After Boro followed up their super-solid showing against Reading with another reliable rock-like display at Bristol City, Neil Warnock's men now head to South Wales in confident mood and determined to prevent the Bluebirds from breaching their well-orgnanised defences. This weekend's fixture comes as Wales heads into a two-week lockdown, or more euphemistically a 'firebreak' as it's perhaps mistakenly being called in a land where it seemingly never stops raining.
Indeed, many places in the principality were already under local restrictions with people advised that they required a 'reasonable excuse' to leave the area, which incidentally brought them into line with the rest of the UK where many had already needed to find a good reason to enter Wales. Thankfully, professional sport is exempt from travel restrictions so it has avoided an awkard moment for the driver of Boro's team bus in explaining at the border how he must have entered the wrong Newport Bridge into his satnav after pretending he got lost on the way to Hurworth.
Nevertheless, Cardiff City boss Neil Harris had a good reason to visit Ashton Gate in midweek in order to check out his weekend opponents but had apparently seen enough by half-time and promptly made his excuses and left to ponder over how to get the better of his predecessor. It's now almost a year since the former Millwall manager took over from Warnock and he'll be perhaps worried that the Boro manager will have a slight advantage in knowing the strengths and weaknesses of the players in his squad.
Despite making the play-offs last season, Cardiff have had a rather average start to the season with two wins, two draws and two defeats. Like Boro, they haven't scored or let in many goals with a similar five netted and five conceded and sit just below Warnock's side in the table. The smart money for this encounter could well be on another nil-nil but I'm sure both sets of supporters will be hoping their team will nick it as it's unlikely to be an open game.
With just one defeat in their opening six games in which Boro have already faced the current top four teams, many on Teesside are beginning to dream that a play-off challenge could now be an unexpected possibility this season. Although, this may depend on whether manager Neil Warnock continues to pick his dream team after he revealed how a rude awakening in the night before the game at Ashton Gate made him make a late switch from fielding an unchanged starting XI: "Something came to me in the night - I know it sounds strange because people have other things - but mine was my wing-backs."
OK, possibly not the most meticulous method of selecting a team but in the end it was Bola and Tavernier who were bumped in the night as Warnock's witching hour vision saw a chance for Spence and Johnson materialise. His coaching staff will perhaps hope that unexpected team selections don't start to follow this familiar pattern when they hear potentially vague matchday prognostications from the Boro manager: "Blackie, I've just been looking at the tea leaves this morning and I'm seeing the name Paddy playing as striker." - "Which one Neil?" - "Hmm, Good question, better play them both up top to be safe..."
Still, it's never been easy to predict Boro team selections in recent years so who can argue with a hunch from a wise old sage! Anyway, it wouldn't be a surprise to see McNair playing in attack as he can seemingly play anywhere at the moment. However, with Britt Assombalonga likely to miss the trip to Cardiff, he's down to only one fit striker and even Nathan Wood was deployed late on Tuesday as an unlikely John Hickton tribute act. Warnock would like to possibly sign a free agent to bolster his attack but is still waiting to hear from the chairman whether the club will sanction such a move. The problem with free agents is how long it would take to get them match fit and if one didn't arrive until the international break it might be already December before they could make an impact.
At least Boro supporters finally got to see what Patrick Roberts can add to the team as the Manchester City loanee provided some good quality on the ball that had previously been missing so far this term. In addition, Djed Spence looked half a yard quicker than any other player on the pitch as he appeared to have rediscovered some of last season's intensity that kept him in the side. The question of whether Boro have a finisher on the pitch may determine if these tight displays ultimately lead to three points - Saville proved to be the man in the right place last time and perhaps others will step up to spread the scoring burden.
While it's still a relatively small squad that Warnock has to work with, team spirit looks very good as most are getting pitch time and results are increasing confidence among the players. It's still early days but if Warnock can sneak a win at Cardiff - plus with two home games this month against teams who are in the bottom six - then it's possible that as the clocks go back then Boro can also return to a time when they were serious play-off contenders.
Thanks Werder.
I think the centre backs and centre midfielders have nailed on their positions now, so it's really just a choice about wingbacks and forwards. No such dilemma with the forwards at the moment of course, so selection presumably comes down to which wingbacks NW has a premonition about as his pre-match nerves kick-in tonight.
The most likely scorelines would seem to be 0-0, 1-1 or a 1-0 win either way. I'll go for 1-1.
Werder,
Loved 'Warnock's dream sequence' and the 'John Hickton tribute act'. That would be a dream finding another Hickton type of player like that, I think we'd all think Mr Warnock could walk on water, any a great intro to Saturday.
Now, I know that I'm tempting fate but I'm going for a 1 - 2 again, it'll be that or an OFB.
Stay safe everyone,
UTB,
John
Thanks Andy and I think you may well be right about the binary scoreline - so bound to be a 3-3 thriller!
Cheers John and at least some Boro players now get to live the dream...
I loved the notion of someone plugging the wrong Newport Bridge into the sat nav...
Actually, you might have hit on how NW calculated the difference between 530 something mile round trip to Brizzol, but 834 miles for the round trip to Cardiff!
Flushed with the continuing success of my ability to consistently be wrong with my predictions following the Bristol game, I have decided not to change my losing approach to us winning.
I can't claim I had a vision or nightmare about it, but I'm predicting 2-0 to Cardiff and long may my losing streak of predictions continue.
CoB
Thanks Powmill and hopefully Cardiff won't be a bridge too far for Boro...
Thanks Werder another masterpiece to add to the collection appreciated
OFB
I am very pleased that our Manager actually spends his sleeping time thinking about his team setup, this is surely a new thing for this club since the reign of AK. I credit this Manager with our present pleasing results, the team do not look Good enough, but it's not always about how good you are, there is an intelectual side to the game (see all the top Bosses)and, as always, do not employ a dummy is the message.
Werder,
Loved 'Warnock's dream sequence' and the 'John Hickton tribute act'. That would be a dream finding another Hickton type of player like that, I think we'd all think Mr Warnock could walk on water, any a great intro to Saturday.
Now, I know that I'm tempting fate but I'm going for a 1 - 2 again, it'll be that or an OFB.
Stay safe everyone,
UTB,
John
One of the greatest pre-war managers was Major Frank Buckley who managed Wolves from 1927 to 1944. He laid the platform for the great Wolves teams in the early 50s but eventually took over at Leeds and was the manager responsible for converting the great John Charles from a centre half into a centre forward. Charles still played centre half for Wales but usually centre forward for Leeds. Now if Neil Warnock could do that with Nathan Wood that might solve a big problem for Boro. That type of conversion from a defender to a striker has been done before as Werdermouth has mentioned with John Hickton, but it takes a great manager to do it. Apart from Major Buckley I can recall one other similar situation and that was Dennis Law. When Bill Shankley was manager of Huddersfield Town I remember Dennis Law was Town’s centre half, but Shanks converted him into a centre forward. There must be other examples, but the Charles, Law and Hickton conversions are the three stand out ones that I can remember.
The strange thing about these conversions which bring an immediate emergence of a new star are puzzling, I remember us signing a Young reserve fullback from Wednesday, yes it was Hickton, and no, we had no idea that he was even a possible striker. so, what caused that somebody, whoever it was? To look at the team sheet one day and, off the top of his head, say ' today I am going to select this young fellow at centre forward' . Such was the lack of coverage in depth that the fans never got the how or the why of the stroke of genious, because it was 'genious' which gave us a striker to go to war with. What a man, if there were six things which make a great striker he had seven of them. As an added bonus he was better in a big game when the chips were down, think Man United away in the cup, and many others, his phisicality was outstanding, and that is not a euphemism for a flogger, just that when he was coming through the opposition got out of the way. A player who left nothing but happy memories. And that is a bold statement!
Thanks Werder for another amusing and "spirited" report! I too very much liked the John Hickton tribute act given he was one of my all time favourites from days on the Holgate.
I can't see much in the way of changes for tomorrow, the defence and midfield three are nailed on and with BA unlikely to be risked it will be Roberts and Akpom upfront, so it's just the wing backs which might be tweaked.
NW has already said that he would have snatched your hand off if he had been offered 4 points from these three games, so having achieved that already anything gained on Saturday is a bonus.
I think it will be a tight one with perhaps one goal settling it.
I will continue with an OFB ⚽️ - ⚽️ and hope we can nick it. If not, as long as we put in another shift and go down fighting like a football team then I will be content with the progress made to date from the shambles we were under JW. CoB 😎
@ken I can remember being at a game, fogged memory and I can't remember who Huddersfield were playing but they won and Denis Law scored the goals. Leaving the ground a Huddersfield supporter said,'alright Law scored the goals but he did nowt else'. There can't be many managers who wouldn't want to find a player like that, 'he only scores goals'.
I wish
UTB,
John
Werder, many thanks for another excellent opener.
The Bristol performance was such a Herculean effort that you have to wonder how many times the lads can go again on a two-games -a week basis. What was especially remarkable about Savile's performance, and McNair's too, was that they came after a strenuous travelling and playing schedule for their country.
Savile covered every inch of the pitch, threw himself into every challenge, must have been black and blue by the end, scored the winning goal, and was still covering and giving his all right up to the final whistle. Just how often he can go to that particular well without suffering burn-out by Christmas must be a matter of conjecture.
It will be interesting to see tomorrow whether last Tuesday's performance will prove to be motivating and inspirational, or an exhausting experience from which the team has scarcely yet recovered. Was it typical Boro or are we really up and running?
0-0 would be a good result
Touching on a couple of points made:
Wasnt Alan Kernaghan concerted from a centre forward to a centre half?
And Bernie Slaven was frequently accused in the Holgate of doing nothing but scoring goals.
Moving on, Bamford scored a hat-trick tonight, suggesting when not square pegged he’s fulfilling the promise we squandered. Oh well.
And there’s a Jack Charlton documentary coming out in early November I very much recommend even if it only tangentially involves the Boro.
A long read, but a worthwhile read and power to Judith Gates.
Watch your P’s and Q’s gents:
https://www.gazettelive.co.uk/sport/football/football-news/neil-warnock-reveals-love-fan-19155754
Werder, many thanks for another excellent opener.
The Bristol performance was such a Herculean effort that you have to wonder how many times the lads can go again on a two-games -a week basis. What was especially remarkable about Savile's performance, and McNair's too, was that they came after a strenuous travelling and playing schedule for their country.
Thanks Len and I agree that it's going to be hard to maintain that level of intensity every three days - unfortunately there are not too many options for resting the midfield but perhaps wing will get some pitch time and possible Tav could operate in midfield too.
Just seen the game tonight is being shown here in Oz on BeIn. Might be good for others to check their local providers.
Watch your P’s and Q’s gents:
I'll look out for any new posters called 'Boro Dreamer' or 'NW in Cornwall' just in case - though he'd certainly fit in with our demographic 😉
This generally means it can be found on VIP League or USA Goals...
On fatigue, one plus point is that we’ve had an extra day of recovery in comparison to Cardiff, though that may be wiped out by the travel.
Touching on a couple of points made:
Wasnt Alan Kernaghan concerted from a centre forward to a centre half?
And Bernie Slaven was frequently accused in the Holgate of doing nothing but scoring goals.
Moving on, Bamford scored a hat-trick tonight, suggesting when not square pegged he’s fulfilling the promise we squandered. Oh well.
And there’s a Jack Charlton documentary coming out in early November I very much recommend even if it only tangentially involves the Boro.
Chris, great play by Leeds last night and of course our very own PB. Why did we sell him?
Money. We sold everyone we got a bid for in that window (Bamford, Traore, Gibson).
that’s the one. Paul McGrath’s contribution is quite something.
