That's better, welcome back Tav, 2-0 get in! 😎
Morsy is lucky that he did not receive a red card as there appeared to be arms and legs being used by both players.
Vic:
Morsy taken off (safely away from retribution) with fit-again flanker Tav coming on
And Tav promptly makes it 2-0 (header from the centre of the box after a shot from Akpom cannons off the bar)! 😀
@stircrazy. Hopefully just a minor injury enough to keep him out of the NI team but enable him to return for us after the international break! 😎
It was hardly a thriller but at this stage it’s all about getting results, that is assuming we still harbour play-off hopes. Preston were formidable opponents and a slice of good fortune from a Bolasie cross which bounced awkwardly in front of the hapless Storey saw the Preston defender’s attempted clearance spin off his shin past Iversen to put Boro a goal to the good. After all the bad luck of late we were due some good fortune although I did admit to feeling sorry for Storey at the time.
If that wasn’t lucky enough a tussle between Preston Captain Browne and our arch niggler Sam Morsy saw a bit of a shove from Browne into Morsy who reacted with an outstretched arm and lash come shove in retaliation. It was nothing more than handbags, but Browne stupidly saw the mist descend and kicked out at Morsy in full view of the Ref and like as not the fourth official and the linesman on that side. A straight Red was shown and with it a gift horse handed to Boro so long as they kept their composure and used the extra man and goal advantage well.
Up until the own goal Preston were looking the better side in much the same way that Stoke had just a few days previously. Van den Berg had hit a screamer from the edge of the eighteen-yard box that had Bettinelli stretching to tip it onto and over the crossbar. Scott Sinclair thought he had scored when he toe poked the ball past Bettinelli at close range but he was well offside so Boro breathed again. It was one of those nights for the Lilywhites were nothing went for them and probably indicated why their season had petered out while almost a quarter of it remained a few weeks back.
At half time under pressure Preston boss Alex Neil’s protests managed to outdo the protester in chief in the Home technical area and found himself sent to the stands for the second half. Boro still didn’t really dominate or take the game by the scruff of the neck but substance over style is all that really matters now and a good end to the season will bode well for Warnock’s plans in the summer, assuming of course that we don’t achieve the ridiculous let alone the impossible and nick into the play offs and with the fortune we had tonight even win them.
A "tactical" substitution taking Morsy off saw super sub Tavernier seal all three points on his comeback as he pounced on a rebound from Akpom after McNair went on a run into the box which ended with Tav homing in to head the ball past the stranded Iversen. The negative on the night came when shortly afterwards McNair went off with an injury which hopefully will not be too serious as he has been instrumental in his new Midfield marauding role. Two goals to the good and against ten meant Warnock used his subs to rotate to good effect clearly with one eye on a trip to the Den to face Millwall.
Bettinelli was outstanding on Saturday but tonight his handling or rather lack of it caused some nervy moments with his habit of punching, pawing and flapping rather than actually catching a ball. Defensively Fry and Hall are looking a solid and credible pairing with Hall easily the man of the match. This was no classic but the job was done and a clean sheet kept. That result saw us leap over Cardiff, but Bournemouth beat Swansea keeping the gap of three points the same while Barnsley and Reading now five points ahead on sixty-one points face trips to Wycombe and Birmingham respectively tomorrow night to try and restore their eight point gap.
A bit of a purple patch in the first 20 minutes of the second half saw us secure victory. Kebano was playing at another level on the right during this period, and was unlucky not to score. He was ably supported by Tav, but Fletcher looked to be out of touch.
Thereafter our passing was put at the service of seeing out the game rather than inflicting more pain on Preston.
In spite of Kebano's second half renaissance I made Hall man of the match. He gave an immaculate performance, his uncanny ability in finding a red shirt when heading away under pressure reminded me of Woodgate's quality in that regard.
We had all of the luck going tonight, and at Millwall we will need to carry on from our second half performance.
It will be fatal if we start off on Saturday as we did against both Preston and Stoke.
Well, I'm not going to apologise for the fact that we had a bit of luck tonight. We've had such a bad run of decisions that we were due the rub of the green although, to be fair, none of the decisions were actually wrong but it's more the fact that we were on the right side of them. At most, Morsy may have deserved a yellow for a petulant shove but that didn't cause the wild kick at him and the red card.
Coming out of a 'mixed' performance such s this I had a few thoughts.
1. The back four are really solid. Fisher looks to have been an excellent buy. Bola is looking like a top quality performer, composed on the ball and hard to beat for any winger. Hall and Fry are excellent with Hall outstanding in the last couple of games. For all the people who attack our recruitment, there ae a few solid ticks in their favour in recent times.
2. McNair is a top quality player wherever he plays and he is probably more use to us roaming round the field than stuck at the back.
3. Tavernier is a major talent who will only get better.
4. Our basic midfield - Morsy, Howson, Saville - is solid but not brilliant.
5. We have a lot of strong fast forward players which is unusual and gives us a lot of substitution potential.
6. Johnson is a massive impact sub and maybe NW should keep him there.
utb
An interesting comment the Preston manager Alex Neil told to BBC Radio Lancashire:
"The referee stopped us potentially getting three points tonight. We've done really well, I think that's the first time I've ever lost against a Neil Warnock team. So that's really frustrating for me because we're tailor-made to play against these types of teams."
https://www.bbc.com/sport/football/56329362
An important win for us after losing 3-0 at their place, though. Up the Boro!
I agree with Len about the first half hour’s display. Even despite the fortuitous own goal and equally fortuitous non-sending off of Morsy, I still felt that Preston were likely to score. Tav made such a difference as Boro played well in the second half except for their shooting. Boro ought to have scored at least twice more, and if Preston had scored again which was not inconceivable, it might have become an interesting final 10 minutes. Still, job done!
The only problem was that Swansea’s good luck lately seemed to have deserted them in the wrong match from Boro’s point of view at Bournemouth which might make it harder for Boro to win on the south coast after the international break. Ideally Boro must win that match and the Millwall match too to even maintain that outside chance of reaching the playoffs, because I reckon Barnsley ain’t going away anytime soon.
Barnsley are still at the top of Current 2020/21 Championship Form Table, Last 10 Matches, Home and Away: https://www.twtd.co.uk/league-tables/competition:championship/form/matches:10/type:home-and-away/
Barnsley will have a match at Wycombe tonight. Up the Boro!
Preston scored an own goal, hit the wooodwork, had a goal disallowed, and had a man (as well as their manager) sent off. We won 2-0. I will take that Preston roundabout as compensation for the Swansea swing.
I can’t help feeling that if a manager is sent off he should have to go to the dressing room, rather than being allowed to sit with the subs within shouting distance of the pitch.
Martin - your post at 11.29am March 17th - I saw their manager, who'd been sent off at half-time, walking down from the stands at full-time so that he could bump fists etc and talk to players, MFC training staff etc (maybe after that also the officials, though I didn't concentrate on that as I was doing something else shortly after the final whistle blew).
Obviously the situation is unusual in a virtually empty stadium, where shouting between players and coaching staff can clearly be heard. So a manager who has simply moved a few rows back into the stands, who can still be heard by the players if he shouts out his instructions to them, and who can easily step out onto the staircase to walk down a few steps into the arena, is hardly someone who has been banished from the field of play at all. I suppose if there were 18,000 supporters present in the stadium, it would have been very difficult for him to have shouted instructions TO BE HEARD by his players. Maybe that is something to be looked at.
I'd be in favour of the offending manager being put in stocks and shown on the big screen for the remainder of the game.
Lets hope that Wycombe can pull off one of those "anybody can beat anybody in this league" results this evening and the same for Birmingham against Reading. Home advantage isn't much use with no crowds but that horrendous pitch might disrupt Reading and with Bowyer back in town the Blues just may have a psychological boost. Wycombe seem a decent footballing side but very naïve at this level so I can't see Barnsley spluttering but you just never know.
It's a shame that it didn't work out for Aitor again but there clearly seems to be something not working for him at the minute. Whilst I am sure we can all speculate that it is perhaps down to his man management and expectation levels his recruitment has been very poor which in turn leaves him exposed. It looks like he needs an infrastructure around him to underpin his traits. Last night Alex Neil looked to be on borrowed time after a very flat season with Preston. Its a far cry for both of them from that heady day at Wembley not so long ago.
Good comparison with Neil and Karanka there, RR. Two once-promising young managers who for whatever reason haven’t been able to push on, though plenty of time for them to come again.
Karanka’s time at Boro still feels like a huge missed opportunity. So much was good about it only to be ruined by a combination of poor (and too much) recruitment - likely with some meddling from above (Downing, Rhodes) - as well as Aitor’s sullen personality and critical man management.
I wonder if we’ve ever had two Boro managers in a relatively short period of time with such opposing characters as Karanka and Warnock?
Bugger! The Tykes a goal to the good at half-time courtesy of a penalty scored by the player Vic always says reminds him of a construction company, Cauley "Ridiculous First Name" Woodrow, BUT "The Juke" has just given Birmingham the lead against Reading at St Andrews...
Bugger! The Tykes a goal to the good at half-time courtesy of a penalty scored by the player Vic always says reminds him of a construction company, Cauley "Ridiculous First Name" Woodrow, BUT "The Juke" has just given Birmingham the lead against Reading at St Andrews...
And now it's 3-0 to the Tykes, goal numbers two & three scored by the almost equally curiously named Daryl Dike. Meanwhile, back at St Andrews, Reading have equalised...
Bugger! The Tykes a goal to the good at half-time courtesy of a penalty scored by the player Vic always says reminds him of a construction company, Cauley "Ridiculous First Name" Woodrow, BUT "The Juke" has just given Birmingham the lead against Reading at St Andrews...
And now it's 3-0 to the Tykes, goal numbers two & three scored by the almost equally curiously named Daryl Dike. Meanwhile, back at St Andrews, Reading have equalised...
Brum in front again Stircrazy ...CoB (That's Come on Brum)
Bowyer and the pitch delivered!
Reading look far more susceptible to slipping I suspect than Barnsley but it's who can hold their nerve and keep the pressure off during the run in between those two, Bournemouth, ourselves and Cardiff. Two from five!
Bowyer and the pitch delivered!
Reading look far more susceptible to slipping I suspect than Barnsley but it's who can hold their nerve and keep the pressure off during the run in between those two, Bournemouth, ourselves and Cardiff. Two from five!
Reading have a much harder run in than Barnsley and so they were always the one who potentially could crack. Losing this one is a nice bonus for the other teams. They have QPR next and then a trip to Barnsley after the break. Suffice to say, someone is going to be dropping points.
it’s simple for us.....keep on winning.
utb
Come on, it’s Reading and Bournemouth’s results we should be interested in not Barnsley’s who I reckon have much the easiest run ins of anyone with home games against Sheffield Wednesday, Reading (on Good Friday), Boro, Rotherham and Norwich (who’ll already be promoted by then) and away matches at Luton, Huddersfield, Coventry and Preston.
Reading only five points ahead of Boro have home matches against QPR (never easy opponents), Derby, Cardiff, Swansea and Huddersfield. plus away matches at Barnsley, Watford, Luton and Norwich.
Meanwhile Bournemouth only 3 points ahead of Boro but with a superior goal difference to Boro, Reading and Barnsley, have home matches against Boro, Coventry, Brentford and Stoke, plus away matches at Huddersfield, Blackburn, Norwich, Millwall and Wycombe. Thus Boro must win their remaining matches on their own merit and avoid defeats at both Bournemouth and Barnsley.
I reckon Barnsley will finish with at least 80 points, Reading with 75 points, and Bournemouth with 75 points also. Can Boro finish with 76 points? It’s a tall order with no defeats, probably requiring 6 more wins and no defeats. With what we’ve witnessed so far this season, almost an impossible task. To gain promotion would likely mean an unbeaten run of 13 matches in total and in truth I don’t think any of us could see Boro doing that, only in our dreams, but I do agree that Boro should keep on trying, though defeats at Millwall and Bournemouth would mean it’ll be all over by Easter.
i could see Reading slipping a little more - maybe 73 - which will make our game at Bournemouth pretty vital. Anyway, if we win at Millwall, it will certainly keep things interesting through the international break.
keep well
utb
Does anyone know why Huddersfield v Bournemouth is not happening this Saturday. The other 22 teams are all playing.
Bournemouth will be playing in the FA Cup I presume.
Local derby at home to Southampton. A win for the Cherries could put extra pressure on an already tight match schedule.
Bournemouth will be playing in the FA Cup I presume.
Thanks. I’d forgotten about that
Boro up to 3rd behind Barnsley and Hull City in the Yorkshire Post 6 game Power rankings for the 11 Yorkshire clubs. Interesting that the Leeds based newspaper considers towns south of the Tees still in Yorkshire.😀
Boro up to 3rd behind Barnsley and Hull City in the Yorkshire Post 6 game Power rankings for the 11 Yorkshire clubs. Interesting that the Leeds based newspaper considers towns south of the Tees still in Yorkshire.😀
As they were, as they are, as as they will be evermore Ken.