Wallace the best player on the field so far. We need to get a grip of him and show more in the final third ourselves.
Kebano time?
@andy-r. And Watmore?
Only three shots and non on target! 😎
Spence is not at the races, or maybe he is
Spence made the goal, shadowed by Howson and Hall put it into the net. So 1-0 down at HT.
We look tired. Where are Watmore, Fletcher and especially Kebano? We need a couple of goals in the second half.
Highlight of the first half? A brillint save by Bettinelli and Sheffield Wednesday leading at Barnsley.
Up the Boro!
Poor selection
Why keep MDL, Kabano and Whatsapp on the bench until we are chasing the game.
Spence and Akpom have done nothing all season.
Why bring talent in on loan and use them as subs???
Very poor team selection and terrible tactics from Warnock which effectively killed us before we even got started. I'm not sure what Spence's best asset is but I'm guessing it is his pace down the wing and the pass to him from Akpom was too late and instead of playing it down the line. Akpom immediately put him under unnecessary pressure, what then ensued was no more than we deserved.
Our midfield was dire and toothless, desperately missing Morsy whose snarling energy and aggression I think covers for a failing and ageing Howson. Repeatedly playing long balls up to players whose skill sets are with the ball at their feet was a strange one, changing from a back four possibly even stranger from Warnock. That was a managerial car crash, there is nobody to blame for that result except the manager.
As a side we looked like an over 65's walking football team, no energy, no enthusiasm and no creativity or spark. Incredibly we were chasing a Play Off place but looked like a side who were disunited, disinterested and playing out meaningless games at the end of the season. The three added minutes may have upset Warnock but it was a relief to me.
Incredibly we were chasing a Play Off place [...]
Allegedly! 🙄
Why did we played head tennis.
Millwall are the masters of this.
We couldn't get the ball on the ground and so the result was inevitable.
See you all next season
Incredibly we were chasing a Play Off place [...]
Allegedly!
It certainly didn't look like we were playing for anything, in fact quite the opposite. To be in the position that we were in before Kick Off and put in a performance like that was appalling and that includes those in the technical area.
Thanks RR. You’ve saved me the trouble of writing something very similar. I also blame NW for a very poor first half selection. A very poor defeat, especially on a day when we could have made up some ground on Barnsley and Reading. We played very little football, as you say, preferring to boot the ball long or up in the air for yet another bout of tedious head-tennis. Mind-numbingly dull ...... and incredibly ineffective. So not only do we have a side that looked 65, we also have a squad - and presumably a manager - who don't learn lessons. Surely he can’t train them to play this way?
I think Bielkowski had just one save to make. Hardly anybody comes out of that game with any credit - Fry, perhaps, and Bettinelli, who made some good saves though his kicking is dreadful. Most had very limited impact, and some - including Spence, Akpom, Fletcher, NML - were virtual passengers.
So once again we are left scratching our heads:- just why is this squad so inconsistent? Why can’t we string a run of good results together? We know we’re just average, but these wild swings from performance to performance are infuriating. This is undoubtedly one of the main areas NW must address if we are to challenge for promotion next season.
A major opportunity missed bearing in mind other results. A win today could have made Boro a serious contender for sixth place.
By all accounts it was the usual lack of creativity and forwards not capable of creating anything for themselves.
I now feel the season is effectively over.
Philip of Huddersfield
To be honest Clive, whilst not wishing to twist the knife, I didn’t think we were very good against Stoke or Preston and didn’t think today’s performance was wildly different.
The Stoke result covered over a very average performance and we had our fair share of luck against Preston in my view.
Today it felt like we were waiting in the first half when we should have been looking to pepper a Millwall side with nothing to play for. We stepped it up in the second half for me but their lead allowed them to camp in their own penalty area at times knowing that we haven’t got the creativity and guile to open up a packed defence.
Disappointing? Hugely. Surprising? Not really based on recent performances despite the results.
Well, it's typical Boroisn't it. They build you up and knock you down.
It isn't new either. When any player comes down the A19 they seem to pass through a portal that makes them inconsistent in some. It's like a bloody haunting.
The fans build their hopes up, despite themselves, that it won't happen but being a self fulfilling prophesy it does. With monotonous regularity.
Stay safe everyone,
UTB,
John
A lot of poor players today
Spence not enough drive or Passion
Akpom poor
paddy has one eye on Ireland
Howson poor
just poor poor poor
And the poor long suffering fans again
OFB
Why this habit of starting the match with your 'not quite good enough team' fall behind then get your best team on the pitch and dominate for the rest of the match?
Did Fletcher actually come on at half time or did I just imagine it? Akpom was extremely poor in the first half but I thought that Fletcher quite literally was anonymous. No wonder Warnock went off it about his Strikers, but as bad as they were he needs to take a look in the mirror because his own performance was equally unspectacularly bad.
Sure, Boro won't win a game playing like that for a fortnight. UBbT!
All I can add is that was a disgraceful performance considering when some of us are fighting for our lives with this pandemic whilst all they have to do is fight for a playoff place.
Why is it after the end of every season Boro always end up having a big clear out. Recruitment and bad judgement springs to mind.
I hope when the season ends that NW will be ruthless and swing the axe on a number of players. We know who they are.
I've just watched that own-goal again and had the thought that if it had been Britt in that position a yard out he'd have missed. Small consolation I know but the thought made me smile, if nobody else.
Stay safe,
UTB,
John
Reading everyone’s comments about our slow start in matches, is this a Warnock trait? Despite his saying “We have nothing to lose, let’s go for it”, deep down he knows we’re more vulnerable in the first half to conceding a goal and we’d better play safe until we weigh up how the opposition are performing. It’s very rare that Boro start gung-ho yet the better teams seem to usually start to attack from the start. In that respect he’s accepting that our players are not good enough. It’s maybe that he’s instilling a lack of confidence in his players.
I agree with Andy R that we were not particularly convincing against Stoke and certainly not against Preston. Warnock has done well to improve Boro compared to last season, but realistically in my opinion there was never a chance of ever reaching the playoffs this season in arguably the poorest Championship for many a year. Just consider this. Norwich are walking this League, yet finished with a miserable 21 points in the Premier League last season, that’s 15 points below Villa the 17th team if one takes goal difference into consideration and 7 fewer than Boro managed when relegated under Karanka.
Boro have only once won 3 successive matches this season, and only twice won 4 successive matches since relegation. So why does anyone think that they are capable of emulating that this season? When Warnock says that Boro should have had 8/10 more points this season, he’s probably correct but not in the matches I’ve witnessed, and I suppose many managers also believe that their clubs should have gained 5 or 6 points more than they have achieved. There is a saying that the League table never lies, and so Boro are where they are on merit. Agreed we’ve had poor referee decisions go against us this season, but without analysing every match played in the Championship this season other clubs might feel the same. But yesterday was the first time that Boro knew that they were up against an aggressive team and didn’t fancy the fight.
Will Boro be able to retain our players on loan for next season, or be able to replace them is the rub? If not we may not be able to improve on this season and I doubt that Warnock will extend his contract if that happens.
Last three Boro matches: W W L. That is 2.0 points per game. So promotion form.
Horrible match on Sarturday, though. UTB!
Only if we play twice as many home games as we do away.
I do not think that there is any mystery about our performances. It has taken me a long time to pin down the reason for the appalling displays and results which have arrived completely at random (maddeningly). We seem completely unable to start at top speed, really running at the opposition and (most important) shooting from everywhere at the start of the match. We have no ambition to get a shot away, always wanting another touch, even in the box. We are not happy unless our half is empty, this, of course, is unknown territory to our opponents, who never see the other half of the pitch empty of bodies, and of course leads to the inevitable defeats. They should have scored from a run the length of the (empty) field very early on, a poor miss, but it taught us nothing. There was no excuse for the own goal, he was lucky to be in the perfect position to stop it and should have given the ball a thrashing, our keeper was outside the frame of his goal, again! I make it at least ten points (and who am I kidding) it's a lot more than that he has cost us this season.
I was reading the match report of the bar codes vs Brighton to cheer myself up. One phrase struck me, Newcastle were described as "passive". That's what happens to us. To be fair, it's a common problem for most teams. The players go out on the field and simply don't perform.
On paper, you look at our first team squad and outside of the relegated teams and maybe Brentford, we're as good or better as anyone in the league but there's a fundamental lack of self-belief running through us. One game in three, most of the players click and then we look like what we should be. Most often though, we don't.
There has been a massive churn in the team and I can only hope that Warnock knows what he is doing because there is probably a core of players there now who could make the top 6 if they are able to settle into a team rather than the current bunch of strangers.
A great post there, Deriad. Thanks.
Ken, I always thought our problem was the home form 😉.
Up the Boro!
The end of Britt. https://www.gazettelive.co.uk
The end of Britt. https://www.gazettelive.co.uk
Knowing that he would be here for this season at the end of last season NW started a clear out and jettisoned those who wouldn't be renewing or those those whose contracts had expired but hadn't committed to playing on.
It looks like since his own contract extension has been agreed he has started with the same mindset and already focussed on next season and who will be around and who won't. If a player has made it clear that he definitely won't be resigning then I'm guessing that NW figures that mentally they have already departed and therefore not likely to risk injury or sticking their neck in anywhere so why continue with them.
Britt has never fitted in with a succession of Boro managers and tactics so it's pretty clear that whatever skills he possesses it is very unlikely that even if Warnock stays or goes that he will suddenly rediscover what ever it was that he supposedly once had.
His scoring rate I seem to recall from whoscored.com a few years back indicated that around 22% of his goals came against top half teams whereas 78% of them came against sides in the bottom half of the Championship which is where the flat track bully talk stemmed from. Scouts and recruitment specialists from other clubs will no doubt have noted the same pattern which is why we are still stuck with him. That said if he does go to Scotland the level of opposition up there is perfect for him which also probably explains why our brief Tartan sojourn ended so badly.
@redcarred I agree most of what you wrote. And I would like to add that it was money badly spent. Britt can score goals but he was in the wrong team. Not his fault but we as a club must look to the mirror now. We signed him and I am sure he tried his best especially so when he was promoted to the captaincy.
Up the Boro!