Good post Len but I must confess watching the Boro at times has made me feel unwell ! Even a bit sick 🤢!
As you say the Diasborians knowledge like Deleriad far surpass the knowledge of a football team from a small town in England.
OFB
Great opener by Andy. This is now the norm for this Blog.
Really wonderful posts by deleriad and by Len Masterman, too. I was saddened to read Ken's earlier post but a little heartened to read his most recent (from 7.49am today), which he sent after deleriad's. The post from deleriad gives us much to think about.
Ken, I will now go back to complete my reading of Mr Eliiott's SWT book, which I started a short while after you kindly gave it to me but paused because I'd been very busy and a little pre-occupied by Mrs Dormo's health and various hospital visits. Current situation on THAT front: meningioma removed in what seems to have been a 100% successful operation subject to a review in 2/3 months, chemotherapy appears to be reducing two breast tumours so hopefully the more "iffy" one can be more easly removed, and her sprained ankle (done a week or so after the brain tumour operation by twisting the ankle whilst simply standing up from the settee) is coming along nicely so she is much more mobile. Hopefully that will be it on the "three bad things in a row" theme.
It is inevitable that you, Ken, may be reflective and very sad particularly if you are in great discomfort. But hopefully deleriad's words will help settle your mind. And the future for the football club we all follow will take a decided turn for the better in the next few weeks. Promotion (without wanting to jinx it) is very much on the cards and will make us ALL feel much better. Something very good to look forward to for all of us on this Blog!
Ken, I wish you well for the future and hope the palliative care brings you relief from your many side effects, thank you for your many contributions, good luck.
Come on BORO.
I see Warnock is close to another “Great Escape” as today he guided Huddersfield to a 2-1 victory at Cardiff, good luck to him.
Come on BORO.
Ken,
I can't know how you feel but I think I have a little idea. The waking up at night in the small hours where your imagination seems to run riot and you don't feel able to challenge or talk about the situation is hellish and you are on your own. All you can do is carry on keeping on and let the specialist medics improve your quality of life. One lovely nurse in the ICU told me as a bit of advice just carry on being an awkward bugger and shout it down in your mind and that advice was given at 3.30 in the morning.
There's nothing wrong with talking to yourself either, I know I sometimes get an answer I can actually understand. Not often mind. Just take each day as a bonus and enjoy it to the best of your ability immersed in your stats and facts and figures, you are brilliant at it and I look forward to your posts. Boring, never. Your interests and obsessions are what make you different and interesting. Keep it up and keep going and don't lie down.
All the best,
UTB,
John
Thank you for the posts from deleriad and Len. It is amazing that such a relatively small blog has such a large amount of knowledgable people
I appears to be so truthful with regards to the medication given out by (generally) our GP’s that is not questioned.
Because of my age and likewise my friends, the numbers that are on or have been on quiet large prescriptions is worrying.
When a GP has been challenge over the medication, often the numbers of individual doses has been reduced. Likewise with my own Mother.
She had a fall when I was in Spain and would not go to hospital. When I returned a very short time later I insisted she was taken in to be checked over. Fortunately all was fine.
However when she went in, the first think they did was stop all medicine. During the tests they discovered she had a minor heart issue. Controlled by one daily tablet. They orininal prescription medicine was not restarted and never has been, 18 months later. She is now 99.
Ken
I’ve only just clicked on the blog tonight after a busy week. I was so sorry to read your first post. Like everyone else on here, I’ve really appreciated your contributions to the blog over the years, so I hope you will continue to produce them for as long as you are able. I was encouraged, too, by your later, positive response to Deleriad’s excellent post, and I hope that this has cheered you up somewhat. It’s always amazed me how you do manage to stay so positive despite all the many challenges you face. Whatever the future holds for you I do hope you will be able to stay in your own home. I’m sure, however, that the medical professionals will be doing all they can for you to make your life as comfortable as possible. As others have said, we need you around to celebrate Boro’s promotion, and the Ashes win! Meanwhile, I’ll try to give you a ring this week, Wednesday or Thursday, for a chat.
And to all of you who have serious health concerns at present - thinking particularly of John and of your wife, Dormo - I send my best wishes for speedy recoveries and a return to happier days.
I’m going to Rotherham tomorrow. I missed out on tickets from Boro, but my brother secured a couple of guest tickets via his refereeing connections. Not for the first time, we have to be entirely neutral, wear no colours and stay sedately seated when Boro score! We’ve learned how to keep our mouths firmly shut. A surreptitious fist-pump will have to do! I’m hoping Chuba plays, so he can get closer to the magic 30 and the Golden Boot, and I’m desperately hoping he doesn’t get injured.
@clive-hurren - Spot on, Clive.
1. I'd like Chuba to play and to score. If he doesn't play he certainly WON'T score. It would be great for the club to celebrate a 30-league-goals-a-season striker again after an absolute AGE. It would do his confidence the world of good, increase his value in the event of a sale, and would make a Boro win more likely. I get the argument he might be injured. So might any player in any match. Good luck trying to persuade Kane to miss a few games to rest him for "later".
2. Enjoy the game at Rotherham. I hope to be watching on TV.
3. Others have mentioned, but I have neglected to do so, that I have so much enjoyed reading the posts from Ken that delve into Boro's history and the players and events which have made the club what it is. I hope he will be able to carry on as long as possible sending those posts. Always a good read. I hope we can march on together into the Premier League this season. The Ashes, too: well, that goes without saying.
Thanks for the wishes for my wife.
I’m not sure what other bloggers will say but I would happily see the Rotherham game end in a draw in exchange for no injuries. That would give Rotherham the point that they need for safety and see another Yorkshire side safe.
The other Yorkshire side in the battle for survival is Huddersfield and I’d like to see Warnock pull off the great escape. They need one point and they have to play Sheffield United and then finish against Reading who are the club who could be fighting with them for safety. What a final day it could be for them.
As for us, I’m not sure what to think about the Coventry game. Part of me says that they could be our most dangerous opponent in the playoffs and so the last league game could be a chance to get rid of them.
If Blackburn get a result out of their game with Luton they will be right back in it and will have to take on Millwall in their last game in what could be a fight for one of the playoff positions. It’s crazy enough that a draw and a Sunderland or West Brom win could see them both miss out.
Sunderland are sitting in the middle of it all with an away game to Preston to come. We can remember how we fared last year when going to Preston in a hope to make the playoffs. They are in the same position that we were. They have to win to give themselves a chance and hope that we beat Coventry and Blackburn don’t lose to Millwall and don’t beat both Luton and Millwall.
West Brom have an outside chance but they need a strange combination of results.
it certainly makes for an interesting end to the regular season before the playoff games to come.
Who do we want to play? I’m not going to state a preference it case it brings bad luck 🙂
UTB
@selwynoz - This Boro team, providing we can put out a "First XI" (ie including Hackney, Akpom, Archer and, hopefully, Forss) is capable and confident enough to beat ANY of the teams in the play-offs. It would be nice to have Fry available, too, if he can remember how to tie his bootlaces - it seems like it has been SO long ago he last played!
Such a sensitively expressed post, John, which speaks so eloquently for many of us . Thank you.
I enjoyed my chat with Forever Dormo a couple of months back and send my best wishes to his wife hoping that she is now well on the road to a full recovery. Behind every good man there is always a good woman and I write from experience. My wife had never visited a doctor for almost 30 years, yet out of the blue she suddenly needed an hysterectomy, whilst she considered that I was a hypochondriac. And they call women the weaker sex!
We worry about them as I imagine we would about one’s children, not that I’ve had the privilege of being a father but have nieces, nephews and a brother who contacted double pneumonia as a child. I always consider ‘worry’ as a very emotive word, and much prefer the word ‘concern’ when writing about the Boro. Nevertheless we do worry about our wives and partners especially when the unexpected occurs.
What I like about Diasboro is the concern we have for each other even though in my case friends I have never knowingly met. We are all members of the Boro ‘family’ who don’t always agree with each other, though when it comes to the crunch agree with each other about the things that really matter. So I reiterate my hope that all my friends and their loved ones make speedy recoveries to any ailments that they are presently enduring.
Kind and very true and very wise words Ken.
Something sets this group apart from so many other forums and it is not that we are all simply Boro supporters.
While every family will have its fallings out and petty disagreements, in the strongest and best of families, tolerance, care and understanding will always win out. That is how it is with Diasboro.
And so to Rotherham today. I am quite confident that MC will manage his squad and their individual needs as well as their collective needs wisely. That, I think, will include making sure Chuba gets the chance to score his 30th goal in the regular season.
Promotion is in our hands now. We are good enough to beat any of the teams we are in competition with at this stage. I also think MC is canny enough to avoid being concerned with who we will end up playing. We play the way we play and it is for our opposition to worry about that.
I hope Blackburn beat Luton today and that Hull will come away with at least a point on 8th as I would like to see us finish in 3rd, not 4th. So, when we do get promoted no one can say we were not the 3rd best team over the whole season, so deserve to be promoted.
Middlesbrough3 today...
CoB
Today a good result for me would be no injuries and no risks with partially fit players. I reckon Boro could easily win with Monday's team sharpening a little and knocking off some of the supposed rough edges and corners however Rotheram will be a tough nut to crack because they have a lot to play for and a point to prove and I agree with Selwynoz that a draw wouldn't be a shabby result at all. Should Boro end up fourth in the table what is the prize money difference between third and fourth? There's a question for Ken to get the oil out and the cogs moving in his 'statistics enigma machine'. Praying for a Boro win really but I don't have the optimism, a typical Boro supporter, to the threes will be back.
Enjoy the rest of the Bank Holiday everyone.
Ken, you keep on going. dust off the notebooks and sharpen your pencils!
UTB,
John
McGree returns but no Ryan Giles in the squad today. Looks like:
--------------Steffen------------
Dijksteel Howson Lenihan Bola
-------Barlaser Hackney-------
------Jones Akpom McGree---
--------------Archer-----------
McNair and Smith fit enough for the bench. No sign of Ramsey or Forss.
Belated thanks Andy for the starter! I didn't write earlier because I don't know what to expect for the matches against Rotherham and Coventry. I do feel rather nervous about both and the playoffs.
Good to see some returning players but worrying about those who are not even on the bench and hope no further injuries occur as I expect hard fought games with both opponents having a lot to play for.
McGree returns but no Ryan Giles in the squad today. Looks like:
--------------Steffen------------
Dijksteel Howson Lenihan Bola
-------Barlaser Hackney-------
------Jones Akpom McGree---
--------------Archer-----------
McNair and Smith fit enough for the bench. No sign of Ramsey or Forss.
Howson injured warming up. So much for my worries about injuries. McNair playing.
Howson injured warming up. So much for my worries about injuries. McNair playing.
From the Beeb live commentary:
Late change for Boro
Rotherham 0-0 Middlesbrough
A last-minute alteration to the Boro line-up.
Captain Jonny Howson injured himself in the warm-up and his place has been taken by Paddy McNair, with Bryant Bilango coming on to the substitutes' bench.
And a straight red for Dijksteel. 2 match ban and missing from the first play-off match, then.
We might play Howson at right full-back but he is now injured. Hopefuly back in two week's time.
Rotherham has had two players off with injuries. It is the time of the season when every team has injury problems.
Still 0-0. Up the Boro!
One match ban for Dijksteel I think. With Smith fit enough for the bench, that isn’t the end of the world.
Pretty drab affair thus far.
Dijksteel red carded and I warned all my mates, when I saw Stroud as the man in the middle, he is a “little Hitler”.
Come on BORO.
Ramsey has gone back to Aston Villa don’t know if it’s for treatment
OFB
Well, that first half didn't go to plan, did it?
0-0 but Boro down to 10 men in the last minute of injury time before the Half-Time whistle. The problem with "resting" players (not today but in the previous match or two) is that if the team comes off the boil it isn't simply a case of flicking the switch again for the next game and the boiling instantly starts again. There's a certain thing called momentum.
Let's hope for some improvement in the 2nd half.
I am following the game via BBC Tees (radio) commentary.
What I don’t understand is that Stroud has been a Luton fan from age 8 and isn’t allowed to ref any Luton matches, he has an interest in Boro not winning.
Come on BORO.
Beeb text commentary:
RED CARD
Rotherham 0-0 Middlesbrough
Huge moment in the game!
Anfernee Dijksteel gets rolled by Jordan Hugill and he pulls down Hugill inches outside the penalty area when Hugill was getting ready to pull the trigger.
No complaints from the Dutch-born defender about his red card from referee Keith Stroud.
Immediately followed by Maddo:
I don't see how the referee can see that as a sending off!
I think the officials have been pretty average so far today.
Oh well! "Steffen, rooted to the spot as Rotherham hit the target..." Rotherham takes the lead immediately after the re-start... Odoffin.
Smith on for Archer at the start of the second half.
I wonder if the “give me a lucky General” cliche is falling flat somewhat.
We have really lost momentum as Dormo has just said and I highlighted after the Luton game. Injuries have not helped, but the chopping and changing of the available squad has not helped either.
Now we appear to have picked up possibly two more injuries with Howson and Giles.
After an unbelievable season, some great football, have we ran out of luck just a few games early