Rotherham had a game plan today and stuck to it tremendously well. For the first half, it was get in their faces and don’t give them a second on the ball. Once they’d nicked their goal - and with a man advantage - they parked 10 men behind the ball and squeezed the space. They definitely deserved their win and their ‘staying up’ celebrations at the end, and their fans were raucous throughout. What was most worrying for me was that we didn’t have the guile to break the press or break them down, registering no shots on target. We certainly missed Giles, and I thought that although Barlaser was quite effective at the base of midfield he didn’t offer much going forward or creatively. Boy did we miss Jonny Howson’s drive in midfield.
I was fortunate enough today to share the guest lounge with a number of former experienced refs and assistants, including Howard Webb’s dad, together with a current linesman and an assessor. Their view at half time was that Hackney was very lucky indeed to get away with a yellow for his rash, dangerous challenge on the half-way line, and that Dijksteel’s foul was clearly a DOGSO - denying a goal-scoring opportunity. Most were not complimentary of referee Stroud’s performance. Throughout the game he was really inconsistent, infuriating both sets of supporters. You know the ref has had a bad game when first one end of the ground, then the other, chants, ‘You’re not fit to referee!’
So, Boro were poor today. Loss of momentum is a concern. But leaving our seats we bumped into Steve Gibson, and chatted briefly to him. He was charming, as ever. That was a real pleasure.
I reckon that Boro need to beat Coventry next Monday if only to eliminate them from the playoffs, as I’d much prefer to face Millwall in the playoffs or even Sunderland as the Sky Blues seem to be running into form at the right time.
Boro’s away results have been disappointing lately with three defeats and one draw in their last four matches so effectively Boro must not lose more than once in the trio of those next three encounters. In the dim and distant past before penalty shoot outs were used to decide FA Cup and League Cup matches Boro often had to play the same opponents three times in succession to settle a tie with the third match often played at Elland Road. Fortunately on seven of those occasions Boro won the third match - 3-1 against Brighton in 1906, 1-0 against Charlton in 1930, 1-0 against Bolton in 1939, 1-0 against Blackpool in 1946, 4-1 against York City in 1907, and 1-0 against Hull City in 1968
However Boro also won the third match against Aston Villa 3-0 in 1950, but that was marred by a 0-4 reverse twelve days later in a league match, the only time I can recall Boro playing opponents four times in a short period.
Reminded me a bit of the Sunderland game. We weren't great but without a soft sending-off we would probably have got a draw or better. Only real concern was injury to Howson; hopefully it was just a minor niggle.
Carrick has talked frequently about the intensity of training and, possibly, we're suffering the downside of that right now.
Although I would like go into the playoffs flying, I would rather face these kinds of challenges now than be tripped up by a weakness that has been masked by good results being exposed during the play-offs. That said, this is a challenge for Carrick and co. We have had a fantastic run without being under any real pressure. After Coventry next week, the pressure is well and truly on. That's when we'll see what we're made of. I think we'll do well.
Thanks Werder for getting the site back up and running again !
OFB
Trawling through Social Media with ref to Boro, the opinon, almost 100%, is that MC needs to play the best team possible against Coventry.
On another note ....
Nice to see one of Boro's top players of the past, Barry Robson, who gets the managerial job at Aberdeen on a 2 year contract.
I see that Leeds have made an approach to Fat Sam. Same old, same old.
@original-fat-bob. Opps!!
@original-fat-bob. I was hoping the issue last night and this morning was fixable and that we had not been hacked or something.
Talk about panicking.
Thank you Werder for a good result. We certainly needed one at the moment.
@original-fat-bob. I was hoping the issue last night and this morning was fixable and that we had not been hacked or something.
Talk about panicking.
Thank you Werder for a good result. We certainly needed one at the moment.
Ah, so it wasn't just me then! What a relief! I echo OFB's & Pedro's thanks. 🙂
werdermouth
Am I correct in thinking you have a list of everyone’s email addresses? Last night, when Diasboro went down, I realised I had virtually no way of contacting anyone to discuss the problem. Eeeek! Panic! Like many others, I’m sure, I was desperate not to lose the blog! Is it possible to put your own email address on here so we can be in touch should we ever need to, only in ‘emergencies’, obviously.
Cheers.
@martin
‘I see that Leeds have made an approach to Fat Sam. Same old, same old.’
Yes. I had to check it wasn’t 1st April when I read that this morning. That is truly a mark of desperation! Is this the end of Leeds’ attacking verve? Will they now just shut up shop and park 10 men behind the ball? Will they abandon wingers? Pulis and McCarthy are also both available - perhaps the three of them could team up to form the coaching team?
I look forward to Leeds rejoining the Championship.
Clive, if you click on 'Contact' in the menu you will see the diasboro@outlook.com email address which I use to manage the site.
Hadn't noticed the site was down as was out and about most of the holiday weekend - Anyway, for those who didn't know, the problem was caused by the failure of the automatic renewal payment for the diasboro.club url, which is managed by a third-party company and not the the site host.
For some reason it didn't auto-renew and as usual the algorithms of the company automatically disable the url until a payment is made. To complicate matters my login details weren't being accepted so then had to send a digital copy of the previous payment to verify I was the legitimate owner of the url and have my login details reset.
At least the downtime was at the lower end of the possible range, which was anything from 2-3 hours to 48 hours. All part of the 'things that can go wrong' when self hosting - which is why I'm still keen on moving back to wordpress.com as they don't have hosting and url contracts to manage!
@werdermouth - Thanks, Werder, for all that you do on this Blog.
@werdermouth Thank you for restoring diasboro, last night was a bit of a panic, as I thought how am I going to complete the challenge, I found Clive on twitter and decided if it still was down today I would contact him to see if he had any ideas what was happening but there you were to save the day.
On present form I am with Clive, I would rather us have a “blip” now than in the actual playoffs, remember the last playoffs we were in 🤔. Against Rotherham, a physical team fighting for their championship lives, before the game I was more concerned about further injuries than the actual result, Akpom came close twice ! Howson pulling up (or rested) in the pre match warm up, at least prevented a more serious injury (hopefully). I wonder how our playoff opponents think of our “recent form” before Huddersfield would they have thought “avoid Boro” and now think “Boro the team to play, let’s get at them”, all will be revealed in the playoffs. The choice of semi final opponents is ours, if we fancy playing Coventry, let them win next Monday, if we would rather avoid Coventry we win will mean either Millwall, Sunderland, WBA or Blackburn, a draw will probably mean Millwall in the semi and Coventry will face Luton in the semi.
Come on BORO.
Bob,
I got your e mail this morning and I did eventually find Werder's e mail address and contacted him immediately.
However I tried a few times to get back to you without any success, my e mails failing to deliver.
Whether this was a problem at my end or yours I'm not sure, but apologies for not being able to get through to you.
@exmil - I'm not sure it's as easy as having the choice as to which team to play in the play-offs, by allowing Coventry to win our next game, or to play another team by managing to win or draw that game instead. Apart from NOT having the choice because Coventry take the choice out of our hands, football doesn't work like that. Plenty of people have said that, in sport, the margin between success and failure is very fine. The sort of management required to trim the sails so delicatedly would require, as the saying goes, "jewellers' scales" and the tiny difference required would be exceedingly difficult to manage. If Middlesbrough FC has discovered an "on/off" switch for its players, the rest of the football world would be very interested....
As for the game at the weekend, I only caught parts of it as we had visitors but didn't look like Boro were fully mentally in the game - whereas Rotherham were fighting for their survival and stuck to their game-plan.
I thought Hackney's tackle was a horrendous and deliberate lunge that on another day he couldn't complain if he'd got a straight red - no idea why in an essentially meaningless game he thought it necessary for such a challenge. After that he was largely ineffective as he was walking the proverbial tightrope and didn't want another yellow.
Dijksteel was very unlucky with his red as having watched the replay of the incident several times I thought not only was he not the last defender but he also played the ball before Hugill actually grabbed Boro defender's shirt at the front and pulled him down on top of himself. It was a foul by Hugill on Dijksteel - whether Boro will appeal the red depends on whether Carrick is minded to play Dijksteel against Coventry or just take the one-game ban. Though it was never a red.
It looks like it's proving hard for the players to pretend games that don't matter do matter and also perhaps the team is missing that edge up front with Ramsay and Forss - Jones did quite well but you would rather Forss was shooting rather than him. Plus having sacrifices Archer after the red then it was even harder getting through the Rotherham packed defence.
At least McGree looked sharp in the first half but missing Howson is always going to make Boro a lesser team - hopefully it was just a twinge rather than anything more serious. Perhaps also risking Akpom against Coventry is not wise as he may get some tasty tackles if the Blues think they'll be playing us in the play-offs. Though if Boro win that game then they most likely won't face Coventry - the question is how much do Boro need a confidence-boosting win to take into the play-offs?
@werdermouth. I really believe we need lift of some kind. Whether we can achieve that by playing our best available side or a second choice is difficult to ascertain.
One thing is certain though is that we need a bit of a bolster in front of the sell out crowd.
Coventry will be going for a win obviously, but may let us have the possession and hit us on the break. They also know, we cannot keep a clean sheet.
I think that the form is genuine, and for a very Good reason, we are taking it easy by playing old fashioned football, and a weakened team. No slick passing at speed, our priceless striker missing, Jones spending his time dribbling, everybody trying to avoid getting a knock, five First teamers missing is some statement of intent. It was always going to be tough seeing our heroes cruise for four matches, but it is a no brainer and we must complete the plan for one more match or it is all a waste of time.
It's certainly hard to call as I can also see the need for going into the playoffs with some kind of momentum but I can also agree with Plato's point of not risking our best players on what is game that Boro don't need a result.
Coventry know it's a game they have to win to be sure of a play-off place and I'm sure their players will be challenging every 50-50 like their season depends on it - as it does.
Whereas the Boro players will have in the back of their minds - no injuries and no silly red cards - plus nothing changes even if they lose the game. On that basis can't see anything to be gained by playing Jonny Howson or Chuba Akpom or Archer or even Lenihan given we're down to the bare bones defensively.
If Boro beat Coventry then we'll likely face either Millwall or Sunderland with West Brom a possibility if we thrash them (due to goal difference). So how much are Boro prepared to pay to just get a psychological three points and at what price would risking key players make that affordable - losing Howson, Akpom or Lenihan for the play-off semi's would in practice be worse than ending with a win.
If Coventry beat our second team have they gained a psychological advantage or does it give them doubt on how they'd manage against our First XI?
@werdermouth - But if Coventry should LOSE against Boro, whether a First XI or a team containing many fringe players, wouldn't that give Boro the psychological advantage...?
Of course if Boro beat Coventry it would give us a psychological advantage but it would be an advantage that couldn't be utilised as it's extremely unlikely that Coventry would then finish 5th and be our play-off opponents - if it came at a cost in terms of injuries to any key players then it would only be somewhat a pyrrhic psychological victory.
Well all I can say is, I am pleased it is MC making these decisions and earning his corn.
Probably these last couple of matches and Coventry to come will have been probably his hardest decisions to make to date. The play Offs, well it is your strongest team available.
@pedro It’s a massive test for a young manager - I wonder if he’s seeking guidance from any more experienced coaches.
@martin-bellamy I believe that before accepting the Middlesbrough offer and since, he has talked to Sir Alec and taken advice.
Whether it has gone as far as Team selections, may be a step too far?
@martin-bellamy I believe that before accepting the Middlesbrough offer and since, he has talked to Sir Alec and taken advice.
Whether it has gone as far as Team selections, may be a step too far?
As far as team selection, definitely no but as far as disinformation is concerned maybe 🤔
Come on BORO.
If we beat Coventry, we would potentially remove a dangerous opponent and open up the playoffs to Sunderland and Millwall provided that they win their last games. However, if Millwall and Sunderland don’t win it would get quite complicated with Blackburn or West Brom having a chance.
if we draw with Coventry, they are guaranteed a place in the playoffs and can only be overtaken by Millwall. In that case, we would play Millwall over two legs and Coventry would play Luton.
If we lose, we play them in the playoffs.
Given that Coventry are one of the form teams, is it better to try and beat them over one game at the Riverside or over two games in the playoffs?
Also, we have to respect the league and give it a decent shot. Carrick can rest injured or tired players but the other teams are expecting us to try and beat Coventry. We can’t put out a second team as we will risk problems with the EFL.
I think that we should try to beat Coventry.
UTB
Well back in the UK and catching up after trip to Oz.
Missed the Rotherham game as we were in the air at that time. Managed to get internet connection at Dubai and naturally disappointed with the result but more concerned with absences of Howson and Giles.
Tried to log into Diasboro and thought I had been hacked or that the site had been blocked by the Dubai internet police! I was relieved to later discover it was a technical issue quickly resolved by our maestro Werdermouth, thank you.
Will be back on Teesside on Thursday and relishing game against Coventry.
We need a strong and convincing performance given it’s a sell out game and so that we go into the play offs against who ever it may be with confidence and momentum. Fingers crossed for no more injuries and that we get some of the squad back.
I have now seen the highlights of the Rotherham game and for me we were not at our best but still had enough opportunities to come away with all three points.
Looked a very soft red card and a foul by Lenihan (not given) in the second half looked more suspect.
I shall refrain from commenting on the referee other than to say his performance was in line with what I expected from him, inconsistent and lacking in competence.
Roll on Monday. CoB 😎
Good argument for beating Coventry in that Boro probably have a better chance of beating them over one game rather than two - plus defensively they've conceded fewer goals in the last six than the other potential opponents.
Though perhaps both teams would be happy with a low-energy no risk draw on the last day as a kind of cards-close-to-the-chest rehearsal 😉