night.
I was just thinking, hey we have not collected a card tonight, and low and behold, Hackney tries to be much too clever, losing out, professional foul and carded. Stupid. Footballers at times. Arh.