Us
I make a point of watching NW's pressers, love his zingers when the questions get pretentious. Unafraid to make jokes about his players, or himself. Always ready to put down any reporters who start getting ambitious about our team. His favourite aside in my book was when discussing one of our players, who's name escapes me. " he cost 7mill. Apparently! I would have payed 2mill at best". What a man!
Not a good start 1-0 due to poor defending. 20 mins gone and we have not had a shot on goal despite our early dominance. The prospects do not look good.😎
Well that was a very dull half where a game of football occasionally threatened to break out. A sloppy goal conceded and Boro look like they're back to a Huddersfield-type lethargy - it was so soporific that I actually dropped off for a couple of minutes around the 30-minute mark. Hopefully some half-time changes and I'd bring on Watmore for Akpom who has been poor.
A disappointing result and display against a very average Stoke side.
This performance was akin to Huddersfield where too many players did not perform. What was particularly galling was this came on the back of a good display against Swansea.
Whilst I agreed with the substitutions they unfortunately did not produce the required effect. Much has been made of McNair's free kicks but when are we going to capitalise on one! Why is BA allowed anywhere near free kicks when he continually fails to hit the target. At times the lack of quality from us in the final third is an embarrassment.
Another failure at Preston will see us losing further ground on the top six. 😎
Poor game of football, poor Boro display and a poor use of two hours of my time watching it. Definitely a game to forget and can't recall anything of note let alone even bothering to contemplate a MOM. Hopefully, the trip to Preston will be a huge improvement!
Boro the poorer of two mediocre teams. An awful game with both sides giving away far too many free kicks and little cohesive play.
As difficult to pick out a M-o-M todayas it was on Wednesday, but for the opposite reason. No one played particularly well and there were elementary mistakes galore. Spence had a good first half and probably edged it ahead of Morsy.
It was made for Britt to come on for the last 30 minutes and make a go of it, but his contribution was a failure to control a brilliant ball from Roberts that would have put him through, an offside, and yet another selfish free kick when McNair or Wing seemed better choices. Nothing more from him than that.
Akpom had fared little better and must take some blame for the Potters goal.
It is becoming a major concern that we are getting so little from our strikers, though Akpom does at least try.
As ever we set out our stall to stop the opposition from playing. But Stoke offered little and once they got in front and retreated, we lacked the strategy, skills ,and conviction to break down a very ordinary side.
Another step back after the promise of mid-week.
@malcolm. You and I are like minded except that I am of the view that his time has been up for a long while now.
I fully accept that this is a team game and that they win and fail as a team but what does he offer?
I think Len said last week that you could forgive his lack of control, inability to bring others into play or continual fouling of the opposition if he was contributing via a decent goal return but he isn't or hasn't and must be one of the worst investments we have ever made.
John Hickton was not the most talented centre forward we have had but what he lacked in skill he more than compensated for by his commitment, dedication, hardwork and esprit de corp. Added to which, he scored a fair few goals and I can't remember seeing him miss a penalty. Couldn't we just do with him now!
NW is old school and perhaps he needs to dig out a few old videos/DVDs and show him/them what is expected.
I probably should not be posting as I have been out on our golf society Christmas meal (socially distanced) so am very mellow but still p****d that we lost to a very average team.
I think what annoys me more than anything is that we have the makings of a good/promotion winning side if we could just get the front end sorted!
Apologies for the rant, there are more important things going on in the world than football, Cricket, Brexit and Covid to name just a few! 😎
Like and respect NW but in my opinion, we took the points because we took Britt out of the team against Swansea. To drop our new player after two goals was, in my opinion, wrong, yes he might have been tired, but goal scoring is pure gold in this league, and we might have collected again. The Britt situation is now turning into parody. He gives the opposition centre back a day off, he will miss any chance you care to give him, he is no good in the air, and is particularly weak from one yard out. His habit of striding up and grabbing the ball when any free kick or penalty situation occurs while maddening for the fans, is, of course, a standing joke (on us unfortunately!) all this is part of the day to day business of NW, no decent manager ( and I class him as one) should countenance such goings on, he should be told that his skills lie in other directions and please keep well clear of all dead ball awards, they are not for him. To be awarded a free kick within scoring distance with Lewis Wing on the pitch, was a stroke of luck, to allow a known failure at such opportunities (and how) to blithely stroll up and commandeer the ball, followed shortly after by the ball having to be retrieved from the next county, was, to put it mildly, a little disappointing, and I bet he was smiling when he missed. We still regard a corner as a chance to kick the ball into the goalmouth so that the opposition can practice their heading. Is there any chance that a couple of players might practice for, oh, I don't know, maybe a couple of hundred hours so that they actually know where they are going to put the ball, and what will happen at that point?