Well. I did say 2-1, but not quite what I meant.
Have to put that away to bed and start afresh against WBA.
Didn't see it, but from what I see on twitter and the few comments on here it is probably tome wrong start games with Watmore.
Glad to see much of the game courtesy of Werder. Andy sums it up well in a single sentence. We were dominant, but couldn't make it pay.
21 shots on goal compared to Bristol's 6
13 corners (too many of them from Tav failing to beat the first man) to Bristol's 0.
Swap keepers at QPR and we win 1-4
Swap strikers today and we win 0-4.
Swap strikers and keepers today and we win... the sweep.
(Do people still have sweeps?)
Balogan ineffective; Connolly not making the most of his chances; Watmore introduced at least 20 minutes (and arguably 70 minutes) too late
Main positives: McGree looks to be a great asset, one pass to put Tav through was of real quality. The Aussie appears to be able to slot in and provide a touch of class in a variety of positions
Approach play around their box is still far better than anything we have been used to. We just seemed to make the wrong choices today. Sometimes shooting with team-mates in a better position; sometimes making that extra pass instead of pulling the trigger.
An enjoyable if frustrating game, with many positives, but still much to improve on.
A dominant performance from Boro but not quite up to it at either end where it really matters.
Disappointing but not disastrous.
I think this just about sums it up. We finally paid for our non-scoring strikers today.
Connolly is working hard but his confidence is in the bin; you get the feeling he just doesn't believe he'll score. Balogun is struggling to make the step-up. I think he may have learned the wrong thing from his back-heel to Watmore against Derby. He needs to keep it simple, keep the ball and work for the team. Sporar and Watmore are still our best combination so it's a shame that Sporar is presumably out with Covid and Watmore can't play a whole game.
With Jones having an off-day and Pearson taking a leaf out of Mowbray's book and setting up deep behind the ball we simply made bad decisions time after time.
This happens in the Championship. Fulham just lost at home to Huddersfield for no reason other than Championship randomness. The key is always about bouncing back. We have WBA and Barnsley now with our one player who backs himself to score suspended for two games. These are matches against two teams who are desperate for a win so how we do will be a real mark of what kind of mentality Wilder has drilled into us.
You can’t get away from the fundamental problem which goes back years -the lack of goals and a consistent goal scorer.
Bristol, a poor team has a top scorer with 15 goals, Huddersfield who don’t score a lot of goals have a top scorer with 13. Most of the top teams teams have a striker well into double figures.
What do Boro have ? Sporor with 7.
This Achilles heal could be the difference between being in the top 6 or not.
Philip of Huddersfield
When the opposition pack their box in tribute to you, then you should be drilled in one thing. Do not concede, and that means keeping four people wasting their time clearing the ball all day. Boring, i know, but it's got to be done. oh! One more thing, having committed the cardinal sin of conceding one goal, please do not lose your temper and give away another, it will not end well. A modest team, with plenty to be modest about, but still three points gone west.
Going back a week or so when there were a number of posters talking about auto promotion and most the play offs, a few including myself were not so optimistic.
Goals win matches. Today despite having 21 shots (10 on target) and 13 corners we created very little. Balogun has no composure at all and lashes at his shots which end up too high and relatively easy for the goalkeeper to deal with. Connolly just has no confidence.
We have brought in two new strikers, at best bench players, yet CW perseveres. Watmore is our best striker by far and whilst he possibly cannot play for the 90 or three games in 8 days, he is not getting the game time we need.
McGree looks good and played more through balls today than the midfield have done in……some time.
We were always going to have games like today, it happens. However we cannot expect to continue not taking our chances and win matches.
Derby does not count, a one off.
I love Kes the film, and I consider myself lucky enough to have read the book and studied the play. Knowing that Barry Hines was a good friend of yours, Len, warms my heart.
Today despite having 21 shots (10 on target) and 13 corners we created very little.
Thank you for this Pedro. I popped down here in the aftermath of the defeat to read more insights on the game, and this is a great one - it reminds me how stats can be used to dress up any performance if you can write about them in the appropriate context. What was it Sir Humphrey said in that great Yes PM episode, "The Smoke Screen"? "You can prove anything with statistics".
21 shots on goal, 13 corners and 63% of the ball paints a more comforting picture, that of an unlucky defeat, but I feel it serves me better, if I haven't been able to catch the game, to read the views of those who were able to catch it. Adds valuable context, and also reminds me of the days when tiki-taka was "hip" and managers liked to cite possession stats as a sign of dominance - yet you can just as easily score five goals from ten passes as one from, say, twenty-five. More than that, the twenty-five pass goal may look very telegenic but a corner into the box and a header (for example) can reflect passion and urgency... fun with context.
Welcome back Si. Lovely to hear from you again. I hope you are well. You have been greatly missed.
Welcome back Si. Lovely to hear from you again. I hope you are well. You have been greatly missed.
Yes. Good to read you again @Si
As it goes, for me context is everything. This match is in the context of the previous 10 games having us top of the form table. A reverse was inevitable sometime. It has happened. In isolation it is not an indication the wheels are falling off the bus. What is important now is that West Brom are on the receiving end of a solid defeat this next mid week. Let's keep perspective in here ( which is not the same as saying "Let's not write about what we think was wrong" ).
Posted by @deleriad
Sporar and Watmore are still our best combination so it's a shame that Sporar is presumably out with Covid and Watmore can't play a whole game.
With Jones having an off-day and Pearson taking a leaf out of Mowbray's book and setting up deep behind the ball we simply made bad decisions time after time.
According to the Echo, Boro are hopeful that Slovenian striker Andraz Sporar will be available to face West Brom on Tuesday night after illness ruled him out this weekend.
The 27-year-old missed the defeat to Bristol City and didn’t travel with the matchday squad for the game.
And yes, Isaiah Jones had a very rare off-day. He was not bad , perhaps 6 out of 10. But not his normal 8. He did not create any big moments yesterday.
But he did make three assists versus Derby last week.
The defeat was bad for our hopes of automatic promotion. But managable for our play-off aspirations. We will fight back. Up the Boro!
Yes, that was the first one ever. One silver before but then no NHL players were taking part from the USA or Canada. We had mainly domestic and players from the big KHL league in Russia. They have very good salaries in the KHL.
Ice hockey have slightly bigger crowds in here compared to football. So people are celebrating now. But I am more a football chap myself.
Up the Boro!
Having listened to it live while working and now watched the extended highlights, it does reinforce Len's point. We lost due to Bristol scoring with two Premier league standard finishes while our finishing was distinctly League One: Crooks' header aside which was a good, solid Championship standard header.
Their keeper did well but every save he made was saveable because the finish wasn't good enough to beat him. Connolly in particular worked hard, got himself into good positions but you never felt that he was going to score. Balogun is possibly a really good example of just how huge the gap is between U23s and the Championship.
The story of our last few league games is one of promotion winning build up play and assists leading to own-goals, deflections and tap-ins. The only player to show any sort of quality in front of goal is Crooks.
Watmore and Sporar have shown that they can finish well, albeit inconsistently. So far Connolly and Balogun haven't shown that at all. To be fair, Hernandez and Ikpeazu weren't the answer either. Ikpeazu will smash in a worldie once every 10 games while Hernandez will miss far more than he scores. The most clinical finisher so far has been Colburn but that's a reflection more on the poverty of the alternatives than Colburn's current ability.
At this point, we have what we have. We really need one of our forwards to start firing or else their failures will start to transmit to the rest of the team.
Young Jones didn’t produce his usual 5 star performance and surprise surprise Boro struggle to create chances. There should be no criticism against Jones as Bristol did what most teams didn’t, by shutting him out of the game.
This is going to happen more often.
The team need to concentrate on attacking down both wings.
West Brom is a big test - they all are - having not won for ages or scored a goal for 5 games.
Their tactic is obvious- get balls in the air in the penalty area and sooner or later Andy Caroll will score - just as he did when playing for Reading. McNair and Fry are no match for him.
Any kind of win will do. Hopefully McGee will seize his opportunity in the next two games and the forwards manage to improve - they are the weak link.
Philip of Huddersfield
deleriad
Yes, true to form we were beaten by two excellent strikes, one from outside the area, whilst our response came from inside the six yard box.
I wouldn't want to make too much of this but it continues to be a suggestive and, I think, progressive trend.
I'm not sure that Lumley can escape criticism. That first goal was a fierce strike but it went in at the keeper's near post and through a gap of no more than18 inches. I think that we are entitled to expect that any keeper at Championship level will make regulation saves as a matter of course with the occasional worldy thrown in, and a minimum of horrific errors. It's not clear that Lumley is at present meeting any of these three basic criteria.
Pedro
I blame Lumley for letting a goal in at his near post when there was only a Small gap between him and the post.
He appears to let too many simple shots go past him.
OFB
Ah, Lumley. A half struck shot crept inside the post, it never left the ground, Lumley was of course on the six yard line, a couple of yards off the striker, a familiar story. He seems to have no grasp of reaction times, something all attackers seem to be masters of.
Unexpectedly, because of the storm disruption on the trains, I ended up driving my daughter and kids down to Cheltenham on Friday. So I bought a Bristol ticket - too late to get one from Boro, so I went in the Bristol stand, wore no colours and kept my mouth shut. I’ve done this several times over the years, and while I would always rather be with Boro’s fans, you do get an interesting perspective on the game. The fans in the stand I was in, the equivalent of our East Stand, I suppose, were noticeably more ‘genteel’ than many of ours. I was reminded of a rugby union crowd. Nonetheless, they supported their team well and vociferously opposed what they felt was a series of decisions that went against them. Needless to say, I disagreed (silently!)
I agreed with the EG’s verdict that Boro’s first half was lacklustre. We lacked sharpness and guile, and had no shots on target against BC’s one, their goal. I thought Balogun had a very weak first half - his touch was poor, generally - and I would have subbed him at half-time in favour of Watmore.
Boro improved hugely after the break, and for much of the half we dominated possession and peppered BC’s goal with shots. Most were long shots, but three or 4 required very good saves from Bentley. We did get in their box several times, too, but found it hard to get past a determined and packed home defence and an inspired keeper. Watmore was introduced too late, undoubtedly. City’s second goal came very much against the run of play, which, given how intensely we were chasing the game, was perhaps not a surprise. We played well second half. I do think that against most teams in the division we would have got at least a point with this level of domination.
Having said that, I really struggled to find a MoM. The EG gave it to McGree, even though he was only on the pitch for 30 minutes. He was efficient, made a good pass and had a good shot, but MoM?? Lumley didn’t have much to do, but might have done better with the first goal. The strikers didn’t do enough. Crooks and Jones had off-days, the latter marked out of contention; Tav worked hard, had a couple of good shots, but was at fault for the first goal; Ditto McNair. Taylor was quiet. That leaves Fry, who was sound enough but often struggled to contain the excellent Semenyo. Howson worked exceptionally hard, as he does, and strove to drive Boro forward, but without much impact. My MoM, therefore, was Dijksteel, who did well defensively and made some good runs forward.
It was an intense and demanding game, typical of the Championship. It was a disappointing defeat, of course, but not terminal. Let’s hope it was just a blip and that we get back on the winning trail on Tuesday.
Thanks Clive for a detailed and informative report from someone who saw the game live.
I missed almost all of the second half as my eldest son decide to video call (kids don’t you just love their timing), so spent it talking to him and watching two grandsons, one of whom we have yet to meet in person.
I agree that we just have to hope this was a blip, a win is a necessity on Tuesday if we really are to be play off contenders. 😎
As ever it is Boro’s away form that lets them down. The latest match statistics show them 12th in the table but 15th in the number of away goals scored according to Sports Mole. The home form shows Boro 3rd but 5th in the number of home goals scored. However having won 6 consecutive home matches, as I mentioned previously they have only ever won 7 or more successive home wins 3 times in my lifetime. Will they beat West Brom on Tuesday to equal that statistic, or will they like so many teams after an unbeaten losing run in all matches struggle to get back to winning ways? A defeat could potentially mean a drop to 11th place by Wednesday night, but in such a tight league table would that really matter at this stage of the season?
I think we can forget about automatic promotion, but in reality Boro are no better and no worse than 5 or 6 other teams outside of the top 2. Then it’s all about if Boro can reach the playoffs which I think is in the balance at this stage. The big concern is that as ever Boro don’t score enough goals no matter how many more attempts they create.
As ever it is Boro’s away form that lets them down. The latest match statistics show them 12th in the table but 15th in the number of away goals scored according to Sports Mole. The home form shows Boro 3rd but 5th in the number of home goals scored. However having won 6 consecutive home matches, as I mentioned previously they have only ever won 7 or more successive home wins 3 times in my lifetime. Will they beat West Brom on Tuesday to equal that statistic, or will they like so many teams after an unbeaten run in all matches struggle to get back to winning ways? A defeat could potentially mean a drop to 11th place by Wednesday night, but in such a tight league table would that really matter at this stage of the season?
I think we can forget about automatic promotion, but in reality Boro are no better and no worse than 5 or 6 other teams outside of the top 2. Then it’s all about if Boro can reach the playoffs which I think is in the balance at this stage. The big concern is that as ever Boro don’t score enough goals no matter how many more attempts they create.
Having seen the highlights I am surprised that no one has commented on the fore arm smash the City player used to knock Tav over, looked an obvious foul to me. Incidentally WhoScored had Crooks as our best player just behind the City keeper who was there overall Motm.The highlights did not show Crook’s booking was it a bad tackle as apparently he only commuted one foul?
MW it was a profesional foul in the 17 minute, a pull back and in my opinion not necessary.
After that he was more or less ineffective. Sadly the downside of Crooks is that he always looks likely to get carded.
I recently reported how Crystal Palace and their fans paid for the use of coaches for Hartlepool’s fans for their recent FA Cup tie and also had a whip round donation to pay for Pools manager Graeme Lee’s wife Gemma’s cancer treatment for a whole year. What I failed to add was that the Pools players responded by tidying up their dressing room to leave it in its original pristine condition. Maybe that’s not too surprising, but it does show how the Pool’s players reacted to the kindness and friendship of their London opponents. It also shows the respect between two clubs from different backgrounds and perhaps makes the the FA Cup unique as the friendliest of competitions.
However there is always a downside when some local rivals meet as happened when a Leicester fan ran onto the pitch to throw two punches at a Forest player after his side conceded a third goal to the Nottinghamshire club. Perhaps it proves that generally Teesiders are more disciplined than some Midlanders!
Crooks does have a poor record for getting yellow cards. 47 in the past 5 seasons and 5 reds, sent off three times in 2017 /18 along with 13 yellows no wonder he only played 30 games that season. So it is unlikely knowing his past record that he won't pick up another 5 cards in the next 15 games and have a three match ban.
MW, yes he does tend to flay his arms when jumping and being rather tall can catch the opponent in the face. I am not saying intentionally.
Although he does go into his tackles committed, one of the few players we have that do so. Mistimed, poor judgement and he is going to get booked. He was lucky not to get a red against Derby with his studs showing.
Unfortunately it is part of his game and once booked is far less effective. The downside of not having a combination as we did with Leadbitter and Clayton in their prime.