Thanks Andy for the opener. Not only are there a lot of matches to cover but, at least until the transfer deadline passes, there is a lot of news of players leaving/joining.
A midfield replacement for Tav was an additional necessity and hopefully Mowatt will prove capable of filling that role. There is not much time left to find the other 5 players Wilder has been looking for but it will be a big surprise if a 20 goals a season striker becomes available. While our current strikers should be able to score more than Connolly/Balogun managed last season we have to wait to see if any turn out to be regular scorers or even if there are 20 goals between all of them. I hope we get our first win today and that it will prove to be the start of a winning run though looking at the fixtures especially the away games doesn't fill me with confidence.
A combination of costly hotel rooms and then the rail strike made my decision not to travel over for the Sheffield Utd match so I will have to wait until 27 August for my first league attendance which is frustrating.
Thank you SKY for switching the Sunderland match to Monday. It is the the only time I have so far been able to book a reasonably priced (£43) room.
Forgot it was a loan. Maybe they will make it permanent!
Starting XI - Mowatt on the bench:
Crooks crocked? He is not in the squad today.
That reminds me that we have no cover for him now that Payero is loaned out.
Up the Boro!
Sharpe starts for Sheffield Utd. Hope his age has slowed him down and reduced his jumping. Worried about our left defence with Giles still learning wingback play and lack of cover for him when he is upfield. Jones' defending also needs to improve.
Hope I don't need to open bottle of wine today.
Sheffield Utd lead 1 - 0!
1 - 1 Akpom with help from Jones!
Giles scores but in our goal. Losing 1 - 2
No sun yet at Redcar and no internet or telephone either until 10 minutes ago with just 15 minutes remaining. Misty even a mile inland from the coast. Boro just equalised for second time. Come on Boro!
2 -2 Akpom again. Is he our 20 goals a season striker?
Akpom levels again in the 82nd minute, assisted this time by Darragh Lenihan. 🙂
Hang on, sun just appearing from the west.
Seven minutes' injury time to be played. What did i miss while I was out at Sainsbury's?
Sounded like a good game but still only 2 points out of 9.
2 away wins to follow please to get our season going.
It’s inconsequential now, but having been offline most of the day I was going to mention Boro’s biggest win was against the Blades at Ayresome Park on 18th November 1933 suffice to state that it finished 10-3 (6-2 at halftime) with George Camsell 4 and Robert Bruce 3 being among the scorers, yet only 6,461 the lowest gate of the season witnessed the match. Yet Boro had scored a total of 10 goals in their previous two home matches.
Enjoyed the game, some feisty challenges, we do seem to be giving away soft goals at the moment , no idea what was going through Giles head for the 2nd goal, cartoons possibly.
Lenihan getting poor marks again from the Gazette. Akpom man of the match.
Nice to hear that Bruce Rioch was invited by Bernie Slaven to his wedding on Saturday in Portugal.
Mark Proctor was his best man.
Big Jeff winter was one of Bernie’s groomsmen along with Graeme Bamdeira the cartoonist and satirist
OFB
We need to sign this centre half from Hull now !
OFB
We need to sign this centre half from Hull now !
OFB
Not so sure now, the one he signed from Blackburn is not covering himself in glory so far. 😎
I think the compliment to our management for getting rid of Lumley is pretty rich, they condemned our season by playing him, when all us ignoramuses spotted him First Time up (not difficult, i know) how many goals did he cost us? How did he effect our defence who had to allow for his eccentricities? We will never know.
Couldn't follow the game at the time but have just watched the extended highlights. You can't tell much from that but it was good to see us ending the game strongly and pushing Sheff Utd back. Clearly we are a "work in progress" and, ironically, it seems that we're struggling defensively.
Akpom is a lovely story at the moment. Hope it continues.
Overall, it feels as though this season is finely balanced. We have had a tough start and inconsistent performances. Get it right and we could take off but the season could easily splutter into mid-table mediocrity. There are a lot of players to bed in but the plus side of having a stable shape and pattern of play is that you can train them in their position pretty quickly.
Couldn't follow the game at the time but have just watched the extended highlights. You can't tell much from that but it was good to see us ending the game strongly and pushing Sheff Utd back. Clearly we are a "work in progress" and, ironically, it seems that we're struggling defensively.
Akpom is a lovely story at the moment. Hope it continues.
Overall, it feels as though this season is finely balanced. We have had a tough start and inconsistent performances. Get it right and we could take off but the season could easily splutter into mid-table mediocrity. There are a lot of players to bed in but the plus side of having a stable shape and pattern of play is that you can train them in their position pretty quickly.
I saw the whole match via Boro>Live on Sunday. Very much like the two previous league matches - at times we played very well, but let some goals in too easily.
We could have won in the end against Sheffield United but hit the woodwork. We really dominated in the end. Like we did at QPR the week before.
I think loosing Tavernier so close to the season's start was bad. Also we still have some players running on three cylinders - like Crooks (also missing vs. Sheffield United), McGree, Watmore and the attackers before Akpom.
So work in progress but I see we are nearing the goal of a good team. At least we have a bench now - before Sunday we had only youth players in there.
We definately need a left-footed centre back and a real nr. nine. Forss and Hoppe are still young and we need a short-term solution now.
Up the Boro!
Unable to follow the match until the second half because busy trying to get internet working, not easy following the router when disabled. Also no phone connection either. How does one report a fault when the phone’s not working? Anyway the husband of my carer happened to visit and he had the same problem with the internet and knew how to fix it, so problem solved.
As for the match I only had time to listen to Radio Tees just as the Blades took the lead for the second time. Later talking to a neighbour on his return from the match, and he couldn’t believe it was still cloudy in Redcar as he had to shield in the concourse during the half time interval. However he confirmed what a good competitive and enjoyable match it had been.
It might seem strange to some folk, but much greater fun and excitement to watch matches like this despite the odd mistakes happening than to be outplayed regularly in the Premier League. At my time of life I’m beginning to hope that I’d prefer Boro not to be promoted to the Premier League if more matches are like yesterday’s. Sacrilegious maybe, but apart from the 1950’s and the Jack Charlton, Bryan Robson and the Steve McClaren eras I’ve enjoyed watching Boro play most of all when Brian Clough was averaging almost 40 goals per season.
However that does sound a little selfish on my part when so many Boro fans have yet to witness my experience of enjoyment but also untypical performances by Boro often in equal measure. But why would I have had it any other way? I truly wouldn’t want to support a club that wins every week, although just one First Division title and one FA Cup Final win would have been nice.
It was a really good game in a buzzing atmosphere. I thought a draw was a fair result overall. The Blades are a very strong side and will surely be pushing for promotion again, so we did very well to come back twice against them, and we could have won it at the end. Our first goal in particular was deliciously created by McNair, Dijksteel and Jones.
A few other thoughts:-
Wilder praised Sheffield United after the game. I thought they were overly physical and sought to disrupt our play with too many niggly and sometimes dirty fouls. It looked to me to be part of their game plan. And referee Mariner let too much go, I felt. Mind, both Bola and Howson gave as good as they got second half, crunching into some mighty tackles.
I’m not sure where Craig Johns got his grade 7 from for Marcus Forss. I thought he had a poor game and contributed very little. To be fair, though, he didn’t exactly get much service.
Riley McGree worries me a bit. He is too easily knocked off the ball. He didn’t create much until a late cameo and needs to get involved much earlier. In contrast, Mowatt impressed from the word go, getting forward at every opportunity. Howson was magnificent, as ever, and McNair, Dijksteel and sub Bola also had strong games. Chuba is a man inspired! Who’d have believed it?!
On another note, it was great to chat briefly with Anthony Vickers in the club shop. He kindly signed my copy of his Threads of History book. On first glance, it looks really good!
Would concur with Clive the it was an entertaining game and atmosphere, apart from when they scored. 🤣 🤣
Also agree that I thought Utd came with a game plan to unsettle us physically and they were allowed to get away with some over zealous tackles by a fussy Andre Marriner.
MotM obviously Chuba and whether he can sustain this new found sparkle we will see, but he put a shift in and took some rather hefty tackles (fouls) that went unpunished. Hope he is OK for the Stoke game.
Unfortunately Utd ran the midfield and in Berge they have a player of class especially in this League, somebody we do not have or even near to his ability. At one break in the game he was stood alongside our number 8, McGree, talk about little and large.
Jones and Giles played well in short bursts but did not get enough of the ball and Jones was too often deep and standing still when the ball was played up to him. An area we need to improve on if we are to make the chances and score the goals like our first.
Also got to agree with Clive on Forss, worked hard but delivered little, but then in fairness you could blame the midfield for its poor service over the game itself. I like McGree and his trying to play the ball forward, however he was poor yesterday although looked better when Mowatt came on and he moved higher up the pitch.
So a good crowd and support from Sheffield. Lets hope Boro can step up their game on Wednesday and Lenihan can settle into a role at CB like he was at Blackburn, I thought he was lucky not to be pulled and Fry a little unlucky.
Let's hope for one or two more additions this week.
Two excellent reports, Clive and Pedro, and much more detailed and reliable than evidence from any other source. Just another of the many qualities that make this such an essential blog.
Thanks to both for taking the time.