Great stuff, Powmill. Thanks for posting.
I am Barcelona for a few days. Any of our bloggers living in Spain now in Barcelona? Or are you more in the south, perhaps?
I have a free Thursday morning, if anyone interested in meeting with me.
Exmill, I would choose Forest. We won both matches already. Wait a minute, we beat Norwich twice before losing to them in the play-offs.
Perhaps Bournemouth, then.
Up the Boro!
Well, it's Forest who should end up 3rd unless they're overtaken by Huddersfield. I honestly think that Forest expected to contunued their great run and beat Bournemouth and somehow lost their nerve. It may be that they will suffer a reaction from having lost this game.
UTB
.....I'm also worried that Fulham will have celebrated winning the Championship a bit too much and will be very much in holiday mode for their last game. Let's hope that they chose to put in one last performance.
UTB
Thanks Andy - the cold light of day report, but we have all been here before so I think my Saturday will be a few beers during the game and a bottle of bubbly in the fridge just in case.
@Powmill-Naemore
Quite Frankly that was a superb reworking of a classic and reprised the season perfectly!
In fact it worked even better once I'd realised I was mistakenly singing it to the tune of New York New York 😉
I watched the last 30 minutes of Bournemouth v Forest and agree with Selwynoz that Steve Cooper's side looked very ordinary and not what I was expecting. It's probably the first time they've been under pressure to get a result so could give the other teams heart for the play-offs.
Further to Forest's play-off hopes, after now losing twice to Bournemouth, their form against the other play-off rivals is surprisingly not great with just one win from the eight games played and that was against Huddersfield before Steve Cooper took charge.
Huddersfield - WL
Sheff Utd - DD
Luton - dL
Boro - LL
Scored 4 - Conceded 8 - Points 6 from 24
Firstly. Thanks to all for the kind comments on my Frank Sinatra moment. Let's hope we still have something to sing about after Saturday afternoon
The tricky trees were felled last night then. I was surprised following the game on the BBC Sport site that it appeared Forest were simply never in it. Werder is right that that must give their potential opponents in the play offs some confidence. If it is to be Boro, I wonder will Spence be eligible to play?
But let's not get ahead. We need Fulham to turn up at Bramall Lane on Saturday. No matter how I look at the fixtures, I cannot see past Luton winning comfortably against Reading. So, Fulham have to be truly competitive against a Sheffield side that has shown it can deliver goals in a high profile game when they are fired up.
As KP said so long as Boro deliver the performance and gets the right result then I might be disappointed but I will know we did do our best.
I read that the referee in the Forest v Bouremouth game apoligised to Steve Cooper for making a big mistake in not giving Forest a penalty in the 1st half.
I read that the referee in the Forest v Bouremouth game apoligised to Steve Cooper for making a big mistake in not giving Forest a penalty in the 1st half.
As they say, mistakes will always even themselves out over the course of a season, so Forest shouldn't feel hard done by 🙄
Sorry Powmill Naemore to have missed your rendition of Sinatra’s ‘My Way’ as I was at James Cook Hospital for yet another scan. I have to congratulate you, that was superb!
Do not worry about Fulham, they are that rarity, a team who have enjoyed a complete romp throughout a wonderful season. The atmosphere will be explosive with their fans at ease and knowing that their team is sad that the treat is ending, as it must, but there will be no taking it easy out of sympathy. It will be a celebration over ninety minutes with plenty of goal's and I think that they will go to Fulham.
Do not worry about Fulham, they are that rarity, a team who have enjoyed a complete romp throughout a wonderful season. The atmosphere will be explosive with their fans at ease and knowing that their team is sad that the treat is ending, as it must, but there will be no taking it easy out of sympathy. It will be a celebration over ninety minutes with plenty of goal's and I think that they will go to Fulham.
🤞🏻🤞🏻🤞🏻🤞🏻🤞🏻🤞🏻🤞🏻
Do not worry about Fulham, they are that rarity, a team who have enjoyed a complete romp throughout a wonderful season. The atmosphere will be explosive with their fans at ease and knowing that their team is sad that the treat is ending, as it must, but there will be no taking it easy out of sympathy. It will be a celebration over ninety minutes with plenty of goal's and I think that they will go to Fulham.
Fingers crossed....
Do not worry about Fulham, they are that rarity, a team who have enjoyed a complete romp throughout a wonderful season. The atmosphere will be explosive with their fans at ease and knowing that their team is sad that the treat is ending, as it must, but there will be no taking it easy out of sympathy. It will be a celebration over ninety minutes with plenty of goal's and I think that they will go to Fulham.
🤞🏻🤞🏻🤞🏻🤞🏻🤞🏻🤞🏻🤞🏻
Damn you Bellamy. I just spent 15 minutes trying to find a set of crossed fingers that would happily paste into here and gave up and just typed fingers crossed !!!
I'd agree with Plato that it's the act of winning promotion to the PL that is the pinnacle of joy for the supporters - closely followed by the act of spending money in the summer on new signings with all the hype that entails.
After that it's generally all down hill as even the team that wins the Championship usually struggles to win games. Look how Norwich and Watford have fared after winning automatic promotion - they've only managed half-a-dozen wins, scored less than a goal game, conceded two goals a game and have changed managers.
I doubt the supporters enjoyed much about their brief taste of the big time but at least they'll return with parachute payments and try to do it all again. As I suspect will Fulham and Bournemouth next season.
OK, there's always hope that you can do a Brentford and finish a respectable lower-midtable or maybe do a Leeds and flirt with an upper-midtable finish. But to keep it going for several seasons is never easy - those that do have to be prepared to spend money but even then football gravity will eventually kick in where most of the owners are now billionaires.
So let's enjoy that moment of glory if promotion comes and ignore the reality of the future that awaits! In the end, being in the Championship aiming for promotion is probably the exciting part...
For everyone bar probably the usual top six of Man City, Liverpool, Chelsea, Arsenal, Spurs and Man United - plus perhaps newly mega-enriched Newcastle - the Premier League is mostly about survival by either avoiding relegation or not getting drawn into a relegation battle.
In many ways the Championship is refreshingly equitable where two-thirds of the teams start with a hope of promotion or at least challenging for the play-offs. Even a bad season where a club just about manages to avoid relegation, they will hope to make a few tweaks, sign a few better players or install a better manager and try to have a go at the top six.
Perhaps the PL should look at the Championship and realise that a relatively level playing field would make a far better league and not continue to make it primarily a qualifying campaign for the Champions League for those elite half-a-dozen clubs.
Popular player and coach Neil Campbell, brother of former Boro player Andy Campbell, sadly passed away aged 45. Neil was a great character and loved by many. Close friends have asked for Boro Fans to chant ‘one Neil Campbell’ and applaud his life on the 44th minute of the Preston game. Let’s give one of our own a fitting send off Boro Fans. RIP Neil x
Myself and my family have known Neil since he was 11 years old. He went to school at Nunthorpe with him and both played for Nunthorpe Athletic. Neil stayed over for a many a sleep over as there was a wood behind us with a clearing for a football pitch called Fairy Dell and the lads including my eldest lad grew up together to be the firmest of friends.
Neil became a professional footballer playing for York, Scarborough, Southend and Barrow. His brother Andy played for Boro and Cardiff.
Neil graduated as a teacher after stopping playing football but also managed Northern League teams.
It’s such a tragedy and his family are distraught to have Neil taken so young.
When you watch the game on Saturday and you hear the applause and chanting for Neil you will know why.
OFB
Neil Campbell
My youngest son went to school with Neil and my eldest son also became best friends with him as well.
My eldest son was actually waiting to meet him on Saturday when he saw the ambulance and the tragedy unfurled.
OFB
For everyone bar probably the usual top six of Man City, Liverpool, Chelsea, Arsenal, Spurs and Man United - plus perhaps newly mega-enriched Newcastle - the Premier League is mostly about survival by either avoiding relegation or not getting drawn into a relegation battle.
In many ways the Championship is refreshingly equitable where two-thirds of the teams start with a hope of promotion or at least challenging for the play-offs. Even a bad season where a club just about manages to avoid relegation, they will hope to make a few tweaks, sign a few better players or install a better manager and try to have a go at the top six.
Perhaps the PL should look at the Championship and realise that a relatively level playing field would make a far better league and not continue to make it primarily a qualifying campaign for the Champions League for those elite half-a-dozen clubs.
Perhaps they should have let the mega rich elite off to form their own European super league and left the rest of us to enjoy some genuine competition after all.
OFB, Sorry to hear about the tragic passing of Neil Campbell, such terrible news at such a young age too - my condolences to you, your son and his family and friends.
Perhaps they should have let the mega rich elite off to form their own European super league and left the rest of us to enjoy some genuine competition after all.
That's one way of solving the problem but I still think football and football clubs in particular should belong to people are not left to rich billionaires around the world to hijack them for their own purposes.
Interestingly, there's a documentary on this evening on BBC 2 at 9.30pm about the the super league saga - Kicking Off: The Rise and Fall of the Super League - should be worth a watch to see how it unfolded.
Werdermouth
I suppose it depends on what generation you come from. I loved the late 1940s to the mid 1950s even though apart from a couple of seasons Boro were usually fighting against relegation even though they always won more matches at home than they lost although they didn’t win away from home very often. Also almost every team had at least one or two British international players in their side and I had no other opportunity of seeing them as very few matches were televised in those days and those that were were through a 12 inch TV set.
I wasn’t too bothered about Boro being relegated assuming that even without Wilf Mannion Boro would come straight back up. It was Liverpool that beat Boro twice over Easter and they too were relegated. It took the scousers 8 years to get promoted, whilst it took Boro 20 including one in the Third Division. The first season after relegation Boro gained only one point from their first 9 matches. We didn’t talk about dropping points that season, we were grateful gaining them and we actually finished 12th.
Boro very rarely looked like getting promoted and after 13 years were even relegated to the Third Division. That relegation seemed to do Boro the word of good as they spent only one season in the Third Division and thereafter always had a chance of being promoted back to the First Division which was accomplished under Jack Charlton. In those 7 years Boro lost only 14 times at home despite never scoring over 60 goals in any of them except under Jack. Nevertheless all those seasons were enjoyable and Boro were recognised as a mid-table First Division side until that fateful season when a win became worth 3 points. Perhaps just a coincidence but it led to liquidation.
Jumping forward that promotion under Lennie Lawrence to the first season in the Premiership and a brand new all-seater stadium, and only once did Boro worry about relegation until Bryan Robson lost the plot and Terry Venables rescued us. Even after promotion under Aitor Karanka I didn’t see the need to aim for 17th position. Obviously I was wrong! Teams like West Brom, Norwich and even Sheffield United and Leeds have found the second season difficult, but Brighton (who didn’t even have a stadium 10 or more years ago), Crystal Palace (who only went up from 6th place in the playoffs, although admittedly like Brentford have the advantage of playing 43/44 matches in London) and Leicester City have made the Premier League a permanent situation. So why shouldn’t Boro?
However I do think the Championship is more exciting now, but is that because of the general mediocrity compared with the standard of only 5 years ago?
As Goucho Marx once said “1 wouldn’t want to join a club that allowed someone like me as a member”.
Ken, I hope if Boro were to be promoted we would last more than one season but I think the gap is far harder to bridge now given the spending power in the PL of established clubs. Leicester now have Thai owners worth several billion but are now drifting down the table after their recent exploits with just 42 points so far.
In reality, how many of Boro's current squad are good enough for the PL? I think many clubs, like Norwich for example, have opted to be a yo-yo club rather than overspend and risk financial meltdown.
The transfer fees demanded are one thing but the wage demands of players have become unreal - can't imagine what the premium Boro would need to pay to attract established PL players too. Palace and Brentford have the advantage of offering players a life in London in order to attract them, unfortunately Yarm only has so much pulling power!
In recent times, Boro became established in the PL thanks to the relative spending power of Steve Gibson back then - he's not even one of the wealthiest 12 owners in the Championship now. Boro will need a lot of luck and some inspired signings if they are to stay in the PL next time they make it there. Hopefully, we'll get to see how they cope next season!
I’ve said it before, but much as I’d love us to win the playoffs, I think next year in the PL would be a nightmare. Last on MOTD every week, thrilled if we even score a goal, losing almost every week. Fans chanting, “Wilder out”, SG criticised for not supplying the money for top players and an almost inevitable relegation.
If it happens, I’d like us to adopt Norwich’s culture of not caring too much and having a good go at getting back up again with as much of the same team as possible. I’m not sure what Norwich have in players’ contracts to keep them if relegation happens but I’d like us to follow that model.
Unfortunately Boro U23’s lost 3-2 against Wolves tonight in the semi final of the premier league cup, great effort lads, well done.
Come on BORO.
In the 75 years or so that I’ve been watching Boro I’ve selected my FAVOURITE players, though not by any means the best I’ve seen, but if there was face painting or selfies in my time, then these are the players I’d have chosen in what I realise is a completely unbalanced eleven with the years they played for Boro in my lifetime :-
Goalkeeper - Rolando Ugolini 1948/56.
Defender - Willie Maddren 1968/77.
Defender - Tony Mowbray 1982/92.
Defender - George Hardwick 1947/50.
Midfielder? - Juninho 1995/2004.
Central Midfielder? - Graeme Souness 1972/78.
Midfielder/Inside Forward - Wilf Mannion 1947/54.
Right Winger - Johnny Spuhler 1947/54.
Striker - Micky Fenton 1947/50.
Centre Forward - Brian Clough 1955/61.
Left Winger - John Hendrie 1990/97.
Substitute - Lindy Delapenha 1949/58.
As I say, probably not the best players, especially Ugolini and Spuhler, but at the time certainly my favourites over Hardwick, Mannion and Fenton.
Youngsters are so lucky today, because the only time you could interact with players in my youth were when the Boro players met a Redcar and District Cricket Xl. Also today there’s no chance of being urinated upon like at Ayresome Park when it was filled to the rafters.
Great selection for a favourite Boro team Ken.
it is very pleasing for a youngster like me to see 5 of my era in your team of favourites. I am too young to have seen Ugolini, Hardwick, Manion, Fenton, Clough , Spuhler or Delapenha in action. It is strange though as it seems I know all about them and they have always been familiar names to me.
I loved watching John Hendrie as well. Who can ever forget that goal against Millwall. I recall him as right sided not left but he has always been in my list of favourites. I would add in Spike Armstrong wide on the left. I always liked the way he looked almost lazy on the ball, but was anything but and his delivery of the ball was outstanding. I can't argue with you about Souness, but I might slip in Emerson in my midfield rather than the little feller. The man oozed power and class. I do feel guilty omitting Robbie Mustoe from my midfield: an unsung hero if ever there was. Absolutely dependable and really being more one of those favourites in hind sight than at the time. So he will be my first reserve for midfield in the event Emerson goes AWOL.
I am with you on central defence. No one in the game was classier at No. 6 than Willie Maddren. We have been blessed in my years with some great central defenders including Pallister, Ehiogu, Southgate, Woodgate and of course Stuart Boam and more. But for passion and leadership it was a pleasure to have seen Tony Mowbray play. I would add John Craggs at right full back. Solid as a brick built out house but tremendous overlapping play with a great shot in him as well. At left back I feel lucky to have seen Terry Cooper in a Boro shirt too. A hugely talented player.
So up front John Hickton has to be my favourite striker. What was not to like about him in a Boro shirt? I would put Juninho in with him as an inside forward.
In goal I am torn between choosing Mark Schwarzer or Jim Platt. Both favourites of mine and both outstanding keepers. I think I will adopt that English tradition of rotating keepers (as in Clemence and Shilton) rather than make a definitive choice of one over the other, so that way I can include both my favourite keepers!
On my subs bench (and assuming we are only allowed one sub as in my youth) it would have to be Alan Foggon.
Whatever anyone says or thinks it has to be said that there have been very many outstanding players to have graced our colours over all the years. Here's to the future favourites and may they bring as much enjoyment to the next generations.
Powmill Naemore
As you say there were better players than those I selected, but my selections were based on the varying ages I was at the time, certainly not the best I’ve seen after 75 years. For example all children of my age raved about Ugolini; he actually made the easiest save look spectacular diving around like a cat playing with a ball, but no way as reliable as Schwarzer or Platt. He integrated with the crowd especially in the Holgate End and of course his Italian accent charmed the crowd especially the ladies.
Johnny Spuhler was a winger who always gave his all, maybe like Duncan Watmore today, and despite all the centre forwards that Boro bought after Fenton retired, Boro always turned back to Spuhler to fill the gap when new purchases like Andy Donaldson, Ken McPherson, Neil Mochan and Peter McKennan didn’t live up to their reputations. Similarly the great Tom Finney who could play on either wing as well as centre forward. Strange that as players were generally stereotyped in those days except for the likes of Ronnie Dicks and Bryan Orritt who could play in any position even in goal in Orrit’s case in an emergency when substitutes weren’t allowed, whilst Dicks was a utiliy player when Boro were hit by injuries, adequate in most positions but master of none in my opinion.