Malcolm all clubs to the best of my knowledge this weekend kneeled. Premiership clubs recommenced the season by dropping individual player names and having it emblazoned across the shoulders of their shirts. I fully agree with the principle that BLM are striving for (not necessarily the manner at times) but I don't think sport should be embroiled in political causes regardless of how just they may be. The same goes for putting Poppies on shirts.
Players and fans alike can spend plenty of time supporting and furthering such causes should they wish to. I thought that the England Football team fell foul of this with FIFA/UEFA over the wearing of the Poppy on their shirts and I see this as similar. Just to be clear I believe that everyone regardless of race, creed or colour should be treated the same and have exactly the same opportunities.
Sunderland til I Die
Season three coming soon on Netflix, with special guest appearances from Middlesbrough FC.
Thanks for the alternative match report RR, which filled in the second 45 minutes as by then I had more or less stopped watching the game.
How an astute and successful man like Mr Gibson continues to make elementary mistakes with regards to MFC is beyond belief. Woodgate is sooooo out of his depth, he should in all reality have drowned by now.
His team selection and system choice was suicidal from the off. No pace at all and no creativity. How he can look in the mirror and say to himself, well I did try and not say, well I made a pigs ear of that, is beyond comprehension. Mr Gibson chose the cheap option and it has shown all season.
There is only one direction this club is heading without a “Captain” , and that is onto the rocks and the disaster that will follow.
I am so saddened by all of this I could cry.
Footnote.....I have to say as much as I support the BLM injustices, I cannot support the bending of the knee in sport. Politics should not become embroiled and I have to agree with Dominic Raab.
@redcarred thanks for the latest report I’m the new Diasboro
i had trouble logging onto the Boro website even though I’m a season ticket holder and was given a free pass. I couldn’t get past the blooming photo checks of which cars were taxis and even though I spoke to the club twice I still couldn’t get in.
i thought I would resort to the radio and after the first goal went in I switched off. I turned the radio on again just as the second one went in. We’ve just had all the outside of the house painted this week including the external render and it took two of them two weeks to paint it all. Unfortunately they painted all the paths and gravel as well and although they didn’t charge for it I went outside to see if i could clean a bit of it off ( I couldn’t!)
went back inside and Mrs OFB told me it was 0 3 oh what a happy day.
what a lockdown!
still it’s nice to be back with friends !
Hello all,
Disappointed, disillusioned, but not devastated. More resigned.
The best I can say after a fowl Boro got pecked apart by the Swans after a truly unpheasant showing is... welcome back, RR. And thanks for the report.
This new gaff is a bit nice innit?
But seriously, this is all very impressive,
thank you Werder and RR for our new home.
I posted on the previous blog we needed to utilise as many pacy players as possible.
Today's team selection beggared belief,
quite why JW is picking players who will shortly not be long at our club is mystifying.
Fortunately no one was in the stadium to voice their opinion on a diabolical no-show.
Unfortunately the stream was perfect for me using the MFC App on my iPad. Because of that I had to suffer through an abysmal first half and a mediocre second. The selection as picked was never going to score goals and that’s how it panned out. Roberts and Spence went past more players in half a match than the rest of the team put together.
The defence was awful had no shape to deal with attacks down the flanks. Fry and Shotton seemed out of touch and I couldn’t work out where Howson was playing. Friend tried hard but didn’t achieve anything. In midfield Wing had a shocker and Clayton did what he could but was by-passed as they came down the wings. Coulson seemed ineffective and very rarely got close to Gestede and Nmecha to add some support. It was just shapeless.
Thankfully Hull lost and seem in equal or worse free fall than us. We can not afford to lose to them and must hope that we stay ahead of Barnsley and Luton as well.
Looking ahead, we have to find some way of scoring because you wouldn’t back this squad to register a clean sheet.
this was just depressing and the only positive was that the early kickoff enabled me to get to bed at a reasonable time.
It seems that every time I invest in a Live Pass we not only lose but lose in such a diabolical fashion. Not sure I can stomach it again anytime soon.
I have followed the Boro since the 50's and think this is definitely the most soul destroying one in all that time.
Its pointless discussing Woodgate's position as the Emporer has clearly stated he is not for turning.
Only positive for me is the Live stream worked perfectly. Not sure whether I will want to use it again next week though 😀 😀 😀
Why is this person still of the opinion that Gestede is a footballer, and will score goals?
On the same subject, why, against all evidence to the contrary, are we suffering Britt, still trying to score goals
when everyone in the ground knows it is a lost cause. We are still free of any tactical plan, players with any pretense to speed have no chance of being picked.
Both the manager and his buddy should be gone, like now! football, on a daily basis, shows that you panic early and take immediate action, or things get worse, a lot worse.
Just a thought, could things get worse?
Plato our two starting strikers had scored two goals between them this season and one of them hadn't scored at all. Our two top strikers were on the bench so make of that what you will even if one of them was Britt.
Things could get worse, League One is beckoning but maybe thats the grand plan. Drop down to the third tier and then do a Man City, Southampton, Sheffield Utd type thing and fly back up again, reborn in the Premiership. If so then Woodgate is doing a great job and its all about half full or half empty perspectives. Meantime I just keep rocking back and forth telling myself that Boro lives matter too and one day this despair will come to an end.
Well that was that was an absolute Clusterf#@k we weren't even second best. The manager (open to debate) said that Swansea had exceptional players, did they, in my eyes our team was exceptionally bad, how can you start with two strikers who have scored two goals between them? . You end up with one shot on target.
At this point in time there is zero chance of me renewing my season tickets and given I've had them for 30 years it is hard to say, but the only place we are going to end up is league 1, can anybody see us winning a game between now and the end of season
Things could get worse, League One is beckoning but maybe thats the grand plan. Drop down to the third tier and then do a Man City, Southampton, Sheffield Utd type thing and fly back up again, reborn in the Premiership. If so then Woodgate is doing a great job and its all about half full or half empty perspectives. Meantime I just keep rocking back and forth telling myself that Boro lives matter too and one day this despair will come to an end.
Good comment, and a great report also - always turn to your postings to get a measured response to the craziness happening on the pitch.
It isn't the first time I've heard the argument that sometimes teams need to go down as part of putting things right - sadly this is often said in all seriousness rather than the tongue-in-cheek tone you're striking. You'd think that relegation from the Premier League was bad enough. We are living proof that 'coming back' isn't easy, and since last going down a few years ago we appear to have worked actively to make that possibility as hard for us as we can. Now we have a team containing players who just aren't good enough and a manager who simply doesn't know who to select. When the supporters are calling him out on the line-up he starts with, questioning its sheer implausibility, then we have a big problem. Swansea are at least a decent second tier side, at least, and what we put out appeared both to disrespect their potency and ruin our own slim chances. I wish they had cancelled the season, but maybe that would have been to put off the inevitable. Worrying times, again.
Did we miss Ayala yesterday?
Me thinks so but he is crocked anyway. Up the Boro!
Did we miss Ayala yesterday?
Me thinks so but he is crocked anyway. Up the Boro!
I think even Superman would have looked like Woodgate had left Kryptonite in his Boot insoles never mind missing Ayala.
Well that was that was an absolute Clusterf#@k we weren't even second best. The manager (open to debate) said that Swansea had exceptional players, did they, in my eyes our team was exceptionally bad, how can you start with two strikers who have scored two goals between them? . You end up with one shot on target.
At this point in time there is zero chance of me renewing my season tickets and given I've had them for 30 years it is hard to say, but the only place we are going to end up is league 1, can anybody see us winning a game between now and the end of season
It looks like SG is bringing us back to exactly where he found us 34 years later. We are almost marched back down the hill.
Well I greeted the re-opening of the season by trying to recreate an authentic match day experience.
I started off with a really unhealthy artery-blocking lunch, accompanied by the smell of stale onions. I then walked round the garden a few times to simulate the pre-match walk-up, and in lieu of reading the match programme fiddled with the TV guide to see whether I would be able to catch Woodgate, Lee Bowyer, and the entire Milwall side taking the knee. Because, of course, this acknowledgment that Black Lives Matter and that we must do all that we can to oppose racism are not political issues, and no politician, political party or even half-decent human being is, or could possibly be, opposed to them.
The crap Boro performance entirely lived up to expectations, and there was even the equivalent of that annoying bloke who sits behind you making inane comments with Neil Maddison opining that the Boro players needed to get their second wind after they had been over-exerting themselves for fully five minutes. On ten minutes we were told that their legs had gone because it was the summer and "the sun was beating down". None of this apparently applied to Swansea who, in the midst of this inferno, had "a wind in their sails" and were far from flattered by the half-time score. They missed two sitters. In truth it should have been five.
Boro's tactics are probably best described as Pulis-ball without the defensive solidity. Up front it was lump it up to the big lad and hope for knock-ons. From set pieces it was "put it in the mix" and see what happens. Predictably, nothing did. Swansea, by contrast, looked different class simply because they tried to unpick us by knocking the ball around, creating the extra man, and finding the angles to get in behind us. Nothing special. Just competently coached second-tier football. But more than enough to completely overwhelmed the dinosaurs.
At half-time to sustain the illusion I rang a friend whom I normally chat to at the match. She had paid for the Boro streaming service early last week but the service deserted her and she had missed the entire debacle. But then again what can you expect. She has only been a season ticket holder for the past 60 years.
At least there were no traffic jams to contend with after the match. But there again that doesn't usually concern me. At Boro games I always stay until the final whistle to avoid the crowds.
@martin-bellamy Hi Martin, I have no more to say but I agree with Dominic Raab.
@lenmasterman well said, Len.
Black Lives Matter and that we must do all that we can to oppose racism are not political issues, and no politician, political party or even half-decent human being is, or could possibly be, opposed to them.
BTW, the best part of the Boro performance 🤐. Up the Boro!
@malcolm Ok, that’s your right. It’s just that I’m struggling to see why anyone would be “appalled” by the players taking a knee and as no one I’m friendly with in the real world would make that comment, I thought someone from outside my echo chamber might be able to help.
As for Raab, does that mean you think that Game of Thrones is involved too?
“Because, of course, this acknowledgment that Black Lives Matter and that we must do all that we can to oppose racism are not political issues, and no politician, political party or even half-decent human being is, or could possibly be, opposed to them.”
This ⬆️, 100% this.
JW finds himself in a very difficult position. On the one hand he’s trying to get the best team out of what’s available to him, but on the other it has become patently obvious that there are several players working their ticket.
In a normal course of events he could be forgiven for expecting to get 100% effort from all of his selections, but on yesterday’s evidence this doesn’t seem to be the case. Likewise he could expect the same from a player coming on from the bench. His team selection in hindsight can be criticised, but as we are not privy to behind the scenes shenanigans at MFC who’s to say his hand was forced with regard to his starting lineup.
I still maintain that for some players relegation wouldn’t be a bad thing. The economic effect on MFC would mean their agents could negotiate a cut price release from the club, which would enable leeway to acquire lucrative deals elsewhere.
As with Ayala, the players are concerned with their own best interests and MFC come second.
Some might think that the bending of the knee might be considered in bad taste as almost replicating the actual killing of George Floyd. But I don’t. I’ve attended many Good Friday Church services re-enacting the crucifixion of Christ and found them very moving. After all He received racial abuse with taunts of ‘King of the Jews’.
I watched Football Focus yesterday and Dion Dublin recounted a tale as the presenter of Homes Under the Hammer when in a Supermarket he was just trying to make his way past a trolley and gently asked a 30year old woman if he could just move her trolley out of the way whilst filming was taking place only to receive a torrent of racial abuse, he was so stunned to react.
Unusually strong words from the Gazettes Dominic Shaw today ending with "If Saturday's display is a sign of things to come then Boro are doomed."
I apologise RR.
It was merely anger that motivated me, as I posted it I knew that they had come on as subs.
The complete absense of any kind of logic, even any kind of joined up thinking from this pair is mind numbing.
How can they have missed the four months of free time which were there to be used to practice dead ball tactics,
This can be done with one man on his own, god knows we have the facilities to coach ten players separately.
To see your ideas trashed in two friendlies should have told you to use your home game to try a shut out, and a breakaway goal, we even know the two attackers they should have played in that system. Tav and Wing.
I know this is no way to run a respectable club, but if your manager is talentless, then he had better be cunning.
It is utterly pointless to be hoping that somehow, someway, they might beat Forrest away. They are not good enough, and more importantly he is not good enough.
I thought a bit about the match bothwhile I was walking the two terriers. They're drilled, well as much as Jack Russell can be, and they respond to a command. Boro's coaches and managers don't, or can't, they breed confusion. With selections(?). tactics(?) and probably instructions or orders if you like.
I really think the team do not understand and the problem is the manager, or head coach. I fear he can't absorb, learn and retain lessons from previous experiences. Basing a selection on the Charlton game and seemingly forgetting his most successful period was when he had no choice to confuse his team selection is bewildering. Has he learnt anything? Strengths, weaknesses, no, not at all. Boro are doomed with with JW and RK and if they remain I fear we'll be in the same position this time next year.
It is exceedingly worrying. The emperor's suit of clothes turned horror story. Anybody want to make any predictions for the remaining games?
Stay safe, UTB.
John
John - i tend to agree with you - he has learnt nothing in the 3 months off and my prediction is that if carry on in the same way as Saturday, then we will struggle to win another game and will drop down.
i hope that I am wrong and although it is only one game into what is effectively a new season, the deficiencies are clear to see.
UTB