What he said 🤞

Boro have never won at Bournemouth, but as they’ve only met 8 times that’s no great surprise so maybe a win there is due. However Bournemouth have never won on Teesside either and couldn’t manage it this season. The two clubs first met in the 1966/67 season when both were in the old Third Division when Boro gained promotion on the last day of the season with a 4-1 win over Oxford United whilst the the Cherries escaped relegation to the Fourth Division on the same night by holding Scunthorpe United to a goalless draw.  

Boro’s second meeting with the Cherries was again in the Third Division twenty years later when both clubs were promoted, Boro runners-up to the Cherries. Then on the final day of the 1989/90 season Boro needed to beat Newcastle on the final day of the season to avoid a third term in the Third Division which they did 4-2 but even that would have been in vain had Bournemouth beaten Leeds United, but they lost 0-1 and were relegated instead of Boro. 

However Bournemouth eventually went into administration for the second time and were relegated to the Fourth Division with a 17 point deduction, though they avoided demotion to what was then the Conference League and under Eddie Howe gained 3 promotions in 6 years to take their place into the Premier League where they remained for 5 seasons until recently.

A lot of water has flowed under the bridge since those encounters with Bournemouth as the aforementioned Scunthorpe are now on the verge to demotion to the National League. Can Boro beat the Cherries on Good Friday?  But a draw would be a start and give them the confidence that they’ll need to beat Huddersfield on Easter Monday. Anything less than 4 points from the next 2 matches and I think that will be the end of their aspirations for this season.

Now I must concentrate on the US Masters Golf where Harry Kane has made an appearance only 24 hours since he helped Spurs to victory over Villa. Could be a long night for yours truly if I can stay awake.

Thanks OFB for another good opener and for not including recent stats for the Boro!  It has been painful enough watching without reading about it again. ☹️

Whilst I agree that Lumley should be dropped I don’t think he will be and that CW will hope his public chastisement will up his game but I am not holding my breath. 

We haven’t done the double so far this season over any of the teams above us so this could be a good opportunity to put that one to bed but I fear our poor record at Bournemouth will prevail. 

I too, have a lot of time for CW and he has been our best manager since IK but he still needs to show that he can get the front end of the team performing and hopefully he can do that in the next couple of seasons.

I think it will take that long as we will probably see a big turnover in the summer involving a keeper, two wing backs as cover for Bola and Jones and two strikers. CW has already stated he also wants a left footed centre back so the money from the sale of Spence is going to have to be used wisely, hopefully!

As for Friday 3-0 to the Cherries ☹️😎

KP  I believe that we did a 2-0 double over Forest this season.

Eric Paylor writes about the need of a talisman to get Boro where they need to be, and whilst I agree about Paul Merson he was reported at the time that he couldn’t have gone through another season of 46 matches in a season as he was knackered. Luckily Boro won promotion at the first attempt, but although Gaston Ramirez was influential in Boro’s last promotion he also had a history of mercurial behaviour at the very least.

Whilst Johnny Howson has been excellent this season, Boro haven’t what I would call a talisman. That award would go to Grant Leadbitter who despite being a former Sunderland player showed that he was the link between Aitor Karanka and the players. That was quite remarkable in those days knowing the animosity between the two clubs. As a captain he was outstanding, and the kind of player Boro need next season in my opinion,  but where would Boro unearth such a player in the summer?

Any suggestions folks?

I have NO IDEA how Boro will perform against Bournemouth on Good Friday.  I will be in the "Three Legged Gnu", pint in hand in front of the TV, hoping for the best.

I‘ll settle for a point, but that would mean we’d then need to beat Huddersfield on Monday. Everything crossed. 

Huddersfield vs Luton tonight and I can’t work what would be the best result for us. Any thoughts?  

Huddersfield v Luton 

A draw best result ?

OFB

Posted by: @original-fat-bob

Huddersfield v Luton 

A draw best result ?

OFB

Doesn’t matter. It’s up to Boro to win every match, then job done.

Well, that's that sorted.  It's got to be the Three Legged Gnu tonight as well, to watch the "Big Match" (H'field v Luton).  I must say that the Boro home game against Luton on 5th March 2022 wasn't exactly the Beautiful Game but the sort of stuff that would get the game banned as a spectator sport.  But I recall we did win, so that took away most of the pain.

Posted by: @lenmasterman

KP  I believe that we did a 2-0 double over Forest this season.

Len, apologies, I stand corrected.  That being said at the time we did the double over Forest I am not sure that they were above us in the table. 😎

Watched the Huddersfield game, very lucky to win 2-0 as Luton missed a penalty and were the better team in the second half. It's going to be one helluva of a weekend for Middlesbrough!

Little by little the contenders for the top 6 is taking shape.

A couple of weeks ago I would have said that as many as a dozen teams were in contention.

Now, I think it’s down to around 9

Fulham are nailed on to get promoted.  Bournemouth, Huddersfield and ( the form team ) Forest look good for the top 6.

This , in my view , leaves Luton, Sheffield, Blackburn, Boro and Millwall chasing the 2 remaining positions. 

It is looking like Boro need 4 points from the next two games to climb nearer the top 6.

I assume that against Huddersfield they will realise that Huddersfield play for corners and crosses -  another goal tonight from a corner  - that’s 17 which only Fulham have more with at 19.

At least this season is being eventful - my only wish is that Boro don’t fall away and our interest is maintained to the last game at Preston.

Philip of Huddersfield 

Thanks for the intro OFB

A win for Huddersfield was I think the best for us. There are now three teams who can get a maximum of 80 points Boro, Sheff U and Luton, as I see it these three are fighting for 2 places as Philip said. Also Luton play Forest in the early game on Friday, so it is imperative that we pick up at least 4 points this weekend. 

KP in Spain, Hull are the only team that have done the double over us and the only other team that can do it to us is Preston. Forest and Peterborough are the only teams we have done the double over so far, but there is a potential for 4 more.

On the Fulham thread there was a discussion on Connolly. CW does not have a great record on signing strikers in the two seasons Sheffield were in the Premier he spent 62 million pounds on 4 strikers McBurnie, Mousset, Brewster and Oliver Burke, none of which were/are prolific, but he did have Billy Sharp.

Thanks once again, OFB. Great opener.

I didn’t see the Hull game and don’t want to watch the “highlights” based on the comments here.

What I’ll say is that under Wilder, we’ve generally had a good reaction to a poor performance and come back with a run of results.

Having lost a game we expected to win, typical Boro would go and beat Bournemouth wouldn’t they? Here’s hoping.

I think - or hope - that Boro plays better when facing a proper footballing team like Bournemouth or Forest. Even the performance against Fulham or Chelsea was better than at Barnsley or at home to Hull. 

Hull definately parked the bus into their penalty area. And we did not find a way pass their defence.

So I hope we play better at Bournemouth. We still need to be clinical and score a goal or preferably two. As Andy said, typical Boro can cause an upset and beat the Cherries on Friday. You never know.

Also, I did see the Hull match live on TV. And still the highlights. What was a surprice with the highlights, was that Conolly was better than I realised. He didn't score but was at least trying. Definately not his worst performance. 

If we won't get results during the Easter period, then we are not good enough for play-offs. We have played well under Wilder but not in every match. Still work in progress.

Up the Boro!

I feel that if Jones is back and fully recovered we'll have a decent chance. Logic, history and form says that a home win for the cherries is the most likely result but football isn't played on paper so I would put a cheeky tenner on us winning. Although Bournemouth are looking good, I get the impression that they're fragile. Failing to get automatic promotion this season would be a real problem for them. 

On the other hand, I think they struggle against teams that play deep against them and we're not going to do that so we're probably ideal opponents for them.

Assuming Jones is fit I think we will line up

Lumley

Dijksteel Bamba McNair

Jones Tav Howson McGree Bola

Watmore Sporar

I think Crooks might be rested. There's a chance that we'll see a change of keeper if Lumley's head has gone or his team mates have lost confidence in him.

Posted by: @deleriad

I feel that if Jones is back and fully recovered we'll have a decent chance. Logic, history and form says that a home win for the cherries is the most likely result but football isn't played on paper so I would put a cheeky tenner on us winning. Although Bournemouth are looking good, I get the impression that they're fragile. Failing to get automatic promotion this season would be a real problem for them. 

On the other hand, I think they struggle against teams that play deep against them and we're not going to do that so we're probably ideal opponents for them.

Assuming Jones is fit I think we will line up

Lumley

Dijksteel Bamba McNair

Jones Tav Howson McGree Bola

Watmore Sporar

I think Crooks might be rested. There's a chance that we'll see a change of keeper if Lumley's head has gone or his team mates have lost confidence in him.

Deleriad, I think definitely the  players will have lost confidence in him. He has had too many blunders for them not to think otherwise but having said that I think Wilder will still pick him!!

Just completed the EG league table prediction and not good reading I am afraid to say:

Fulham

Bournemouth

Forest 

Huddersfield

Sheffield

Luton

Blackburn 

Middlesbrough

Hope I am wrong 🙁😎

Quote of the week from the respected Eric Paylor “I didn’t see that defeat against Hull City coming, but shouldn’t have been surprised. Over the years we have seen many games where Boro were expected just to turn up and be handed three or two points on a plate, and as a result ended with nothing”.

If one wants to be a Boro supporter one must expect the unexpected; it’s ready made for a Roald Dahl story that I’m surprised that he hasn’t included Boro as one of his ‘Tales of the Unexpected’. In my lifetime it all started with the FA Cup match on the 6th of February 1952 on the day that King George Vl died when a First Division Boro team admittedly fighting against relegation lost (or threw?) the match at home to Doncaster Rovers who were fighting to stay in the Second Division but lost 1-4 and the one Boro goal came from Harry Bell in the last minute. It was a 2.15 kick off midweek match rearranged after the original match on the previous Saturday had been postponed. I was one of the 40,000 plus crowd that afternoon having skived off school, yet the bulk of the crowd were made up of workers who could ill afford to lose half a day’s pay, and that’s how badly the fans were treated.

That was arguably Boro’s worst performance of the season and earned them the title of ‘typical Boro’. But it was described by Cliff Mitchell as a ‘betrayal’ to the fans. I’m not putting that in the same category as last Saturday, though I did foresee that Boro might not win against Hull and as the game progressed goalless was not surprised that the sucker punch was inevitable, and apparently neither did Chris Wilder.

Can Boro fight back with a win at Bournemouth on Good Friday? I must say that I doubt it very much, which will make Easter Monday’s clash at home to Huddersfield probably Boro’s last chance of saving the season. To be frank I never expected Boro to reach the playoffs prior to Chris Wilder’s appointment so that the form especially at home has come as a pleasant surprise. However to be automatically promoted as some folk have suggested is laughable in my opinion. I loved the FA Cup run, but the rearrangement of League fixtures that it caused has tended to derail the promotion run. Points on the board are usually much better than games in hand, but the League table after Monday’s match will determine whether Boro are still in the race, so all is not lost yet.

I shall be compiling my League tables by hand next week, including the Premier League, Championship, Divisions One and Two, the three National Leagues, the 4 Leagues below those, the two divisions of the Northern League, the 4 Scottish Leagues, and the top 7 European Leagues of Spain, France, Italy, Germany, Holland, Belgium and Portugal. Yes, I know I can find them on the internet, but where’s the fun in that? As a statistician that’s what I do whilst listening to classical music, as well as recording all  Boro and Cas Tigers results as Philip of Huddersfield will confirm as I gave him a copy several years ago. It may be laborious, but it does keep me alert whilst I tend to fall asleep watching television. It might seem eccentric, but that’s my life now since my wife died and it’s something to occupy my mind, and one reason that I don’t look at Football League tables on the internet in the interim period. 

We keep putting up rational theories for irrational displays, and then express our frustration on this blog. There was no excuse for the cup tie, no excuse for the two following league games . There is no excuse for the inclusion of Connelly ever again, he is not our player, and not our problem. The recent newspaper reports from the Capital tell us all we need to know. And it does seem that we promised to play him. That should stop right now, he has done enough damage (forseen on this blog) so can this be the last. We are not going to make it, so can we play our only tall, strong, Young, fit, striker. We did not put one High dropping ball into the box whilst playing a team with no pretentions to class, whilst he was on the field. Plenty of short passing movements with the wingers, you know the sort of thing, six lovely passes to get the winger ready to cross the ball, then another six passes, equally lovely, before they blasted the ball to Kingdom come. all three of the aforesaid matches were the easiest draws, there for the taking, and rejected out of hand by the players and the Manager. With two extra points we would be in the shake up.           

Plato, IF, as you say Boro promised to play Connolly as part of the loan deal, how come he didn’t feature against Fulham, Spurs, Man Utd (sub on in extra time) and if Boro break an alleged promise as part of a loan deal, how will that affect future loan deals if we have a reputation of not honouring previous loan deals.

Come on BORO.

I once wrote about the best and worst Boro results from every season from season 1946/47 up to 2017/18 which is still available on Diasboro.worldpress.com under the heading of ‘Ken Smith looks back at Boro’s footballing history and statistics’. Until you’ve read that you’ll never understand the joys and hurt of being a Boro fan for 72 years and more years since. Never get too excited about Boro’s great wins, nor too despondent at their worst defeats some of which happened in the same season. It’s what Boro have done almost every season since the Second World War and probably even before I was born. Maybe some of you are too young to understand that.

Perhaps the Government should issue a health warning on being a Boro supporter, but looking back I wouldn’t have had it any other way.

“It’s what Boro have done almost every season since the Second World War and probably even before I was born. Maybe some of you are too young to understand that.“

I’m pretty that we all understand the phrase, “Typical Boro”, Ken. Even I do and I’m only 66 😉

Posted by: @ken...

Perhaps the Government should issue a health warning on being a Boro supporter, but looking back I wouldn’t have had it any other way.

Something like "Remember, your football club can go down as well as up"

Martin

So why are some of us so surprised that Boro should lose both at home and away to Hull, home to Blackpool, Birmingham and Preston, and away to Reading, Barnsley and Bristol City, yet beat Manchester Utd and Spurs all in the same season? That’s exceptional even for Boro and yet that’s why we still love and support them instead of following the likes of Man United.

As my son posted on Facebook yesterday people pick their favourite team at age 11 and let it make them upset for the rest of their lives.

Also looked to see where we have picked up  points according to teams current league positions 

Top 7 20 points with 2 to play

9-16 16 points with 3 to play

17-24 25 points with 1 to play 

So it's our performances against the middle ranks that need addressing.