Glad to see that everything went well OFB and you still have your eyeballs in the sky.
Given we will be on TV show to showcase the Championship, I'm expecting a dour, slowmoving affair with us grinding out a 1-0 win with a lucky scrambled goal in the first 5 minutes....
Good to hear that you are OK and Krypton tuned. When are you allowed a glass of chilled white?
Stay safe everyone,
UTB,
John
Happy enough with that team. Good to see Wing in his most natural position and playing with Tav.
If fully fit I suspect that Howson, Watmore and Fletcher would all come into the side but not to be just yet so I think that XI is as good as could be hoped for.
Brum seem to be a different proposition away from St Andrews and we’ll need to be at it this afternoon, though we’ve been very good at home.
@andy-r. Your last paragraph says it all, this won't be a walk in the park and we need to be at them from the off or we could come unstuck. CoB 😎
Well 20 mins gone and I don't know about anyone else but I am not feeling very comfortable about what I am seeing, we just haven't got going and Brum look far more comfortable. Something needs to change and quickly for me. 😎
Poor from Boro. We haven’t got anything going in the final third. I hope Watmore is fit enough to come on - sadly Wing has been anonymous.
Thankfully Birmingham look shaky on defending balls into the box so there is hope. An early equaliser and we can go on to win but we must pick the level up and play at a higher tempo.
Very poor from Boro. Need a quick equaliser as if Brum score next I can’t see any way back. To the neutral observer one would think that Boro were fighting relegation and Brum looking for a playoff place. Glad to see that Howson is now on, but we need more intensity. As I write Britt misses a sitter.
I will go for a tight 1-0 win.
Well, you got your 1-0 win, Jarkko. Sadly, it went the other way. 🙁 Bettinelli was at fault for the goal, according to the Beeb:
Birmingham get the goal they deserve. Boro lose the ball with poor distribution down the middle from Marcus Bettinelli, and Birmingham slip into the groove.
Scott Hogan chests the loose ball to Jon Toral, the ball goes wide right where Maxime Colin rolls a perfect low cross back to Hogan, who buries his tap-in.
And nine minutes later, we missed out:
Controversy! Middlesbrough get the ball into the box, Dael Fry flicks into the six yard area and Sam Morsy meets the ball. His header soars into the corner, but strikes the woodwork and bounces out.
Jon Toral has an arm up trying to block, but somehow the ball misses it. Boro were celebrating, but Darren England shook his head and waved away.
VERY CLOSE.
Vic's assessment:
FT: 0-1. Woeful stuff. Punished for a sluggish start then never reacted. Dismal, disjointed, creaky, rusty, passes going astray. Slack at back, midfield ineffective, too many hopeful hoofs forward. A few good chances & many 'unlucky', but no excuses.
@stircrazy. Vic's summary is absolutely spot on and we got what we deserved, nothing!
Having watched the first 5 mins I had concerns and by the 20th I had posted that Brum were looking far more comfortable and we needed a re-action but shortly afterwards they scored and the rest is history.
The half time substitutions were correct but it made little difference to the result and gave Britt the opportunity of keeping up his record of missing a sitter 5 mins after the restart; could have been a whole new ball game if he had scored. Sadly NW's requests that the players exercise caution when celebrating was taken too literally and we failed to score!
Need three points on Wednesday to avoid a drift downwards to mid table mediocrity.
CoB let's have a positive reaction. 😎
I'm not even going to try and make comment on that. I thought we had seen the last of Pulisball but that performance was abysmal. Tactically, Karanka handed Warnock his backside on a silver salver. Not the first time Boro players had been "rested" and then repaid him with an inept and indifferent attitude.
If it wasn't for the restrictions I'd have the team Bus over to Roseberry Topping now and getting them doing sprints up and down it until I saw some energy being expended or at least a bit of sweat.
If anyone still thinks Covid isn't real just make them watch all ninety minutes of that.
That’s 5 successive matches including the FA Cup tie at Brentford that Boro have conceded the first goal and lost 3 of them. Why do we always seem to start so slowly? We never seem to listen to Warnock’s opinion that there is no easy match in the Championship. What’s more Forest are unbeaten in their last 6 matches including the FA Cup win over Cardiff so I doubt we’ll win there.
So , what will the excuses be ?
If the ball had crossed the line in the first half, or if Assombolonga had scored early in the second half then ............
Nothing can hide that this was an awful performance.
Too little quality of being able to pass the ball or construct an attack. The longer the game went on then all we saw was long high balls which the Birmingham defenders headed clear or put the ball out of play. And it seemed a number of players ran out of steam and certainly ran out of ideas.
Overall a poor game - would feel better if Birmingham had played really well - but they didn’t and were only average.
A wish for today - can we get rid of Assombolonga? He contributes virtually nothing and needs 3 or 4 good chances before he scores. But don’t expect him to leave in the transfer window as no Championship team would be able to afford his wages, plus he might as well sit tight and leave at the end of the season on a free transfer.
Philip of Huddersfield
To think of all the trouble I went to to watch the game this afternoon!
Have you ever wished you were somewhere else??
By the way I’ve found out after that performance the pacemaker works !!
OFB
Thanks John probably a couple of weeks I should be ok although the youngest son popped up at our window holding up a jigsaw a box of chocolates and two bottles of chilled French white!
very thoughtful 🧐 mmmm
OFB
Awful performance. The players looked half asleep. What time did they get up 10.30! Not sure how Wing now gets a game. Has been awful for the last few games. Doesn't seem to show the hunger he once had. Assombalonga, oh dear me, should never play for Boro again. Birmingham no great shakes but had fire in their belly. Some serious thinking for NW before the next game.
Big disappointment. Right scoreline predicted, wrong result.
I suspect it was a planned event that went exactly to the script.... nothing that might remotely raise the heart rate of one OFB
Blackburn seem to have done us a favour by holding Stoke to a 1-1 draw at Ewood Park (not to mentioning getting the influential James Chester sent off)!
it seemed a number of players ran out of steam and certainly ran out of ideas.
The biggest problem with that Phillip was that they seemed to have run out of ideas after about ten minutes, they clearly had run out of energy just running onto the pitch.
Neil Warnock admitted that the players should have trained at the Riverside yesterday. They could certainly have trained at Redcar as it was a beautiful sunny day with no snow, ice or frost even though it was cold. Redcar Athletic play only 4 or 5 hundred yards from the sea on a pitch which drains fairly well and there hadn’t been much rain since Wednesday. Perhaps it would have been worth a visit to see if it would have taken a stud, and there’s always the beach as well.
I thought it was a vile game of football, yet again the ball was hoofed into the air endlessly and we have no idea whatsoever as to dealing with it. It can be dealt with as witness the troubles they have had this season. We have the bright idea of getting a touch in our own penalty area and taking four passes to reach the half way line, then they thrash it high in the air towards our box. It does not work! Why our new signing was on the bench I will never know, he is far superior to Roberts with the ability to build moves around the box, and not afraid to score.
Is that irony? The ghost of 'Typical Boro' wanders the corridors at The Riverside and sits in a dark corner of an empty stand. Sorry that's a bit M.R. James but all you naughty fans and children he's watching all the time.
Stay safe,
UTB,
John
Since losing 1-3 at home to Brentford on the 12th December Nottm Forest have now gone unbeaten for 7 matches winning 4 of them and only conceded 3 goals. Does that mean they’re due to lose to Boro on Wednesday or are Boro now due to have a typical January and slide down to mid-table in this mediocre league?
Good to hear Once Fat Bob is up and running (if not litterally). So he was in better condition that the squad of NW.
You lose a match - especially against AK's team - if you are just 95 % fit and not fully prepared in a football game which iis always decided by fine margins.
Mind, their keeper saved a certain goal, Britt missed a sitter (even I would have scored from there) and their defender tried to prevent a goal with his hand but missed the ball complitely - and the ball bouched back via a post!
It was never our day but a draw would have been fairer result in the end. We played badly but had more chances than Birmingham did.
Up the Boro!
@plato Watmore didn’t play the first half as he was the player most affected by COVID apparently and was monitored by training staff whilst at home
It’s difficult to assess how much the coronavirus pandemic affected Boro. I haven’t had it but this second strain appears to be much stronger than the first strain and maybe 10 days in self-isolation isn’t enough for some players. I’m thinking how long it took Dael Fry to recover and that was in the summer. His form seemed to have dipped in the first few months of the season, but now looks like a future England international. I’m due to have my vaccination on Wednesday and the letter stresses that the injection will not stop me from getting coronavirus but reduces the chances. I’m still appalled how footballers yesterday were still hugging each other in their goal celebrations. There doesn’t appear to be any self control at all.
I thought that Birmingham played with far more aggression than Boro in the first 30 minutes and their goal was a thing of beauty which if Boro had scored like that would have been in contention for the goal of the season, and they almost scored a similar one before halftime. One can say that Brum should have been down to 10 men by then with some justification, and that Boro were unlucky not to score with Morsy’s scrambled effort, but I reckon that Boro were lucky to be only one goal down at the interval, but covid affected or not, Assombalonga should have at least been on the target with his chance early in the second half. Once Karanka brought on another defender I knew that Boro were done for.
Also Birmingham should have been awarded a penalty in the last 10 minutes when Jutkiewicz was manhandled by Bola in the last ten minutes. I’m sure Neil Warnock would have been apoplectic with rage if the boot had been on the other foot so to speak. I’ve watched that incident several times and if VAR had been in existence a penalty would have been awarded, as would the sending off of Sanchez.
However I disagree with those who say that Birmingham should have been an easy win for Boro. Admittedly their defence is likely to concede under pressure but attacking wise they are very strong and actually outplayed Boro for most of the first half at St Andrews before Etheridge uncharacteristically flapped at Lewis Wing’s corner. Let’s not forget that Birmingham’s away record this season has been outstanding so far with 4 wins, 4 draws and only 2 defeats. Nevertheless if this season ever reaches a conclusion Boro in my opinion are not a top six club, though certainly an improvement on last season.
As for George Friend he was carrying a niggle for most of last season, but now apparently fully fit is showing what a good value-for-money acquisition he had been for Boro and will be for Birmingham in the future. Arguably he and Bernie Slaven are the 2 best players to fall into that category.
Sounds like Jiminy Cricket with his wellies marked R and L.
Ken. John Hickton wasn't a bad buy at I believe £10k/£20k if my memory serves me correctly. 😎
Poor old Britt actually shoved his team mate out of the way as the ball ran sweetly for him (the team mate)to put it in the net, keeper trapped on his line, it looked curtains for Birmingham, but Britt spotted what he thought was a Good chance of getting his tally up to what? 4 or 5 for the season, so took his space, then made a hash of it (a complete surprise I must say) we keep making foolish decisions at vital moments of matches. This constant removal of strikers, or people who are likely to score, just when the opposition are slowing down and ready for home. It is bleedin obvious that a combination of Tav wing and Whatmore will score plenty of goals, especially if they allow wing into the box.
Yes I noticed that. Strikers are usually greedy, as were Brian Clough and Jimmy Greaves in their heyday. But Assombalonga thinks he’s a striker when in fact he’s a non-striker.