As the international break trudges towards its “climax”, Boro (the real one) can now switch their attention back to important matters and the return of Championship action as we travel to Peterborough United for Saturday’s 3pm kick-off.
Boro may have bowed out of this year’s FA Cup against questionably rich Chelsea last time around but it was a thrilling run and we exited with pride in both our on and off-field performances. Chelsea outclassed us on the day but did not embarrass us, unlike Steve Gibson who perhaps did embarrass Chelsea’s hierarchy somewhat with some terse and cutting comments in the press and then a generous donation of the gate money to humanitarian aid in Ukraine. Classy.
As the saying goes, Chris Wilder’s men can now focus on the league and a crucial run of nine games to end the standard Championship season. Of course, we hope our season doesn’t end there but for now we can concentrate on the next game – Peterborough at London Road, the Britt Assombalonga derby!
The Posh, now managed by Grant McCann, have had a difficult year following promotion to the Championship last season. Their tally of 26pts is enough to see them off the bottom spot but only because of Derby’s deduction and they sit seven points from safety going into the weekend.
Striker Jonson Clarke-Harris has backed-up last season’s haul of 33 goals with a none-too-shabby nine this term to top their scoring charts but it’s at the other end where they’ve really struggled. Their 76 goals conceded is the Championship’s worst and they’ve only managed four clean sheets in the league all season.
Last time out, they did Boro a bit of a favour by surprisingly beating QPR 3-1 at Loftus Road with Clarke-Harris at the double but their form otherwise is poor with that shock victory being their only win in their last ten outings. It doesn’t get any better in terms of home form as they haven’t won any of their last six and over the entire season sit second bottom for home returns with just the four wins. That said, McCann’s men have only lost one of their last four including a very creditable draw at Bournemouth at the beginning or March as well as that QPR win, so they will have some confidence to take into the weekend.
Boro’s away form remains mid-table of course but we’ve still managed five Championship wins on our travels and this appears to be an excellent opportunity to add to that tally. Of course, this is Boro we’re talking about but if you’re going to do something in this league, you really have to win games like this.
A glance at whoscored.com shows Boro’s key strength as “attacking down the wings” which fits nicely with their report on Peterborough’s weaknesses, which includes “defending against attacks down the wings”. Wrap Mr Jones in cotton wool please, Boro!
In fact, the list goes on with Peterborough’s style described, among other things, as “playing in their own half” with Boro’s as “control the game in the opposition half”, whilst another of Boro’s reported strengths is “creating scoring opportunities”. One of Peterborough’s weaknesses? You’ve guessed it, “stopping opponents from creating chances”. This game is surely set up for Boro…
The break seemed to come at a good time for us with one or two players running on empty amidst a marathon run of games and the manager’s intense press-‘n’-pass tactics. At the time of writing, there’s no news on Boro injuries with minor doubts for Fry and McNair who came off injured against Chelsea (possibly precautionary substitutions) but Riley McGree is expected to be available again. Wilder has rarely changed up his team and you’d imagine it would be “same again” if the players are available.
So this is the first of nine huge games for Boro and one we dare not miss out on. With some of our promotion rivals playing one another this weekend (Coventry v Blackburn, Luton v Millwall, QPR v Fulham) it may be an opportunity to gain some ground and we mustn’t pass that chance up.
It has to be an away win for me. What about you?
Thanks for an excellent opener Andy.
Come on BORO.
Thanks for the starter, Andy. This should be a safe three points, even for typical Boro. I’m struggling to type with these foam hands but I think I can envisage 0-3 with a rare success on the attacking front.
Thanks for your very posh opener Andy.
Have to agree that this is one we have to win and one that we should win. Regardless of the starting eleven, I'm smelling that same foam as Martin B and can see us scoring three times. There is ways the concern we have a a goal to give away in us so 3-1 to us after Peterborough take an early-ish lead.
CoB
Great stuff Andy another sparking opener to start our season back up again
OFB
Thanks for your very posh opener Andy.
Have to agree that this is one we have to win and one that we should win. Regardless of the starting eleven, I'm smelling that same foam as Martin B and can see us scoring three times. There is ways the concern we have a a goal to give away in us so 3-1 to us after Peterborough take an early-ish lead.
CoB
I think we should win this, too. But please remember what happened at Barnsley a few weeks ago. We lost to the bottom (?) team at the time 🤐.
Great that the match is coming up on Saturday. How I have missed a Boro game. Ans special praise for Andy, too. A very nice intro to the Posh match.
I also liked the post about the Posh by Ken. I didn’t know where the name came from.
I would be delighted with any win that will bring the three points back to Teesside. I will go for a 0-1 win for us. Fingers crossed!
Up the Boro!
Thanks Andy, another great starter.
Nine cup finals coming up and we need to win at least six in my view for a top six spot.
Saturday needs to be the first of those six and whilst the old adage is that “any one can beat anyone” in this league, it should not be the case if you have promotion expectations.
I see this as another tense and tight game and would settle for a 1-0 win; any other result will fuel the doubts. 😎
Possibly 12 Cup Finals now to reach the Premier League, so Boro should be aiming for a top 4 finish to have the advantage of a semifinal second leg at home.
Not sure if this is significant or not but just watched a video, from the MFC website, of the team training and there did not appear to be any involvement of Isaiah Jones or Dale Fry. 🙁😎
No news on the preferred bidder at Derby County yet. Something was promised to be announced after the weekend. But still quiet.
It is likely Derby will need to win at least five of the seven remaining fixtures to stand a chance of completing a great escape and avoiding relegation.
The Rams results would need to improve for them to register a run of wins. They have won just one of their last seven matches, losing five and drawing one.
So at least we are doing fine at Boro. I just wonder how there has been no action at Derby's end since last Autumn.
Up the Boro!
News from MFC
Tickets for Boro's away match against Peterborough United this Saturday have now completely sold out.
We requested and received an additional allocation, bringing our total away following for the match - a 3pm kick-off on Saturday 2 April - to just shy of 3,700.
THATS FANTASTIC SUPPORT FROM THE FANS
OFB
Jarkko
In 2002 Victoria Beckham (known as Posh Spice) took out an injunction against Peterborough United to attempt to stop the football club using the word ‘Posh’ as their nickname. It took 11 years to come to court, but thankfully United won the court case as they had the prior claim since 1934.
On another subject all English football league clubs played 3 games in 4 days at Christmas until 1957 and Boro actually won all 3 in 1949, 3-0 at home to Huddersfield, 1-0 at Newcastle, and 1-0 again at home 1-0.
At Easter all clubs also played 3 matches in 4 days until 1968. I saw all 3 matches in 1952 as Boro won 2-0 at Newcastle on Good Friday, 2-0 at home to Aston Villa on the Saturday and 2-1 at home to Newcastle on Easter Monday.
If you think that was tough Castleford RLFC when Rugby League was part time actually played 3 matches in successive days in 1947 losing 4-13 at Wakefield on Christmas Day which was a Thursday, beat Featherstone 13-11 at home on Boxing Day and beat Hull at home on the following day.
The following year Cas won all 3 matches in 4 days, over Christmas beating Wakefield 13-7 at home on Christmas Day which was a Saturday, Featherstone 15-10 away on the Monday and Oldham 9-7 at home on the Tuesday.
Minimal training for both sports in those days and no substitutes allowed, yet both sports complain about too many matches in a short time today. They don’t know they’re born nowadays especially as some of the weekly wages in football today far exceed what the average person sometimes earn over several years endeavour.
No, need to be in top 4.
No, need to be in top 2 😉
Paddy McNair played 90 minutes for Northern Ireland during their 1-0 friendly defeat to Hungary last night as the Middlesbrough defender made a successful return from a bruised foot.
So he will be fit for the Peterborough match. But we do not know anything about Dael Fry. Is he fit already?
Up the Boro!
Flo Balogun struck twice for England Under-21s in the UEFA Under-21 EURO qualifying win against Albania. And he scored one earlier for the Under-21s in their previous match, too.
So he played two matches and scored three during the International break. That was good practising for the Boro striker 😁.
Looking forward to seeing him play at Peterborough on Saturday. Up the Boro!
Excellent comeback from Hartlepool at the Vic last night against Mansfield, the in form team of League Two who gave Boro a torrid time in the FA Cup this season. Almost completely outplayed and 0-2 down with less than 5 minutes remaining of the first half, Joe Grey and a 25 yarder from Luke Molyneaux scored to pull Pools level. Unfortunately the latter was stretchered of during the second half, though loanee Joe White with an amazing dribble had the chance of scoring the winner for Pools in the last minute but his shot just missed the wrong side of the left hand post.
However I think that any chance of Pools reaching the playoffs now are practically extinguished but in 12th position they’ve probably exceeded their expectations for this season.
Amazing Boro footage here: https://twitter.com/footballww1/status/1506706835142856710?s=21&t=ySJpYVOmHTuLiJ2PXI2bNQ
Good link Martin. I have seen that footage before and I guess it must be the oldest film of the Boro in action that is still available.
Thanks Andy for the intro. I think that we may have to settle for a point on Saturday. Looking at the super computer prediction posted by Martin it shows a very even pattern of teams picking up points. It has Fulham and Bournemouth only picking up 16 points from 9/10 games so predicting they will lose 3 times which I as a football supporter would think unlikely. It also has us picking up 13 points so 4 wins and a draw and still being in the playoffs I think that we would need more than that, but then I am not a supercomputer. Thinking about the playoffs I wonder if Forest make it to the playoffs will we let him play? We have history in this area in 2009 Rhys Williams was at Burnley on loan and we wouldn't let him play in the Championship playoffs. We were in the Premier League at the time. On a slightly concerning note it is 7 games since Isiah Jones created an assist, in those games we have scored 10 goals.
Some interesting shouts in this article 🤔
Come on BORO.
The footage of that 1902/03 encounter was in Boro’s first season as a First Division club having gained promotion in the previous season. The team in 2-3-5 formation was Rab MacFarlane (in goal) only 18 appearances; Joe Blackett (84), Andy Ramsay (138); Dave Smith (118), Abe Jones (149), Andy Davidson (201); James Robertson (32), James Crawford (26), Rob Watson (17), Joe Cassidy (135) and Chris Carrick (32).
Quite an inexperienced forward line with only Scotsman Joe Cassidy signed from Newton Heath with a career total of 150 goals, and wing half Andy Davidson (another Scotsman) going down in history today. Of course it was difficult to identify any of the players from that footage except the goalkeeper, and he was a reserve (who I noticed didn’t take the goalkicks) deputising for the injured Tim Williamson who of course went on to make 602 appearances for Boro.
EXMIL CHALLENGE 2022 - part 2 - Reminder
For those who haven’t yet submitted their entry for part 2, the closing time today is 1930 hrs.
deleraid your entry has one error can you please have a look at Bournemouth v Shef Utd, as much as it would help Boro, I can’t accept both to lose 😂.
Come on BORO.
Well all you quiet and slumbering Diasborians it’s time to shake off the lethargy and rub the sleep from your eyes and turn your attention to the matter of the game tomorrow.
Peterborough have started the talking up of the game by stating that Boro are going all out to get into an automatic position in the table and how hard the game will be for them. The have also stated that they have been preparing their tactics for the past two weeks to counter the attacking threats of the Boro.
I haven’t had time to listen to the Wilder presser this morning but assume that after the Barnsley fiasco he will not be taking this game lightly.
It seems ages since I saw the Boro play and I’m really looking forward to the game tomorrow.
I have to go for a Boro win as we need it and so does my Exmil challenge
Posh 0 Boro 2
OFB
I do hope after the break that Conneley has lost Two Stone. Just saying 😀
OFB, on CW presser he has said everyone but Payero is fit and ready and Martin is about 7-10 days away from being involved (excluding Fisher and Ameobi).
Come on BORO.
I’m confident of a win tomorrow at Peterborough; much more confident than the only time I’ve been to the town, when Alison and I got knocked out in the first round: