Vic:
GRANT HALL! Header. Superb delivery from McNair (1-1,)
@stircrazy. That apart it has been poor fair against a team we have made look better than they are.
I still feel we need changes in shape/personnel. Need Johnson and Watmore and change/addition in midfield which we are not controlling. At the moment CA is doing a good imitation of BA.
Lots of hoof ball from both sides. 😎
It's bloody deja vu. Why don't they put a player on the far post for long throws. Someone coming forward to meet the ball has a clear view to clear it. Anyway, the equaliser was a lovely free kick by McNair and a relatively simple header.
The pitch is terrible and makes it hard to play our usual passing game. The ball is bouncing up all over the place. Coventry certainly look vulnerable but we have to make sure that we don't concede another avoidable goal.
UTB
Johnson, Bolasie & Watmore on for Bola, Akpom & Kebano respectively in the 74th minute. Enough time to make a difference?
George Saville, on for Tav in the 85th minute because of an injury, makes it 2-1, apparently from a Howson cross. *prayer mat out*
Well, a win is a win but goodness me that was absolutely dreadful.
@andy-r that was worse than dreadful, likexwatching two teams of super striker players, hoof ball
Vic's assessment:
FT: Never mind the quality, feel the width. Poor game for long spells, a sloppy early opener leaked, then laboured away. Great leveller. Then poor again. Then Howson showed quality & set tone for final flourish. Scrappy finish, but points bagged
Poor pitch, poor play for long spells, too many long balls, no imagination, some below par displays... but late drama and can't turn points down on aesthetic grounds. Play-off hopes still flickering
Scruffy match, scruffy defending, scruffy goals, three points job done - just! 😎
I see "Mick McCarthy's Cardiff" knocked four bells of hell out of "Wayne Rooney's Derby"...
If someone had said before the game that Boro would win 2-1, I would have been pleased.
But , why aren’t I ?
Quite simply that was an awful game of football by two poor teams who spent most of the game hoofing the ball in the air. Skill factor nil.
Having watched the bottom three in the Premiership recently they all seemed light years ahead of the tonight’s efforts of a game of football.
I have seen more exciting non League football.
NW will inevitably say “ we played some good stuff tonight “
Philip of Huddersfield
I'm sure there was a caption that said the score was 1- 1 and there had been 1 shot on goal,says it all really, should have made it 3-1 at the end
Just watching Reading versus Blackburn and I’ve seen more football with the ball on the ground in 5 minutes than in the whole game Boro versus Coventry.
Philip of Huddersfield
BBC stats saying Coventry had 0 shots on target and we had 2, cant believe I'm this bothered when we won.....
To say that this was a scrappy game is to grotesquely inflate its quality.
Granted the pitch was bumpy, but I have really seen a game at any level in which the ball was so much in the air.
Coventry, in spite of being a newly promoted team did, at least, make some attempt to get the ball down and play, something we rarely tried to do.
Neither keeper had a save to make, and though there were three goals, all were miserable efforts and the result of woeful defending.
The only decent thing about the whole experience was that we won, but is that enough?
Anyone not a supporter of either team would have switched this game off after a couple of minutes. It literally had nothing to recommend it. Entertainment value, less than zero.
For myself I now have little interest in whether we make the play-offs or not.
That's because, if we do, we will be humiliated by a better footballing team, whose skills we will not even attempt to emulate.
And if, by chance, we get promoted, a season of sustained humiliation awaits us.
I'm a lifelong Boro supporter, but it's only because I am a hopeless addict that I am able to take much more of football that is so lacking in interest and quality.
And had that Bolasie miss been perpetrated by Britt we would rightly be demanding his head.
Fry played well.
Swansea await us. We will try to stop them from playing. We may be successful in that limited and negative aim. Another scrappy underwhelming game seems to be the best we can hope for, and I suppose I will be forking out another ten quid to watch it.
As I said, a hopeless, pathetic addict of an activity I am totally unable to justify.
"I was pleased with that. I thought we were good." (Neil Warnock)
'Nuff said.
Here’s my match report:-
Boro head the ball up in the air and it’s nodded back by a Coventry defender to another Boro player, who heads it back upfield, where a Coventry player hoofs it long. It bounces over the heads of the Coventry attacker and is belted back over everybody’s heads by a Boro defender, who sends it too long and out for a goal-kick. Now, Boro go back from the half-way line to Bettinelli, who belts it long over the heads of everybody and out for another Coventry throw-in. Repeat ad nauseam. Dull, dull, dull.
Did we learn nothing from the Cardiff game? Were our lads under instruction to hoof it or head it because of the pitch, or do they just not understand that they are all better players on the floor? Kebano seemed to want to play properly, as did Howson (at least later on.) Johnson made a real difference, too, supplying a number of dangerous, low-slung passes.
So, yes, a positive result, and a win we desperately needed in the light of wins by Cardiff and Reading. And despite my moans about style, I do think there were a few positives:- 1. Once the defence woke up after conceding yet another horrendously easy goal, I think they played really well as a unit. 2. I’ve mentioned Johnson - why, oh, why doesn’t NW give him more game time? 3. Bolasie looked good, even though he should have scored. 4. Boro kept at it, fought till the end for every ball, and showed spirit to recover from a sluggish start.
I tend to agree with Len, though. I don’t think we’ll make the play-offs, because I don’t think we’re good enough or consistent enough. If by some miracle we were to reach them, however, I agree that there are several much better sides than us who could easily play us off the park. It’s all very well having spirit and a never-say-die attitude, but you also need quality across the pitch to succeed in the play-offs, and we’re still sadly lacking it in several areas, especially in goal and up front.
Finally, a concern. In tonight’s game, and against Cardiff, Boro reverted to the lowest common denominator hoofball that used to bore us to tears under Pulis. We see it too often under Warnock. If he stays - and I hope he does - will we be subjected to more of the same? We know he wants to revamp the front end - and has gone some way towards achieving that, albeit with loan signings, but he also wants a big target man. That suggests to me we might still see a lot of long-ball stuff. If it’s crosses coming in from the flanks or behind the defence, then I can live with that. If it’s belt it long from the keeper or our defenders, I’m not so sure. Of course, if he produces a winning team that has a good chance of promotion, we may be prepared to forgive him anything, as he said about his time and McCarthy’s efforts at Cardiff. But Boro fans are not only a discerning bunch, we’re also demanding, as many of tonight’s posts on here show. We’re fed up to the back teeth with boring, mindless football. And one thing is certain, next season we need the fans to come back in their droves and to get behind the lads. That will be so much easier if we’re watching a team that plays free-flowing football and scores goals.
Poor game played by 2 poor teams but we got the 3 points which at this stage of the season, especially with no spectators in the grounds, is all that matters. In the 1st half both teams were using the long high ball and Coventry were better at that than us. I felt sorry for Akpom because he did win some headers from punts upfield but there was no-one near to help him. Tav and Kebano were coming quite deep and getting nowhere with their runs. Thanks to the well taken free kick by McNair and header by Hall we got the goal back just before half time. The 2nd half was less long balls and we caused more problems with low crosses though until Saville's winner it didn't look as if we would actual get the ball into the net.
I still think that run of 5 games with just 1 point will mean we miss the playoffs but if we did get into the top 6 I wouldn't expect us to actually get promoted and promotion would (as with most promoted clubs) result in immediate relegation. However it would bring about £120M into the club and unless Steve Gibson finds a way around whatever are the fair play rules this season and invests a big junk of Bulkhaul's profits we will not be able to make the big improvements to our squad that would be needed to get into and stay in the Premier League.
I see that Reading who are well ahead of us in the top six won 1 - 0 with 32% possession and Cardiff won 4 - 0 with 27% possession! In the Championship playing good football but failing to get promoted will only get the approval of supporters for a short period but playing not so attractively while getting promoted will have the approval of the vast majority.
Well, that was another tough watch. Another uninspiring start from Boro made worse after succumbing to another long throw. Watching this one let alone concentrating was a struggle which managed to top Saturday’s previous bore fest against Cardiff.
Dijksteel does not look comfortable since returning from his minor operation and is a far cry from the Anfernee Dijksteel of the early part of the season. Grant Hall looks to be getting into his stride and made some telling challenges at the back plus gave hope that he could maybe be the new Ayala in getting his head onto set pieces. His goal was functional rather than a thing of beauty, the free kick from McNair was delivered perfectly but crucially the CB rose and met it superbly to head home and draw us level just before half time.
Tav undoubtedly adds a bit of spark but his decision making at times can be frustrating, if he can work on looking up and seeing the bigger picture and his teammates in better positions he will step up to the next level in his career. He was frustrating me (as generally most in red shirts were tonight) but it was summed up when he cut across the edge of the Coventry box and with three sky blue shirts closing down on him, he tried to shoot when McNair was straight ahead unmarked and Howson even nearer on the edge of the “D” again unmarked. Needless to say his shot just rebounded off the defenders and putting us back under pressure in the process.
McNair just doesn’t cut it for me in midfield, he seems to be caught in two minds and his indecision leaves him playing catch up whereas at CB the ball is usually in front of him permitting the luxury of being able to read the game and the next phase. For me Morsy along with Howson would have bossed the middle of the sodden pitch tonight. Speaking of the pitch, the surface was almost as poor as Derby’s the other week. To hear that it was being deliberately watered before kick-off was astonishing. If it was tactical then I’m not sure of the logic as it should have suited a hoof ball team like Boro are fast becoming.
As the second half dirge unfolded the overdue substitutions finally offered a lifeline to the ball being launched up field. Watmore didn’t really get involved but Johnson and Bolasie started to stretch the Coventry defence, giving them real cause for concern after looking flustered but untroubled by Boro all evening.
The injury to Tav forced another sub with Saville coming on to play at the tip of the midfield and a clever switchback pass from Johnson allowed Howson to put a low stinging ball across the Coventry six-yard box for Saville to bundle it home from close range sealing all three points. Credit to Saville who when he came on made an impact, closing down quickly, chasing and using his energy and enthusiasm to great effect.
A quick mention for Djed Spence who looked to be getting his game back on track after Cardiff and now again tonight. The result should be all that matters but purists will be burning their Boro training bibs in protest at the futility of hoofing a ball forwards to no avail. It resulted in us continually losing possession as a game of head tennis ensued. When the opponents defence gets a strong header it turns an opportunity of a Boro attack into a hurried rear-guard panic trying to chase back. Oh for the days of windscreen wiper football with Grant keeping possession, recycling the ball.
@redcar red
excellent report but I think that you are under-estimating the impact of the terrible pitch. It was like playing on hard corrugated mud with the outcome that nobody could play passing football with close control. The bounce was erratic which often made it difficult to play any passes with great certainty and the run of the ball as a player ran with it was also uncertain which explains why many players on both sides had the ball taken off them when they seemed to be moving ahead.
The extra bounce meant that the ball was played in the air more than normal and this further destroyed the game. The fact that there were so few shots is down to some solid defending by both sides and for us Hall had another very solid game. He and Fry are now the two key defenders which does ask some questions about Dijksteel and McNair. I would agree with you that playing McNair as the left of a back three seems the best option. Spence was indeed much better and Howson was our best midfield player. Tavernier was either affected more than most by the pitch or had a hangover from Saturday’s game but he wasn’t up to his usual standard. Saville was probably better suited to the conditions and he made quite a impact in the short time that he played.
I weep at the way that we defend long throws with nobody on the back post but other than a set piece Coventry didn’t look like scoring.
im just glad that we grabbed a win and am happy to move on to our our next Jekyll and Hyde performance. it would indeed be typical to beat Swansea.
utb
I did not enjoy the match. As averyone says in here, it was more like head tennis. I liked Clive's match report and the result. But it was boring. Was it as bad as this during the Pulis period? I thought it was worse at St. Andrew's yesterday. Dear me.
Up the Boro!
Was it an ankle problem with Tavarnier last night? Hopefully not bad. Up the Boro!
If you gave me two options - play and win like that every week, winning the league, or play like Man City but finish sixth - I’d take the second option every time.
If that makes me a purist then fine but it’s simply where you source your pride and enjoyment of your football from.
Nothing about last night makes me proud to be a Boro fan and, frankly, I’d be embarrassed if we took that kind of football onto the global stage of the Premier League.
"I was pleased with that. I thought we were good." (Neil Warnock)
'Nuff said.
I suppose to be fair to him Len, what can we expect he will say? If he is openly honest about how poor we might have been against poor opposition it won't do a great deal for team morale.
No doubt he will be more brutally honest behind closed doors and into the ears of those that he really needs to hear it.
Philip’s right. I enjoyed the Hartlepool game on Saturday more than either of Boro’s last 3 matches. Ok we’ve taken 4 points from them but last night’s game was more like watching Rugby Union.
Pools scored at Halifax about the same time that Boro went 0-1 down. Boro fortunate to win with the game going nowhere, Pools concede a late equaliser, so I expect that’s the difference. Both Boro and Pools have difficult games on Saturday. Swansea outplayed Bristol City last weekend, yet managed to lose, Pools travel the long journey to League leaders Torquay on Saturday, a side that won 5-0 at the Vic earlier in the season so not a very happy weekend in prospect I fear.
If you gave me two options - play and win like that every week, winning the league, or play like Man City but finish sixth - I’d take the second option every time.
If that makes me a purist then fine but it’s simply where you source your pride and enjoyment of your football from.
Nothing about last night makes me proud to be a Boro fan and, frankly, I’d be embarrassed if we took that kind of football onto the global stage of the Premier League.
Andy it appears to me you want your cake and eat it “play like Man City and finish sixth” in the playoffs, really. What about play like Man City and finish seventh every season or worse !
Another word on the pitch, apparently they were watering it constantly from about 6:20 and when I join the feed it looked as though the match may be off there was that much standing water.
Come on BORO.
I disagree but as I say it’s each to their own in terms of what they want from their team.
When I say Man City, I’m obviously using hyperbole because if we literally played like them we’d be targeting the Champions League rather than the Championship playoffs.
Obviously everyone wants that but that really is having your cake and eating it and far more than I’d expect or even hope for from Boro. Ever.
For smaller/less well resourced clubs like ours I think there is a sliding scale between wanting results and wanting good football - it’s not usually possible to have both.
I could never enjoy us getting beat every week - what football fan could? - but where I am perhaps more of a purist is that I don’t base my pride in the club and take my main pleasure from it from results. I need “enough” results and a competitive team but would take fewer points for a side that can pass through teams, dribble past opponents and attack with pace and purpose with the ball largely on the grass.
Perhaps more pertinent options would have been a team like ours and finish 8th (around about where we will) or better quality attacking play but finish, say 11th. The same answer applies for me.
Or better still, just look at Barnsley: smaller club than us, far better football than we play and likely to finish above us too. Barnsley boys having their cake and eating it 😀
This isn’t me trying have a dig at Warnock who I think has worked wonders in the circumstances but goodness me, I’d love to have a team worth watching one of these days.