Thanks Jarkko and OFB for your kind comments.
Jarkko: - I used to live in Chorley, quite close to Preston, so no worries there! The nearest side to me now is Conference side Wrexham, if we don’t count the various Welsh league sides such as Caernarfon and Connah’s Quay. Both Swansea and Cardiff are both about 110 miles away, but transport links down the middle of Wales are notoriously difficult!
I do have nearer sides in the EFL - Shrewsbury, Tranmere - but neither is in the Championship. I guess with all the travelling I’ll be doing to Middlesbrough that it will be rare for me to get to any away games, but I’ll do my best!
Nick Szczepanik's report on the match (focus on Fulham's performance, almost inevitably) in today's Times:
Fulham made to pay for profligacy
Fulham 1 Middlesbrough 1
A game played in bright sunshine for the most part was suddenly interrupted by a cloudburst that drenched spectators who had previously been enjoying a pleasant Sunday afternoon by the Thames. The paying customers in the front rows of the Stevenage Road stand must have wondered what had hit them. And the new Fulham head coach, Marco Silva, knew how they felt. He had seen his Fulham side dominate their opening game of the season with entertaining, attacking football and go ahead deservedly through Harry Wilson’s first goal for the club on his debut after a £12 million move from Liverpool. But they could not take any of a number of further chances, and Middlesbrough landed a late sucker punch through Marc Bola to grab a point.
Failing to win when on top? Not very different from last season’s relegation under Scott Parker, then. But football is the same whether in the top flight or the Sky Bet Championship, as Silva was at pains to point out. “The games are always in this way. But it is up to you decide what style you want to play and to answer what your opponents do. We have enough players who know what playing in the Championship means,” Silva said. “Of course there was frustration that we didn’t get the result that we wanted and that I believe we deserved. At this level when you have chances to be more clinical and kill the game you can be comfortable. The games are always in this way. But it is up to you decide what style you want to play and to answer what your opponents do. We have enough players who know what playing in the Championship means,” Silva said. “Of course there was frustration that we didn’t get the result that we wanted and that I believe we deserved. At this level when you have chances to be more clinical and kill the game you can be comfortable.”
The goal was a gem. Wilson took a short pass from Josh Onomah on the right, cut inside past Bola and hit a low, hard shot with his left foot that passed between the feet of the defender Dael Fry on its way into the corner of the net. But despite Fulham’s attacking potential, especially evident in the youthful energy of Tyrese Francois, 21, and Fabio Carvalho, 18, that was all they could manage.
The neutral sensed what was coming as Middlesbrough waited to take advantage of any slip or lessening of intensity. Sure enough, after 77 minutes Bola took a pass from Isaiah Jones and hit a low angled shot across Paulo Gazzaniga and inside the far post.
“Anyone who finishes above [Fulham] will get promotion,” Neil Warnock, the Middlesbrough manager, said. “We couldn’t be open and had to hang in there but the subs did well and the fresh legs and the bit of movement we had gave us a bit more. “In the end I think we were unlucky not to win it, but in fairness, they deserved to get a result out of it.”
Sadly. I couldn't find a way of copying & pasting the match stats accompanying the report (I'm practically IT-illiterate).
A couple of the ten readers' comments on the page:
1) Reckon Middlesbrough will be top 8 and could sneak a play-off place.
2) The Championship has become a "non" competion now. How can it be allowed that the 3 teams that come down are so wealthy, whereas the rest of the league are gripped by FFP. Fulham, WBA, Sheff U and Bournemouth (relegated the year before) will more than likely end up in the top 4.
3) As a Boro fan who went down to Fulham, it was a pleasure to chat with the Fulham supporters who mixed with us before the game, in the away stand. Football is as much about the build-up and the drive home as the game itself. Roll on next week, first home game with a crowd for Neil Warnock.
4) The report on this game gives no consideration to the fact that Fulham could and probably should have been down to 10 players in the first minute when their “aggressive “ striker decided to forearm smash Boro’s captain to “show him he was there”. I suggest most refs would have shown a red card and given Middlesbrough a player advantage for 89 minutes.
Eric Paylor was commenting on Boro’s FA Cup meetings with Blackpool in 1946. The FA Cup matches in both 1946 and 1947 were played over 2 legs, and Boro having beaten Leeds 11-6 on aggregate were drawn at home to Blackpool in the next round but Boro lost 2-3. Four days later in the reply at Bloomf
Thanks for taking the time and trouble to copy up the Times report. I would have missed it otherwise and I thought it both accurate and fair. Thanks, too, to all of the other personal reports from regular bloggers. They are one of the many highlights of this excellent forum. I greatly appreciated them all.
Special mention for Powmill for forecasting not simply the right result, but the correct score at Fuham.
A triumph for optimism, hope, faith, positivity and loyalty in highly improbable circumstances. Hats off.
Eric Paylor was commenting on Boro’s FA Cup meetings with Blackpool in 1946. The FA Cup matches in both 1946 and 1947 were played over 2 legs, and Boro having beaten Leeds 11-6 on aggregate were drawn at home to Blackpool in the next round but Boro lost 2-3. Four days later in the second leg at Bloomfield Road Boro won 3-2 to square the aggregate at 5-5. Boro won the replay at Elland Road 1-0 with a George Hardwick penalty in the 30 minutes of extra time. However that’s as far as Boro got as in the next round they lost 0-1 at home in the first leg to Bolton before a crowd of 43,550 and could only draw at Burnden Park 1-1 four days later.
Nevertheless meetings between Boro and Blackpool in league matches at Ayresome Park often produced high scoring home wins - 5-1 in January 1930, 9-2 in December 1938, 4-0 in November 1947, and 5-1 again in April 1953. However that 4-0 win will go down in history as the Mannion match. Wilf didn’t score any of the goals but was responsible for all 4 goals. Tales that he ran the full length of the pitch with the ball on his head may be somewhat exaggerated, but he did run several yards bouncing the ball on his head at one point during the game. Apparently Wilf had just become engaged to Bernadette his future wife and wanted to impress her. This he certainly did, but also the crowd of almost 39,000 and the opposition players as they stood aside to allow Wilf to leave the pitch on his own to the rapturous cheers and applause of the Boro fans. It was an awesome display from Wilf that supporters talked about for decades.
I obviously didn’t witness any of those matches, but one match against Blackpool stands out for me for the sense of occasion. It was a midweek league match on a balmy evening in August 1949 when the famous Coldstream Guards resplendent in their scarlet uniforms marched in formation to the music of Kenneth Alford, the famous march composer and conductor of the time. It became a precursor to the introduction of local silver bands from both Skelton and New Marske performing at Boro matches for several seasons afterwards. I always enjoyed the occasion of Guards Bands marching in unison at FA Cup finals, but it was a real coup at the time for Boro to get such a band and much appreciated by he crowd of 47,870. As a bonus Boro won the match 2-0 with both goals being scored by Peter McKennan.
Another piece of nostalgia from my years as a Boro fan, but apologise for dozing off again in the early part of this blog. I’m finding it difficult to concentrate these days.
Special mention for Powmill for forecasting not simply the right result, but the correct score at Fuham.
A triumph for optimism, hope, faith, positivity and loyalty in highly improbable circumstances. Hats off.
...and our very own Flying Finn, Len. Jarkko had his 1-1 prediction in quite a few posts before me!
Yes, apologies and congrats to Jarkko. I had overlooked his prescient prediction.