Boro v PNE

Original Fat Bob · 2023-03-15T14:25:05Z

Boro v PNE Saturday 18/3/23 k.o. 3 p.m Riverside Stadium It’s a sign of how far this Boro team have come under Michael Carrick, that most of us are feeling disappointed after only taking a point at home from Stoke City on Tuesday night. Foam hands aside, the pragmatists or should I say realists amongst us (I’m talking about you Ken!) have said that we should put aside our thoughts of automatic promotion and instead concentrate on achieving a playoff position at the end of the season. I feel sure that this will be achieved as a minimum objective and that we can look forward to being in the mix with a possible Wembley play off final to look forward to. It was a game too soon after a hard game on Saturday. The match on Tuesday against Stoke was a struggle for many players and the energy levels were down for the midfield and attacking players. The ambling peripheral performance of Howson was only matched by the slap dash passing of Hackney. The driving runs of our young on loan Aston Villa strikers was more subdued and even Choo chooBA Akpom could have had a couple more goals to add to his impressive tally. It was interesting to see Paddy move from defence more into midfield attacking roles with some great passing skills and he very nearly and should have scored the winner at the end of the game. Although Steffen made at least two reaction saves during the game, I note that a few have raised questions about his inability to save the goal. Looking at it again, I would actually pass comment that Giles could have done more from a defensive point of view but I’m not going to criticise a player who has made such a difference to the attacking game of this Boro team. Perhaps our manager has made some notes regarding the use of changing his squad more from game to game after watching this stilted performance and we can see more variances regarding game by game team selection. No criticism from me I hasten to add, as this manager can do no wrong in my eyes at present. I can think of no other manager in my lifetime, other than Jack Charlton who has transformed a team so much, whilst essentially using the same playing staff in such a short time. Quite a Churchillian statement but let’s face it we have a few battles ahead to win the campaign. Stoke had prepared well and their high pressing of our players resulted in them actually having most of the possession on the night. Alex Neill is an experienced championship manager who has won three promotions during his career and had done his homework well. He said after the game: "I thought it was a really good game. I thought it was a really open game. Middlesbrough are a good side, obviously, but I thought over the game we had the better chances. I thought we were probably the more, I wouldn't say more aggressive, but we tried to force the issue and tried to win the game. Middlesbrough have got big prizes that they're playing for and we're trying to show how far we've come in a short space of time. I thought we did that. I also thought we were more than a match for them. It was a good match between two good teams. We're just disappointed to come away from home against a team playing as well as they are and to play as well as we did, I was really pleased but if either of the two teams was going to win it, it probably should have been us." Notwithstanding the comments of the Stoke manager, the Boro remain in third place with 64 points from 37 games which is a truly remarkable achievement considering where we were when the Boro dispensed with the services of Wilder. Sheffield United who still remain favourites for the automatic promotion spot remain in second place with 67 points from 36 games. It will be interesting to see the result from the vital game that Sunderland play tonight against Sheffield United and there will be a few more twists and turns before the end of the season. Turning to our next opponents on Saturday, Preston North End continued their good away form with a 2-1 win over Rotherham United on Tuesday night. Preston players Tom Cannon and Ched Evans were on the scoresheet again. With the January additions of Tom Cannon and Liam Delap, Preston have now found themselves with four fit strikers to choose from. Troy Parrott has returned from a long-term injury but apart from that penalty against Luton Town he still hasn’t found his scoring touch. Cannon was clearly liked by their management team as even before he got his first goal he was given seven straight starts. He’s now got three goals in his last five games, and his game has adapted well to the Championship. This is obviously a player that the Boro defenders will have to mark closely on Saturday to stop his run of form. The assist for Evans’ goal came from Cannon and at the start of the second half both players came close to finding their second goal of the game. The Lilywhites had a particularly strong start to the second half which saw Cannon hit the crossbar as well as a plethora of ...

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Middlesbrough FC

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exmil

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March 30, 2023 6:22 pm

@norfolk-and-boro Recorded

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Selwynoz

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March 31, 2023 3:17 am

@exmil

Did you pick up my entry from earlier on?

UTB

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jarkko

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March 31, 2023 5:43 am

@Exmill And mine was here: https://diasboro.club/forum/middlesbrough-football-club/boro-v-pne/paged/4/#post-20987

Up the Boro!

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Selwynoz

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March 31, 2023 6:02 am

@Exmill , This is mine

https://diasboro.club/forum/middlesbrough-football-club/boro-v-pne/paged/3/#post-20978

UTB

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Len Masterman

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March 31, 2023 9:34 am

ex-mil

Mine is on this PNE thread p5, 28 March at 3.39pm

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Martin Bellamy

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March 31, 2023 10:15 am

Mine is here: https://diasboro.club/forum/postid/20981/

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K P in Spain

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March 31, 2023 11:43 am

Exmil here is my original post again from P4 9:52 24 March, of this thread.

@exmil. Please find below my attempt to try and get me out of the bottom three!

Burnley (83) WDWW (93)

Shef Utd (70) DWLW (77)

Boro (67) WDDW (75)

Luton (64) DLWW (71)

Blackburn (61) DDWW (69)

Millwall (60) LWDW (67)

Norwich (57) DDWL (62)

Coventry (57) DDWL (62)

WBA (55) WWWD (65)

Watford (55) DWLW (62)

This post was modified 3 years ago by K P in Spain

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March 31, 2023 1:50 pm

Ian Gill Part 2 entry (I did inform him about his Boro total being incorrect and he admitted his mathematical error) so I have recorded his Boro total as 77.

Part 2 attached

Burnley (83) W D D W (91)

Shef Utd (70) L W D W (77)

Boro (67) W D W W (76)

Luton (64) W D W D (72)

Blackburn (61) D D D W (67)

Millwall (60) L D D W (65)

Norwich (57) W D W L (64)

Coventry (57) D D W L (62)

WBA (55) W D W D (63)

Watford (55) L W L D (59)

Recorded

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exmil

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March 31, 2023 2:05 pm

exmil entry:

Burnley(83) WDWW 93

Shef Utd (70) LWLW 76

Boro (67) WDWW 77

Luton (64) DDWW 72

Blackburn (61) DDDW 67

Millwall (60) LDWW 67

Norwich (57) WDWL 64

Coventry (57) DDDW 63

WBA (55) WWWL 64

Watford (55) DWDW 63

Recorded

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Page 6 / 6 Prev

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