Midweek match but will sell out quickly.
Come on BORO.
First impression: Boro to hold Spurs to a draw.
Then to go through on penalties.
As far as I understand, he came here to learn how to be a coach. And how he has served us as an organiser of the defence, a talker, and an organiser. I will be disappointed if he is allowed to leave the premises because he is a Good influence, and will make a very Good coach (for us)
Well drawn at home to Spurs is another tasty game to look forward to - will it be televised? Not sure how that works in midweek given clubs are playing at the both the weekend before and after so not much room to rearrange. Perhaps a Tuesday game and a Thursday game possible but probably not if you're playing on a Saturday.
Boro are away to Barnsley before the Spurs game and then home to Luton the following Saturday. Plus both Boro and Luton have rearranged away games the following Tuesday (Sheff Utd and Coventry respectively) so moving the Saturday game to Sunday also not possible. Luton of course play Cheslea in the cup.
A desent draw, me thinks. A big club far away from their home at Riverside. Tough, but with luck - again - we can win.
After the Forest and Bournemouth matches, I think the performances have not been that good by Boro. Sometimes I think if the biggest change in our play has been better luck under Wilder than Warnock. We have been very lucky in some matches, especially in the first half at Old Trafford. And not so at Blackburn away.
But then they say that good teams make their own luck. Up the Boro!
For all else there's Mastercard
One story that got a lot of coverage in the press was about a Boro fan who went out to celebrate and left his 11-year old in the hotel and is now apparently going to be charged with child-neglect by the police. Is this for real? I've got an 11-year old and we often leave him at home if I go shopping or we go for a walk - he's got his own mobile phone if anything crops up. Besides he's only too happy to be left alone playing on his Nintendo.
So can't see how leaving a 11-year old on their own for a few hours is child neglect - not taking him with you to see the Man Utd game would perhaps be regarded more as child neglect 😉
Sounds like a huge over-reaction to me - 11-year old's can actually survive a few hours unsupervised - some even can open the fridge door and feed themselves! They are not toddlers anymore and some are even pretty smart. I think we shouldn't confuse this with real child neglect - what exactly happened to view this as neglect?
Just my final words on Man Utd with apologies to Tim Rice and Andrew Lloyd Webber:-
Won’t cry for you Man United;
The truth is you’re now a has-been,
You’re best days are past,
Oblivion at last.
Were lucky at Villa,
But Boro’ the killer.
Forget all your winnings,
T’is end of your innings!
Amen.
BBC showing all (but two) matches including Boro play on Wednesday 2nd.
Although TV may take precedence choosing one of the potential cup upset matches.
Another couple of million on the price for Spence after this Leicester match.
Come on BORO.
Yes, at least, or if Wilder can keep him motivated and on this sort of form he will be a major asset to the side.
BBC showing all (but two) matches including Boro play on Wednesday 2nd.
Although TV may take precedence choosing one of the potential cup upset matches.
I have read the coverage will be split between ITV and BBC (4 each) details will be produced later, but at least it is on terrestrial TV.
Come on BORO.
Imagine if Chris Wilder had been appointed instead of Tony Pulis. His 3-5-2 might have been:
Randolph
Fry Ayala Gibson
Christie Howson Clayton Leadbitter Fabio
Bamford Braithwaite
Bench: GK, Friend, Shotton, Forshaw, Downing, Traore, Britt
Crikey, what a waste.
I wonder if we would have been better being drawn away at Tottenham. We would have been guaranteed another big piece of a full house in an expensive stadium. It would have been a great experience for players and supporters to go to the new Tottenham stadium without any pressure from being expected to win and there would always be the chance of another upset.
Being drawn at home offers the tantalising prospect of winning the game and progressing further in the Cup which could just take away the focus from the main event of the season - getting promotion.
What does the brains trust think? Having had our 'magic night' at Utd , should Wilder take off the pressure and view the Spurs game as just a day to enjoy?
UTB
It’s a midweek game in the cup against spurs. It give the local fans a chance to see the Premiership and international players on home soil without having to travel to the capital city to see their team.
It is also another chance for Chris Wilder to see how his players perform on the big stage and how the likes of Fry and Paddy stand up to World Class Players. The metrics wil be analysed and performances measured so whm Boo do get promoted we know the weaknesses and strengths of the Boro team to play in the Premiership.
I’m sure Wilder will pick a team to perform and win and tell them to go out and play “without fear and enjoy the occasion.”
OFB
Just looked and last season there were 2 games on Tuesday, 4 on Wednesday and 2 on Thursday. Not sure what the kick off times were and which channels had which games. The timings will probably be decided by when the Premier League teams are playing at the weekend before and after the tie.
If I had scrolled down further would have seen that the BBC had one game on each day an BT Sports had all the others. Not sure what will happen this year with ITV having the rights.
The game against Spurs comes in the middle of an intense period of fixtures where Boro will play 11 games in 36 days before the international break starts after the home game against Cardiff on 19 March.
We have to hope to avoid any key injuries and Wilder will probably have to utilise his squad - thankfully Boro have quite a strong squad but some players are less replaceable than others.
One such player is Jones and once again the player he is keeping out of the squad on loan at Forest had another impressive game in the 4-1 thrashing of Leicester. He's now been rated as one of best players outside the PL and one wonders why Boro couldn't accommodate him at the club or rather Neil Warnock didn't want him.
Hopefully this doesn't come back to bite the club as Forest look more than a fair bet to make the top six with Spence integral to their form. Whether Spence will ever return to Boro seems unlikely but perhaps if Boro are promoted he may consider but it looks like he'll be heading to Spurs or Arsenal as they will surely have the extra few million to reach Boro's £15m price-tag.
Anyway, some great FA Cup games this weekend and hats off to Boreham Wood for their well-deserved victory over Bounemouth - shows that if players put in the effort and perform as a team then they can beat better opponents on paper.
Of course, there is no reason why, if Djed Spence continues to play well, and if there is a bidding contest between Arsenal and Spurs (and maybe others) Boro should not be seeking more than £15M if we are to sell him in the summer.
He is going to Man City for £ 22 million according to Woodgate now.
His price seems to go up another 5 million everytime he is on TV.
Come on, let's see where he goes. If we will be promoted, we could need both Jones and Spence in our PL squad.
Let him learn his trade at Forest. Up the Boro!
Praise must go to Crystal Palace for their making it such a special day for the Hartlepool fans on Saturday, not only for their treatment of the fans and players on the day, but also for offering to subside the travel arrangements of the Pools fans to enable them to fill the away stand with 4,700 away supporters so that they were able to add to the atmosphere. Also Palace and their fans made a substantial donation for the treatment of Gemma the wife of manager Graeme Lee who is undergoing treatment for a brain tumour and now has enough finance for the drug that stabilises her treatment for the next twelve months.
Sometimes we forget the kindness and friendliness shown by fans of other football clubs. This is what football is all about, compassion to others and the FA Cup Competition is a shining example of that.
I’m not sure that the FA Cup match against Spurs would have been a sellout if it were to be played at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium as fewer Boro fans would be able to attend a mid-week fixture. When the two clubs met in a replay in 2020 the attendance was 49,202, some 5,500 fewer than Saturday’s match between Spurs and Brighton on Saturday. I don’t know how many Boro fans attended that replay, but it’s unlikely that Boro took up their full allocation. I must say that we should put our fans first instead of us TV viewers, and that Boro would stand a better chance of winning at home than away.
Another point is that if Boro were to beat Spurs that would mean having played a total of 54 matches this season if they were to reach the playoff final. Let’s not get too carried away because winning automatic promotion in my opinion is a non-starter and even reaching the playoffs will be harder with games in hand especially if Boro lose to QPR this Wednesday.
I agree lets not too carried away..... come on Ken this Boro we are talking about.