If they play like they have played in the first half then it doesn't bode well for the play offs. A big 2nd half comming up.
Mowatt replaced by Barlaser in the 65th minute.
Phew! No injuries and thankfully nobody in a Boro shirt tried to score to set up a play-off match against Sunderland 😉 Plus how did Millwall throw away their play-off hopes after being 3-1 up at H-T?
Coventry look beatable if Boro play with more intensity and let's see how Boro perform when it matters - maybe a few players will return too.
When I read the line-ups, I thought Fisher was a young player drafted to the bench.
How happy I was to see Darnell Fisher being put on during the added-on time. Well done, Carrick. Darnell's contract expires on Jun 30 2023, and he's just 29 now.
Re: Coventry City, they defend well but as a ball playing team we are better. I am so happy we have Giles and McGree back now.
The big thought for Carrick is who to play on the right. Jones does not fit perfectly into our current system where we do not play with wingers.
Jones is better as a wing-back or winger. I just wonder why we never play Crooks in the right of our attacking three - especially so when Forss is injured. McGree can also play there when Aaron Ramsey is on the left. But he is injured now.
Positivies are that Coventry is not as good side as I thought. We have a chance to win, but we must be at our best in the next few matches. Up the Boro!
Better performance 2nd half but still need an improvement for the next two games against Coventry.
Have to say well done to Tony Mowbray who has performed miracles at Sunderland.
NE ratings
8 Steffen: Made a fine save to deny Hamer early on and was quick off his line to beat Gyokeres to loose ball. Calm in possession.
7 Smith: Bit sloppy in possession early on but otherwise solid.
8 Lenihan: Excellent defensive display. Made a couple of crucial second half interceptions.
8 McNair: Did a fine job on dangerman Gyokeres. Boro will hope for a repeat in the play-offs.
7 Giles: Grew into the game in the second half, couple of good deliveries deserved better. Big boost to have him back.
6 Hackney: Bit sloppy in the first half but got better as it went on.
6 Mowatt: Hard working midfield display. Helped to give Boro some steel in absence of Howson.
6 Jones: Flashes of quality down the right but most of Boro’s attacking play, particularly in second half, came down the left.
6 Akpom: Dropped into space, some classy touches but Coventry did a decent job on him.
7 McGree: Linked up well with Giles, particularly in the second half. Again looked sharp, as he did at Rotherham.
7 Archer: Starved of service for most of first half but popped up with equaliser with instinctive finish. Will be key man in the play-offs.
Substitutes:
6 Barlaser (for Mowatt, 65): Tidy in possession from the bench.
Crooks (for Archer, 76): N/A
Finch (for Jones, 90): N/A
Fisher (for Smith, 90): N/A
Subs not used: Roberts, Muniz, Bola
From the Beeb:
To quote Russell Crowe in Gladiator, "Are you not entertained?!"
An afternoon of football that has delivered and then some, and the good news, is we have four high-octane play-off semi-finals in store over the next nine days.
Sat 13 May: Sunderland v Luton (KO 17:30 BST)
Sun 14 May: Coventry v Middlesbrough (KO 12:00 BST)
Tue 16 May: Luton v Sunderland (KO 20:00 BST)
Wed 17 May: Middlesbrough v Coventry (KO 20:00 BST)
Four great games to look forward to and we will be with you every step of the way with live text commentary to see who makes the play-off final at Wembley on Saturday, 27 May.
I listened to the talkSPORT commentary on today’s game and Boro were average at best. They have limped into the playoffs in recent games and are the most out of form team - by miles- of the 4 playoff teams.
I have Coventry as favourites to beat Boro in the playoffs.
Boro have gone from favourites to get through the playoffs to an outsider caused solely by all the injuries. I’m reluctantly thinking the season will now end like a damp squib. If so, what a shame when a few weeks ago the team were on fire.
Meanwhile, to put Neil Warnock’s achievements in his 15 games in charge then, pro rata, over 46 games Huddersfield Town would have finished 4th !!
I wonder what the odds are for Sunderland to win the playoffs. They are the youngest team in the Championship by a long way and seem to have no fears in these tense games.
Philip of Huddersfield ☹️☹️
Well I now have a full set WLD after my afternoon at the Riverside.
Poor first half, where our passing was too slow and predictable and Coventry could have been out of sight before they scored whereas we did not have a shot until we scored.
70+% possession but a lot of that was in our own half.
A better second half but we will need to step it up another gear if we are to get through against a functional Coventry side. 😎
Plucked my pre-season predictions from the thread of the time. A solid mix of absolutely abysmal and not half bad:
Boro: Top 4
Automatic promotion: Norwich, Watford
Play-offs: Sheffield Utd, West Brom, Burnley
Overachievers: Luton, Coventry - top 10 finishes despite small budgets
Flops: Huddersfield / Blackburn (lower midtable), Reading (relegated)
From MC
Carrick said: “I thought we weren’t quite at our top level at the start. That’s probably because we’re so used to the boys doing so well.
"I thought it was a little bit off to begin with, not massively, but just enough that the boys were getting a little bit frustrated. But the longer the game went I thought we hit a better level and I’m generally quite pleased from what we got from the day overall.
"We pushed for the win, and wanted to win it - that goes without saying. But overall, a good performance, pretty solid, everyone coming through it fit and well with a good work out for some who needed it. So pretty positive all round really."
The players came over to where we were sitting and their wives, girlfriends, partners, handed the players their children to tour with around the ground. It was nice to see Dael Fry on his feet walking around with them but I must admit he didn’t look very well.
OFB
I thought taking Mowatt off and bringing in Barlaser changed the midfield and made the Boro more of an attacking threat.
It was also noticeable that Barlaser started taking the free kicks nearer to the Coventry goal and came close.
OFB
@original-fat-bob thanks for the great photos
They funniest thing in al all of my many many years of being a Boro fan I've never been so relaxed , yes promotion would be fantastic, but can you imagine what's setting up for the Championship next season , the teams going down and those coming up, forget the four team premiership, this league will be wild , every week something to play for ,
@ken One for Ken.
The lad who sits in front of me when I go to the Riverside, likes statistics.
In the last ten years, the team that has won the play off final has achieved ten or more points in the last five League games. The only exception during that period was Huddersfield who won promotion having only accumulated five points.
The Boro have seven from their last five games. I think Sunderland will beat Luton over their two games.
I thought taking Mowatt off and bringing in Barlaser changed the midfield and made the Boro more of an attacking threat.
It was also noticeable that Barlaser started taking the free kicks nearer to the Coventry goal and came close.
OFB
@ORIGINAL Fat Bob
I noticed the same thing with Barlaser. He does make me more nervous that he is about to lose the ball but that may well be because he plays closer to the opposition and takes more risks. I do feel that we are missing Howson more than expected. Mowatt is the nearest to him that we have but Howson's absence really seems to have left Hackney a little bit lost. He is at his best when we are on top of the game and he has the comfort of Howson alongside or behind him. His defensive work isn't always that good and he seems to be the one of our midfield players most likely to lose the ball and give up a counter-attack. If Howson isn't fit, I wonder if Carrick will play Hackney for the first leg or instead go with Mowatt and Barlaser.
Coventry didn't create much by way of passing but they had clearly settled on a very simple approach to playing Boro. A rigid defence and play the ball forward and wide to Gyokeres to give him the chance to have a go at the Boro back two. I did notice that McNair got very close to him - which is good - but sometimes tried to get in front of him and a few times got turned by Gyokeres who then headed off towards our penalty area. That simple tactic by Gyokeres seemed to me the most likely way for them to score.
On the right hand side, Carrick has some choices to make. Firstly, he will have a choice between Smith and Dijksteel. I'm not sure who of the two is faster but that might be what we need to help counter Gyokeres.
The big question mark for me is Jones. Against Coventry he didn't seem to be either getting past his man and getting into the box or delivering a good ball from out wide. However, if neither Forss nor Ramsey are fit, I'm not sure what other option we have. Crooks is not really a wide player and it seems ridiculous to take Archer out of the penalty area where he is so deadly.
It was good to see Giles back on the left but I do think that he has lost some of the power and accuracy on his crosses. There were some good ones but not as many of those killer deliveries that seem to give the defender a choice between praying and scoring an own goal. As so much of our structure seems to be based on giving Giles the chance to deliver - to the point where McGree often refuses to take a cross himself - those crosses have to be spot on.
It's going to be tight couple of games and, oddly enough, it could be that we have a better chance of winning the away game because Coventry may be more attacking which could suit us better.
It's going to be a nervous week waiting for Sunday night but it is a nice convenient 9.00pm kick-off. I wonder which of our injured players Carrick is keeping up his sleeve for a surpise comeback.
UTB
@selwynoz A good post there. As you said, the right side and Jones is still a conundrum in our current system.
But then again, Coventry wasn't as good as I feared. We must improve but we have as good chance to win as Coventry.
Up the Boro!
We have played OK in resent weeks. But we have not scored and not created many chances recently.
And if we concede a goal or two we won't win. Small margings but I am happy that we have Giles and McGree back.
We definately miss Marcus Forss on the right. So that side must be fixed before Sunday by Carrick.
Up the Boro!
@selwynoz Good post and some questions to answer for MC.
I would say that Dijksteel is quicker than Smith, but probably not as good defensively. The other issue with the former, is that like Giles he gets further up the pitch and that leaves both sides vulnerable to the ball over the top, which Coventry used yesterday.
As Jarkko said, we have stopped scoring goals, in fact we have stopped having shots. We have become somewhat ponderous and appear to want to walk the ball into the opposition net. We have no one really that makes an opening to shoot from outside the box. Sunderland scored all theirs like that against PNE.
We are missing Forss, that is a given. As much as I like Jones, and his defensive work, he has not created that many chances since his first 45 minutes back against Hull. Giles did OK yesterday, but his crosses were not what we wanted and he failed to beat the first man a number of times.
We can only hope that Mr Howson returns from injury and gets some match practice in during the week. Forss would be a bonus.
Thanks for the photos, Bob. Nice to see.
But I wouldn't want to tangle with that lady steward in the first one.
Pretty good set of predictions there, Andy.
Plucked my pre-season predictions from the thread of the time. A solid mix of absolutely abysmal and not half bad:
Boro: Top 4
Automatic promotion: Norwich, Watford
Play-offs: Sheffield Utd, West Brom, Burnley
Overachievers: Luton, Coventry - top 10 finishes despite small budgets
Flops: Huddersfield / Blackburn (lower midtable), Reading (relegated)
I went back and did the same
Boro 4th-6th. (Lot does depend on our remaining recruitment though)
Auto: Norwich, WBA (Though this could be the year that Norwich get broken by their constant yo-yoing)
Play-offs: Watford, Sheff Utd, Boro, Sunderland.
Overachievers: Sunderland, Luton
Flops: Burnley, Birmingham, Huddersfield
Feels like a hard season to call. Either Norwich or Watford could implode this year. I suspect that Burnley will find the change to Kompany too extreme (like WBA and Sheff Utd last year) and ditch him pretty quickly. If Sunderland sign another striker and get some early wins, they could go on quite a run. I feel like WBA and Sheff Utd could both do what Bournemouth did last season, splash the last of their parachute money and sneak over the line.
I can't really get a grasp on how we'll do. It feels like we ought to be challenging for promotion but we're only half way through a massive squad overhaul. There still appears to be confusion at the club about whether we are throwing everything at promotion with Wilder or taking the time to build sustainably with Scott.
I still think that our manager has played a great hand very well, playing Jones in these dead rubber games was the right idea, I'm afraid that he kills our swift passing, and shooting, game. This means that our opponents have not been subject to our chief attackers, and will surely feel the effects when they do.
With regard to looking back at what we predicted before the season got underway, here is waht I thought at the time:
So that's my top six: Middlesbrough, QPR, Reading, Sheffield Utd, Sunderland and WBA.
For automatic promotion: perm any 2 from Sheffield Utd, QPR and Boro.
Close for the playoffs, but not close enough: Cardiff City, Coventry City, Norwich City and Preston North End
For relegation: Wigan, Hull City and Rotherham - though I think Huddersfield might also struggle this year.
Could have done better.
Could have done much better !
Over this week Boro must practice on the corners and free kicks which are pretty woeful, even although we scored from a corner on Monday.