Boro swap the banks of the Tees for the banks of the Trent as they trail down to Nottingham on Wednesday evening to take on Forest. It is fair to say that Chris Hughton perhaps hasn’t had the initial desired effect this season but his Reds are now in a small thicket of form. Unbeaten in six games sees them a much thornier prospect than from a few weeks back.
It will, in all likelihood, be the final chance for lumbering Boro striker Britt to mark his last visit to his former employers with that rare thing called a goal. “Wasteful” simply doesn’t do justice to some of his profligate efforts at the City Ground in the past leaving poor traveling Teessiders stumped as he hit the woodwork. Whether of course, he can motivate himself or indeed has the desire is open to some conjecture but surely his own future transfer interests would be best served by at least a solitary effort to help shade the contest.
It’s not only Britt with something to prove after the Saturday no-show against Birmingham. Except for Bettinelli and Bola who put in “sterling” 4 or maybe 5/10 performances, the rest of the squad will likely have bells tied around their necks, denoting how bad they stunk out the Riverside rather than anything genuinely pandemic-related. The bells may actually be a good idea, it would at least help the Boro players find a teammate with a pass, or even string two or three of them together.
Hopefully, Watmore will be fit enough to get at least 60 minutes and with that carry our ebbing hopes of penetrability. It wouldn’t be unreasonable to badger Neil Warnock, arguing the case for Patrick Roberts getting an opportunity as he can't be any more inept than the ones that were so easily felled by Birmingham. The terrible news that Marcus Browne has effectively ended his season with that bizarre injury at Brentford gives further support to the Roberts starting momentum. Here’s hoping that given the opportunity he can perhaps squirrel away a few opportunities.
We should be grateful after Saturday that we no longer take the knee as our post-Covid fitness levels may have precluded at least half a dozen of them from finding their feet. With that wooden performance still rotting away, NW may once again be tempted to look to future growth from his academy acorns in improving his side's ability to shoot.
Saturday fortuitously saw Boro’s wilting play off hopes survive after results elsewhere kept us rooted in seventh spot. Presently we are just ahead of Stoke on goal difference but four points from Reading in that elusive sixth place. Both Stoke and Reading have “winnable” fixtures on Tuesday evening so the play off landscape for Boro may look even more impenetrable come 7.00 pm on Wednesday.
Hopefully, NW and Boro will have found a suitable environment to train this week and in doing so reacquainted players who looked like dense strangers at lunchtime on Saturday. The last thing Boro fans with an axe to grind want to be doing is rolling out that old chestnut “Typical Boro” come ten o'clock on Wednesday, rueing missed chances. In conclusion, I guess that this game has a draw carved all over it in a rather dull, dour and agricultural display from both sides.
Thanks RR for a spot on analysis of where the Boro are after Saturday and what they have to do.
I don’t think I have to change my mind from an untypical Boro to an untypical or typical 👀eyeballs in the sky prediction of :
⚽️⚽️
THANKS AGAIN RR APPRECIATED
OFB
Thanks RR for your arboreal pre-match piece which was artfully crafted, honed and chiselled to perfection.
I suppose after Saturday a 0-0 would be a good outcome if it helps to get the train back on the rails but as you point out, even this could see the gap to the top six widening and our slow drift toward mid table mediocrity continuing.
Many subscribers have commented that we should be grateful for what has been achieved after last season which to a degree is true; I still however feel very frustrated as to what has happened over very many years since we were once a fixture in the PL. Similar sized clubs have gone on and prospered, Leicester, Burnley and Norwich for example with the the latter a club now appearing to be light years ahead both in terms of playing ability and financial management.
I wonder if we will ever see a Charlton/Robson period again when we could hold our own in the top echelon of English football, probably not in my remaining time but one can continue to dream and that's the hope that keeps us going and supporting from around the globe. CoB 😎
I wonder if we will ever see a Charlton/Robson period again when we could hold our own in the top echelon of English football, probably not in my remaining time but one can continue to dream and that's the hope that keeps us going and supporting from around the globe.
As time passes many of us are becoming Terry Molloy's (albeit by the Riverside rather than the Waterfront), reminiscing about what Boro could and should have been and for an all too brief period once were.
I will be hanging around untill we are a top ten team in the Premier League. The time will come, I am sure of it. It is more a question of when. Our club is well run and if we get a decent and long-term manager - why not?
NW is an excellent manager but I do not know for how long.
I hope we will concentrate on winning a cup and staying in the EPL when we are there. We could definately do that. Remember Wigan, for example.
But back to the Forest game - Tricky Trees.
We have two good strikers more soon. When Watmore has shakes his COVID symptoms and Flecher is back in two weeks, we should have a good team. Not automatic promotion but certaily a team for play offs. It will be an interesting season still and I trust NW for better performances than in the last match.
I will go for an optimistic 0-1 win for us at Nottm Forest. Britt scoriing on 34th minute. Assombalonga cannot become a bad player suddenly and definately under Warnock. I stll prefer him over Akpom.
There is life after a defeat. Up the Boro!
Thanks RR, great piece. Totally agree with everything and especially with the Roberts comment.
I can't understand the negative comments coming from the Gazette reporters and some of the supporters regarding the ineffectiveness of Patrick Roberts. For God's sake give the guy a break. He literally has not hardly had any game time. Yet there are a couple of present first team players who should be nowhere near the ground.
After Roberts has some more game time and I mean several starts then if he is not performing (which I doubt very much) then the doubters can express their thoughts but not now please!
@malcolm since AV departed I find myself scanning rather than reading the Gazette articles. In fact I often see the headlines on the Newsnow site and don't even bother visiting the Gazette page as I know if it looks like dross it will be even worse and more cringeworthy to read.
The half term grading article was almost as poor as the ratings given out after the Birmingham game. How anyone earned more than a four is beyond me but shows the level of fear still prevalent and a wider inability to produce quality articles.
The big problem with Britt is that he has not become a bad player overnight, his form is remarkably steady, he can be depended on in a way that very few players can match. Whatever his level is, and that depends very much on how many penalties we get and how many he converts into goals, he keeps strictly to that level. This means that we know with a certain inevitability exactly how we will benefit from his efforts, which, unfortunately, is 'not much'. We, at this moment in time are in the process of wobbling our way down to tenth place in the Champ. Which is a disapointment, but it has been achieved by committing every mistake in the book. Yes, I know what everyone is thinking, tell us so we can put it right. One, we simply will not shoot enough, two, we have little idea what constitutes a shot, three, when one of our members shoots to such Good effect that he gets two goals in one match, the club, supporters and team mates take care to let us know that actually they were both own goals and definitely down to the goalkeeper who was a disgrace. They appear oblivious to the fact that when approaching the box and getting a clear view of the goal you should be shooting every time. The perfect goal comes along about four times in a season, so shoot, often. When at home you should expect to win, we do not. When you are going to play a very Good player for half the game, it should be the first half, it is too late when they have taken the lead.
In light of all that has been happening in the world, whether** it's in Washington DC earlier this month or COVID-19 throughout much of the world (and certainly in England), the football has not been uppermost in my mind. I am tempted to sing that "It can only get better" but that song, too, has unfortunate (political) memories. The football will hopefully be raised a level from that seen in the game against Birmingham, though whether** it will match the performances seen on the cricket pitches in Galle and in Brisbane in the last couple of days is probably too much to ask. Some joy, at least, in the literal darkness. It's been like going back to schoolboy days, listening to the radio in bed in the early hours through earphones!
Anyway - still alive, looking forward to a vaccination in the next month or so, and the hope of a gentle return to normality during the Springtime. A Happy New Year, if it isn't already too late to say that for 2021, to the Diasboro thoughout the world. It is 3.45pm GMT here in North Yorkshire, slate-grey sky, cool, wet, windy outside, but I suppose our club's Finnish Ambasador will already be in serious cold darkness up there near Helsinki. Let's hope things improve to the level where Jarkko is able to get to see a Boro game "in the flesh" soon, but I guess that will be the 2021-22 season at this rate. One day we might write this off as a terrible memory.
Keep smiling everybody. We might fool ourselves that it's all OK.....
** or even the WEATHER as serious rain, snow and wind are expected here over the next few days.
I think Akpom offers far more agility and gets around the pitch more and reads his teammates intentions a lot better than Britt. I'm not saying that Akpom is great or good even, just that what he offers is a lot more than Britt does. A succession of Boro Managers couldn't get a tune out of Britt and when you consider how Bola, Dijksteel, McNair, Saville etc. have all improved under Warnock Britt has continued to be Britt and if anything has gone backwards and looks less likely to score or even offer a threat. That he was given the Captaincy says that the Manager was showing belief in him and being positively supportive. Unfortunately the player himself just looks flat and never comes remotely close to a "Man of the Match" performance.
That at 28 years old he still can't compose himself at Free Kicks and Penalties shows how much he has improved, worked at and refined his game and all round skills. I have no idea how or why he has regressed so much but that we are split as to whether a £3m Striker is better or not to a £15m Striker sums up where he is. If he was still a Forest Player today and we were linked with him I would guess that there would be uproar on Boro social media sites saying that he isn't good enough.
Over the years supporting Boro there have been players that when they became injured we really struggled as a side without them, for example George Boateng from a few years back or Grant in more recent times. When those players were missing the entire team struggled. I'm sure Ken could make a list of such Boro individuals going back decades but Britt wouldn't make the top 500 in that list. When he isn't playing we don't miss him and more importantly when he comes on we don't notice him until we screws a shot wide, trips over himself or send a penalty kick over the North Stand roof.
It's a shame and I do think that there is far more to him than we have seen but in terms of ability I would have to categorise him in the same ilk as Kris Boyd but better than Kevin Thompson.
Boro will definitely become an established Premier League club in the future, but not in my lifetime. If one looks at the number of points they have accrued in the top tier of English football since 1890 they stand in 21st position with an average of 1.2571 per match. The trouble is that those statistics include most matches at 2 points for a win although they have played 2 matches fewer than Burnley in 20th position but 116 more than tomorrow’s opponents Forest. The interesting statistic though is that Burnley would jump as high as 12th on points per match at 1.3766, whereas West Ham would drop from 18th to 22nd on points per match. Ignoring drawn matches completely Boro would still remain 21st.
Also the following 5 clubs formerly in the top tier Sunderland are 10th, Blackburn 12th, Bolton 13th, Sheff Wed 14th and Derby 16th, whilst the current 5 clubs in their place Leicester are 25th, Southampton 27th, Fulham 36th, Palace 39th and Brighton 50th so quite remarkable that 75% of the current Premier League clubs are still in the top 20 of points scored.
It just shows that it’s likely that Boro will again be in the Premier League, but when is the question. It also shows how little the make up of the top tier has changed in nearly 120 years when one discards the War years. So though it’s very unlikely that I will see Boro in the Premier League it’s more than likely that 80/90% of Boro fans will at some point, so patience is required as Boro have twice had 18 successive seasons in the top tier, once of 8 successive seasons and once of 11 successive seasons. Admittedly they have also had one long stretch of 20 consecutive seasons outside the top tier but no more than 7 consecutive seasons since. Therefore the odds seem heavily stacked of Boro regaining Premier League status within most people’s lifetime.
I hope that cheers everyone up a little, but sadly I think that Boro will lose tomorrow.
Sorry OFB but I'm going for a defeat after my seam-splitting optimism of the last couple of weeks.
So it's Forest 2 - 1 Boro.
Stay safe everyone,
UTB,
John
The more I study the stats the more I am convinced that the most important element of any club is management, and by that I do mean the overall management structure. When that is right then anything is possible. To watch Leicester as they go about their business, is an absolute pleasure, togetherness is a given, finding Young players the same, every club in the league is regarded as a source of points. This is the meaning of 'a league'. The idea that 3-4clubs can be permitted to have all the best players, the big matches, the penalties, the newspaper coverage, is anathema to anyone who loves the game. For one club to have twenty penalties is horrific, each penalty is a game changer. And I have just looked at a newspaper shot of a penalty that was awarded to Chelsea yesterday, they were losing, badly, VAR was called upon and it was cancelled. Two yards outside of the box, front and centre. The report implied that they were robbed! To return to our club, we have every chance when we stop selecting players based on their cost in the market, it would help if we could play our promising Academy players, most gifted players are ready before the manager is. Rooney at 16 ish! Anyone?
@forever-dormo Not a cold darknes here in Finland. We have two feet of snow ant everything is light here now. And beautiful.
But also cold from - 20 to -5 degrees in Celsius (was never taught about Fahrenheits) for the past two weeks.
Most of the time isolated at home and home office. Made four customer visits today. What a ghange to see some customers. Luckily the COVID is much better in control here compared to the UK or even Sweden.
Being so much home, I will look forward to all Boro matches on Riverside live or TV. As said before, I hope to see a Boro win tonight. And Britt to score at Forest finally!
Up the Boroĺ
PS. @Dormo, did you already retire after the turn of the year?
@malcolm I trust NW in here. Roberts' value might grow on the bench (and not by playing) but still think there might be a reason why he is on the bench. He has not impressed much this season when played. Up the Boro!
@plato Rooney who made his league debut for Everton who were playing Boro. We were winning when he came in as a second half sub and Everton went on to win the game OFB
Vic's view of the selection:
Bite-sized team news:
Howson >> Wing
Watmore >> Johnson
Assombalonga >> Akpom
No surprise with any of those. With Tav and Watmore wide in a three Boro may have more bite up top. And with Howson back that is the best balanced MF too
I know we should never look back, but from the Beeb's commentary on the Canaries vs Robins match:
Ben Gibson is the definition of a ball-playing centre-back! He plays a lovely progressive pass to Norwich team-mate, Kenny McLean, whose powerful strike is excellently tipped wide by Bristol City keeper, Daniel Bentley.
(my bold)
And Jordan Hugill got the goal that gave the Canaries the lead!
A midfield of Howson, Morsy and Saville should be a match for any at this level. Personally I would have gone with Johnson and Tav wide with Watmore down the middle. The game at the top is changing from having a traditional Striker as such and the more enlightened and successful Managers are morphing into playing with three "attackers" who are difficult to track and organise against.
Maybe the movement of Watmore and Tav will free up space for Britt to have more chances and the hope that he manages to find that big oblong goal in front of him. I'm hopeful but not optimistic, put in perspective I thought that Wednesday and Birmingham were there for the taking and consequently six points were dropped but let's hope for an upbeat performance after that uninspiring display on Saturday.
Britt gives Boro the lead in the 14th minute, asissted by Jonny H...!!! I guess he was due one! *prays*
Vic sums up the first half:
HT: Great half. Warnock will be pleased by high temp start, good early efforts and the goal. Boro working hard to keep Forest shackled, look good going forward & have had a few good chances & hit post. Tav has been lively, Britt beavering away.
Sounds as though Britt may just have pulled his socks up, though, par for the course, he apparently missed a sitter...
Vic sums up the first half:
HT: Great half. Warnock will be pleased by high temp start, good early efforts and the goal. Boro working hard to keep Forest shackled, look good going forward & have had a few good chances & hit post. Tav has been lively, Britt beavering away.
Sounds as though Britt may just have pulled his socks up, though, par for the course, he apparently missed a sitter...
Followed by:
Boro good getting forward on the counter and from set-plays & giving their defence a runaround, Howson immense organising & recycling in engine-room, everyone doing a good job man to man. As usual, worry about not getting second goal.
Good first half performance and a shame we have not scored more. Tav very lively and caused Forest a lot of problems down our right side.
Need to ensure there are not any silly mistakes in the second half and that Morsy does not get another yellow. CoB 😎
Good first half. For once we started very quickly which set the tone for the opening and pushed Forest back. This gave Howson space to step forward and set up Britt for a simple tap-in for the goal. Just like the Birmingham game in reverse. Forest finally got their act together and are causing up some problems down the wings and particularly down our right where Dijksteel seems a bit isolated. It's probably logical because we are getting through their left with Tavernier pushing forward and he can't be in two places at once. We could very easily have been two up. Excellent free kick from McNair was met by Assombalonga with a strong header which smashed onto the inside of the post, hit the goalie - who hadn't moved - on the back of the head/shoulder and somehow looped out for another corner.
We may need another goal to put this one away.
UTB
More energy in the opening ten minutes than in ninety minutes on Saturday!
I'm guessing that Britt must be reading this and other Forums judging by his endeavours so far.
We may need another goal to put this one away.
UTB
As per instructions: George Saville in the 50th minute, assisted by Tav. 🙂 Keep it up, lads!
Johnny Howson was excellent. Britt scored as expected. We should have won 0-3 with Bettinelli not making a single save.
Well, done. Boys fit again. Up the Boro!