Just read the Gazette article about Boro’s next 4 matches. They all look tough games.

First,  Luton will be no pushover with a new manager who’s had some time on the training field in changing how they play which may be a surprise to MC. By comparison other teams will now be aware of the changes MC has  made and so I expect games will start to be more difficult for him.

Then he’s got his toughest game in his short tenure against the top team, Burnley, and unbeaten at  home. A draw would be a good achievement.

On paper , the home game against Wigan looks the easiest of the four games - but they also have a new manager who may get the bounce new managers often get. Finally , it’s Blackburn away. They are having a good but strange season, either winning a game or losing a game .So who knows what result to expect.

If Boro managed 2 wins and 2 draws then we’ll all be talking of the top 6. Equally it would be significant as it would be extending their unbeaten run. I tend to think it could be too much to ask and so i would be pleased with 7 points.

The good thing in all of the latest views is the supporters are now looking upwards and the doom and gloom is fading away.

Philip of Huddersfield 

@ken Amateurism is all well and good, but it favours those with access to time and income to pursue their sport. Trying to become a successful Olympic athlete whilst maintaining a job in a factory just isn’t possible I’m afraid.

@ Jarkko

That’s a coincidence that somehow passed me by. I hadn’t realised that Real Madrid and Eintracht Frankfurt reached the SuperLeague Final earlier this year, but do remember the two sides playing against each other in 1960 at Hampden Park when Real won 7-3.

Being a fan of Frankfurt because my ancestors were born there, and having visited the city some years ago to attend a garden festival there, I remember the two clubs meeting at Hampden Park in 1960 which unfortunately Frankfurt lost 3-7. It was during the era when Real Madrid were so dominant in Europe having won the European Cup for the first 5 years of its existence with the Argentinian super star Alfredo Di Stefano scoring a hat trick in what was at the time described as the greatest ever match ever seen in Britain. I believe that Di Stefano also scored in every one of those finals. Was he a better player than Lionel Messi? It’s difficult to compare footballers from different generations, although I still maintain that Wilf Mannion was better than Juninho, but of course he did have a much longer career with the Boro than the little fellah.

First things first. I think that Boro will beat Luton 3-1, but hope that doesn’t put the kybosh on things.

Thanks for the great season-rebooting opener Andy, if I'm honest it's come a week too early as I'm still fully immersed in the football of the World Cup - like Exmil, I've probably watched nearly all of the games and there have been some terrific ones and plenty of thrills, spills and shocks.

OK. I was initially torn on whether to actually watch it but once you separate the FIFA circus of corruption and its awarding of host to yet another country with a tainted record from the actual footballing side of teams, coaches and players then it was quite an easy decision. 

Why let FIFA and their cohorts win ahead of what is and has been historically the pinnacle of football for players and fans alike - the best players in the world dream of playing in a World Cup once every four years and some only ever get one chance - they don't decide where or who hosted the tournament and clearly are also uncomfortable with it being in Qatar.

Football once again made to be the conscience of the world with players and fans being pushed to make a stand or offer gestures to compensate for being in a country that the media has shouted is unfit to host and the public shouldn't be complicit.

Meanwhile, as the German national team backed down from wearing their rainbow armbands following FIFA threats and instead posed with their hands over their mouths in protest, the German government had no such qualms in doing business with Qatar as the Energy Minister (incidentally from the ethical Green Party) signed a 15-year multi-billion deal to import gas from them last week.

Even the UK now gets 20 percent of its gas from Qatar and they're even involved in building a gas terminal in Wales and signing a big defence contract! Indeed, the west is still buying oil from Russia and would buy their gas if the pipeline was working - plus container after container is bought from China despite its poor human rights record.

So I'm no longer feeling guilty for taking back control of watching the actual football between teams and players who still compete against one another for the glory of sport and winning the World Cup - the players have given everything on the pitch with winners elated and the losers distraught. It's what sport is about not the sideshow of PR and money that hangs grimly on the coat-tails of everything of any consequence that matters to people.

Anyway, not sure how I'll manage to watch Boro v Luton and Morocco v Portugal at the same time - I guess one on the laptop and the other on the TV with the sound turned down. The Championship clubs I guess can be grateful that England v France wasn't a 3pm kick-off - otherwise crowds could have been a bit thin on the ground this Saturday.

Still, it's the coldest World Cup I can remember - so don't know about getting the golf clubs out - more likely time to get my skates on...

Ken - Alfredo di Stefano has a good claim to be the greatest of all footballers (Puskas, Pele, Eusebio, Matthews, Mannion, Beckenbauer, Moore, RCharlton, Cruyff Snr, Best, CRonaldo, Messi etc are obviously in the shake-up) as, apart from scoring in all of the first 5 European Cup Finals, he had an impressive goals per game ratio and played international football for Argentina, Colombia and Spain.  I guess it was easier in those days to "switch" countries but still...  Clearly one of the all-time greats.

Werder - my mate hasn't watched any of the World Cup games unless by chance a game has been showing when we've been in the pub (and that hasn't been TOO often - we don't go in for the football but for a drink and the conversation - though we did watch the mighty Stocktport County v Charlton Athletic in an early FA Cup game in the midweek and he was much keener on that than on the WC).  We tend to be having a chat and then someone will shout or groan or whatever and we'll then look up to the TV to see the replay of what we'd missed.  Although this time I have watched some games on the TV at home I have not, as I might have done in tournaments-gone-by, watched every match it was possible to watch.  Some folk have decided not to watch at all, some to watch only the home nations or the "big games" and some will no doubt have watched all the games as they might always have done in the past.  Each to their own, and, of course, people are entitled to make their own choice. Whatever happens on the pitch, it won't take away the stench of corruption and hypocisy that pervades the administration of football and decisions relating to international football tournaments and for some other sports at the top level.

The big game tomorrow (Friday 10th December) will be at the Riverside - Boro v Luton Town in The Championship.  I am much more interested in that than in the World Cup though I wish England well now that they are in the latter rounds of the competition.  A Boro win would be VERY welcome and will lift spirits as Christmas approaches.  It seems a long time ago, as a result of this strange mid-season break, that I last saw the Boro. I am looking forward to the game.

I think it will be back home after the game, rather than going to the Pickled Parrot for the usual post-match debrief. I am planning a spicy beef stew which I can set off in the slow cooker during tomorrow morning, so that it can cook throughout the day in the slow-cooker.  Then however cold it might be at the Riverside, when I get back home after the match I will smell the cooked meal as soon as I open the front door, knowing a hot meal is ready and waiting for me.  THEN I can watch England v France at home, probably with son-and-heir who is expecting to return from his girlfriend's house in time for the match.

I remember telling my son never to invest his hopes on England winning a proper international tournament (Euros or World Cup), that they would be extremely unlikely to win in MY lifetime but probably not even in HIS lifetime either. "Golden Generations" have come and gone and disappointments have been heaped on supporters for decades, even taking the lead against Italy in the recent Euros when the Final was played at Wembley and then lost on a penalty shoot-out, as if Fate had already decreed it.  ONE Final in the last 55 years for a major football World Power!  Imagine how a Germany, Brazil, Arentina, Italy supporter would feel about getting to one losing final in all those decades?  However this MIGHT be a better team than for the past 50-odd years and so, I suppose, the possibility of winning  a tournament now seems more realistic than for a long time.  Maybe IF they can beat France - no small feat, that - then the sky is the limit with only 2 further games to play after that.  Better leave such speculation until Sunday though...

@ Forever Dormo

A terrific list of famous footballers by you, and understandably mainly creative players and strikers. However although I obviously never actually saw them play I would include George Camsell and Dixie Dean to that list, but also Tom Finney and John Charles both of whom I saw briefly. However the one player that had the potential to be England’s future captain despite my only seeing him play 3 or 4 times at the most was Duncan Edwards, sadly a victim of the Munich Air Disaster. Had he lived he could well have been England’s World Cup winning captain instead of Bobby Moore. Only 15 months older than me, I felt his death harder to bear than any of his contemporaries. I suppose it was a form of hero worship on my part at the time as one never thinks of death in one’s teens.

I’m afraid my footballing history doesn’t back as far as many here it seems. Below is my take on a best XI of players I’ve seen (though mostly on TV):

———-—Neuer————-

Cafu Nesta Maldini Cole 

———Pirlo Zidane———

Messi Maradona C Ronaldo

————Ronaldo————-

Lots of exceptional players missing even from this relatively recent list.

At long last a MFC managerial press conference where you can hear what the journalists are asking/commenting upon! 

Malcolm and I have been complaining about the poor levels of communication at press conferences for a number of seasons and at long last it appears to have been addressed.

Let’s hope that this is part of a number of things which are all moving in the right direction.

Just 16 hours now before the game kicks off! CoB 😎

At long last Pools have won away from home this season after 11 attempts, and are outside the bottom two in League 2 at least until tomorrow. As the great Bill McLaren used to a say if Scotland won the Calcutta Cup “They’ll be dancing in the streets around Sauchiehall Street tonight!”

 I know what most of you are thinking “Ken has lost his marbles again!” But McLaren was a BBC rugby union commentator with a lovely cultured Scottish borderer accent from Hawick (pronounced ‘hoyk’  by we sassenachs, yer ken) whenever the Scots beat the auld enemy at Murrayfield or wherever.  

Sauchiehall Street is a renowned thoroughfare in Glasgow of course and I doubt if the residents would be much concerned if Hartlepool United should win a match, but perhaps Pools fans from Seaton Carew to Port Clarence might be in a celebratory mood tonight, though Seaton Carew and Port Clarence don’t somehow seem to have the same lilt to Glasgow’s Sauchiehall Street.

By now as Neil Warnock was prone to ask “Are you with me?“ Nonetheless Bill McLaren had many idiosyncratic phrases, making BBC’s former Rugby League commentator Eddie Waring sounding like he had a mouth full of marbles. I now realise that many of you diasborians may have no idea whom I’m talking about, but I’m now quite overcome with excitement that Pools have won tonight, almost but not quite as important as Boro winning tomorrow, but certainly in my eyes more important than England beating France as I’ve never seen England play except on television, but have watched Pools play at the Vic and at Feethams many times since 1961. 

Of course one swalllow does not a swallow make, and we’re in the depths of winter here in Redcar that I doubt if Athletic’s home match tomorrow  at home to Ashington will take place, and of course Pools need to win many more matches to avoid relegation, but from little acorns mighty oak trees grow, perhaps another idiom of Bill McLaren’s!

@forever-dormo Are you going to wear shorts again at the Riverside today?

AV tweeted yesterday: "Long Johns on for the #Boro match tomorrow. And, with the cold snap and the gas bill, once they are on I reckon they are staying on as a second skin for months, like a toothless old prospector in a Western.."

Mind, we have had it below freezing point for two to three weeks now. And a lot of snow - nearly a foot now. Very beatiful,  though. And - 10 degrees Celcius outside now.

I will rather watch the Luton game today. Even we have watches 90 % of the matches in the unfair Qatar. 

Any win for Boro will do tonight. Up the Boro!

@jarkko We’re living in our static caravan at the moment until our new house is available and yesterday the water pipes froze for the first time. We tried to thaw them out with a hairdryer with no luck so we went out to buy bottled water until the weather changes. 
Fortunately the site manager was able to sort it out and advised us to leave a tap running overnight to keep it clear of ice. Nothing like your conditions in Finland, but cold enough for a crisp frost. 

@ken 

Thanks Ken, we laugh at the idea of heroes, then you mention Zatopec, what chance has any writer of inventing Zatopec, his editor would reject him out of hand. But he existed, and we watched him.    

Boro unchanged for the fifth straight game.

Today's team

Does look as though we have a remarkably consistent 1st 18. 

Hoppe is clearly 5th choice striker. With Clarke and Bola injured we're lacking cover on the left of defence and we don't really have a game changer on the bench though Watmore is an excellent impact sub. Luongo and Boyd Munce will clearly never make the bench without and injury crisis.

Second part of the Carrick evolution starts here.

No I haven’t lost my marbles, well not quite!  I fell asleep watching television last night, and was surprised to notice that my watch was showing 1.30, but then realised that all my clocks were showing the same time. So having already ascertained that I had eaten half a roast duckling for my main meal, I couldn’t believe that it was only 1.30 and I was watching a programme about the cheapness of purchasing drones. I wondered what channel I was watching, but nevertheless thought I’d have an early teatime meal whilst reading about Hartlepools win yesterday, and assumed that it must have been a very early morning kickoff.

I then decided that I’d write some ‘drivel’ about what Bill McLaren used to repeat about unexpected Scottish Rugby Union wins and remembered some of his cultured idioms he repeated when the Scots surprisingly won. Now McLaren has been dead for almost 13 years and he sounded a little like a Scottish comedian called Chic Murray who died in 1985 (I know nobody will have remembered him either), so happily I didn’t mention him in my comments about Hartlepools win yesterday morning???

Then it suddenly dawned on me that it must be 1.30 am this morning, so I’m not exactly sure how long I’d been asleep in my recliner, but it was 3am before I got to bed. I now realise that before Pool’s next win I need to purchase a digital clock. But although some of you might remember spotting Eddie Waring even if only as a singer/dancer??? from the Morecambe and Wise Christmas Show of 1977 singing “There is nothing like a Dame”,but how many of you remember Bill McLaren, never mind Chic Murray?

@ken 

Remember them all Ken  as I suspect most of us in here will do. I recall Bill McLaren, or "the voice of rugby" as he was known with his they'll be singing and dancing in the borders tonight catchphrase on famous Scottish victories at Murray field. I can't quite imagine the same happening in Sauchiehall Strreet where I think the round ball game would be more popular than the oval ball game!

Other great Scottish voices to recall should include the lates Stanley Baxter (everyone should watch his "Parliarmo Glasgow" sketches) and Ricky Fulton (ditto in his Rev. I. M. Jolly persona...).

5 minutes to kick off.... CoB

Hesgoal seems to have gone belly up for football.  Any alternatives?

Very slow and ponderous from Boro. Only bit of pace came from our equalising goal.

OFB

@powmillnaemore 

Geeza Geeza Piesa cheesa

translated as

could I have some more cheese please !

OFB 

Rusty start from Boro which culminated in the visitors taking the lead. It was a terrific low strike from Clark but both Howson and Hackney will be disappointed with how easily he wriggled past the pair of them.

Boro came to life soon after with Jones flashing over.

Inevitably it was a Ryan Giles cross that was met by Chuba Akpom for the equaliser.

Not a high quality game and quite stark in contrast to the World Cup for those who have followed it.

McGree has been a level above anyone in a Boro shirt - perhaps that shows the difference match sharpness makes.

Game there to be won if we can step up.

Matt Crooks bags what I hope is the sucker punch in the first minute of injury time.  🙂

Dijksteel on as a substitute for Jones in 90+3.

Boro up to 12th, sandwiched between Blunderland (also 30 points, but with a game in hand & a better goal difference [+6]) & the Hatters (30 pu ts, but a 0 GD).

Feeling a bit dizzy after simultaneously watching Boro v Luton and Morocco v Portugal both with teams playing in red and all white - very confusing at times and both exciting endings.

Anyway, Boro played some good stuff in the second half and played the ball around better than either Portugal or Morocco - a deserved win in the end thanks to super-sub Crooks but Boro missed quite a few decent chances. Jones looking close to his best again and Watmore also looked good when he came on.

Boro starting to build up a head of steam as they close in on the playoffs - can't believe Carrick has rescued the season and promoton now back on the agenda! Football's coming home, it's coming...

Posted by: @stircrazy

[...] the Hatters (30 pu ts, but a 0 GD).

Just spotted the messed-up spelling there ("points", not "pu ts"), but I seem already to have run out of time to rectify the error.  🙁

What makes a result all the more satisfying when your team comes from behind to win and more enjoyable still when they score in the last minute ?
So, in the last 5 games , Boro are the form team in the Championship. Well done.

Just watched the Sky highlights and whilst Boro failed to stop the Luton player it has to be acknowledged that he showed a lot of skill by skipping past the two  Boro players before scoring with a well placed shot. Had a Boro player done that then we’d be told that it was an outstanding goal worthy of winning the game. 

So , it’s back to the World Cup to see if England can contain not just Mbappe but also Giroud and their other attacking players. A winner, like Boro, in the last minute would be very acceptable and an outstanding result.

Philip of Huddersfield 

Carrick winning in the Fergie time again. I like that habbit of coming back after being a goal down. 😄

Up the Boro!

Who’d be a referee?

It is clear in the Premiership and the Championship that, this season,  referees are being more tolerant about giving free kicks. In the World Cup, referees are being more tolerant still with fouls not being given.

Michael Oliver, the English referee , got it right in yesterday’s Brazil game  with an almost faultless performance whereas,  in the next game,  ( Portugal v Morocco) the referee was poor and failed to control the game and ended up cautioning half a dozen players - the game was competitive but not ‘ dirty’

Tonight,  it was a close game and England failed with their second penalty to stay in the game .  But no doubt we’ll get the English press  complaining about the referee saying Zaka was fouled leading up to France’s goal. Based on the standards at this World Cup it wasn’t a foul. Whereas , Kane was unlucky not to , at least, get a free kick or, on another day,  a penalty later in the first half.

What was clear was that whenever an England attack broke down in France’s half of the field, the French attacked at speed whereas England were slow in building attacks.

The better teams have a stand out  player eg , France - Mbappe,     Argentina  - Messi,    Croatia - Modric,      Brazil - Neymour.      Who do England have?

Having witnessed England of 1966 , the team had at least 3 world class players - Bobby Charlton, Bobby Moore and Gordon Banks.

I think that the press build up the England team far too much and when it doesn’t  perform  well enough to win the game  they will look for excuses rather than admitting we’re not quite good enough. Tonight, they’ll probably criticise the referee.

However there’s still a good feel about today with the Boro victory.

So, we move on and look forward to Burnley next week whereas the World Cup has lost interest for me. As my wife says “ it’s only a game”.

Philip of Huddersfield