I hope it wasn’t the words of that Sinatra song that got you excited!
Before I settle down to this afternoon’s match, I just must congratulate Hartlepools on beating Rochdale yesterday and especially the performance of Josh Umerah who is becoming as vital to Pools as Chuba Akpom is to Boro. Another home win against Colchester next Saturday is vital if Pools are to escape the drop to the National League which in my opinion is the toughest league in the pyramid system to get promoted from. Come on Pools and good luck to Boro also this afternoon.
@stircrazy One change as Darragh Lenihan returns to the team, replacing McNair who drops to the bench. Up the Boro!
@jarkko. That’s a pleasant surprise. Let’s hope he doesn’t have much to do. CoB 😎
From the Beeb's love text commentary:
11 mins
CLOSE!
Sunderland 0-0 Middlesbrough
Sunderland blow a golden chance!
Zack Steffen in the Boro goal plays a sloppy pass straight to Sunderland's Amad Diallo on the edge of the box.
He takes a touch and drives at goal but drags it harmlessly wide.
The puff of the cheeks from Steffen is mirrored by the visiting supporters while the home fans are stunned.
Bad miss from a quality player.
Post update
Sunderland 0-0 Middlesbrough
Still pretty equal fare at the Stadium of Light.
Both teams have had good spells of possession and promising attacks.
Amad Diallo's miss still hangs over Sunderland though, gifted by Zack Steffen but untaken by the Manchester United loanee.
DISALLOWED GOAL (Sunderland)
Sunderland 0-0 Middlesbrough
Ross Stewart hooks the ball into the roof of the net after a spill by Middlesbrough goalkeeper Zack Steffen, but he's offside.
It all came from a glorious move through midfield, a neat touch off to Patrick Roberts, who then finds Amad Diallo to cross.
The ball breaks to the edge where Roberts drills it low, but the lurking Stewart was off.
Well Sunderland should be in the lead, but can't take their chances, had to mute sky, can't do with the Sunderland love in...
What a chance for Sunderland to score at 45+4 min. But Steffen was excellent to prevent Stewart from scoring.
The second best chance for Sunderland came when Steffen gave the ball directly to Amad who shot wide inside the box.
We had one good chance. So 0-0 at half time. Up the Boro!
No atmosphere at all from a subdued home crowd, or am I going deaf?
Boro lucky not to be three down at the interval thanks to a couple of horrendous errors by Steffen and one by Fry presenting clear cut chances to Sunderland. They have played well, Boro have looked a very poor side, contributing little in midfield or attack for the first half hour.
We have begun to come into the game more as half-time approached until Fry completely missed a routine header leaving Stewart with a clear run on goal, Steffen making a partly redemptive save.
Sunderland's threats down the wings and with longer balls behind our defence remain a worry, but surely we can come out and perform better going forward in the second half.
But at the moment there is only one team looking like play-off hopefuls. And it isn't the Boro
We could not complain if we had gone in 2 nil down at HT
Mifield having no influence at all, with Howson on the edges after his booking. Most of their danger is down our left. We know Giles cannot defend, but Magree offers little help.
Hopefully MC can makes some tactical changes and personal if that does not work
It was NEVER a penalty. A foul definately OUTSIDE the area. Stewart fall inside but was never touched by Fry inside. Strange. UYB!
Boro down to 10 men: Dael Fry dismissed in the 48th minute, Mackems awarded a penalty, which Steffen saves, but Ross Stewart fires in the rebound! 🙁
Well a comfortable and deserved win for Sunderland and a disappointing day all around for the Boro. The score line could have been much worse.
The only positives were that we continued to play and were still in the game for much of the match.
Need a big performance next week to demonstrate this was just a blip.
No Dale Fry who will serve a one match ban.
The real test now starts for MC. 😎
It was NEVER a penalty. A foul definately OUTSIDE the area. Stewart fall inside but was never touched by Fry inside. Strange. UYB!
A comment re-tweeted by Vic, who himself had pointed out that the "foul by instalment started well outside the box".
@k-p-in-spain One or three match ban? It was a straight red, or is it just one, though. I do not know. Up the Boro!
Overall, I was disappointed with Boro’s performance and Sunderland were clearly the better team and deserved to win.
Thinking of positives for Boro I’d say that they didn’t collapse like they did against Burnley, had 2 or 3 half chances and they tried to the end.
But they never contained Sunderland’s nippy wingers with, not surprisingly , most of their attacking play coming down Giles’ side of the pitch. Stewart was the best forward on the pitch. They also had a number of clear cut chances. Boro were fortunate not to be 2-0 down at half time.
Some may say the penalty was outside the area but replays showed the foul to be on the line and so a penalty. Fry can have no complaints about the sending off - is his lack of pace the main reason no Premiership club have tried to buy him?
I was surprised that Crooks was substituted to allow McNair to come on . He puts the yards in and, in my opinion, there were 2 or 3 others who had contributed less who should have been chosen.
So, the team move on to some difficult games in the near future- eg , Watford , Sheffield United and WBA. The good news is that they have demonstrated that they are capable of finishing in the top 6 although I can’t remember , at this time of the season, how so few points separate around ten teams.
Philip of Huddersfield
@philip-of-huddersfield - The tweet of 1.58pm is the last I have read following the game, before starting to type this. I haven't disagreed much with anything put by the various posters after the match, save that I can understand how, in order to re-arrange the team following the sending-off, it was Crooks who was taken off, regardless of how he was playing. I watched the game at the Squashed Stoat, with Sky TV having a guest Sunderland commentary team for the afternoon.
Obviously the game changed after the red card to Dale Fry and the penalty kick that was awarded. Having said that, Sunderland had a number of chances gifted to them in the first half and it was surprising they didn't take at least one of them, irrespective of the penalty. I didn't think Boro threatened too much and it was one of the poorer performances under Michael Carrick when, to get something at Sunderland, one of the better performances was needed.
The penalty, in my opinion, should have been a free kick outside the box and a yellow card. I also think the keeper could have come out to challenge for the ball. Despite the previous "heart-in-the-mouth moments from Steffen, he made a good save when Sunderland were through and should have scored and, at the penalty kick, he was unlucky with his save boucing back to the penalty-taker to tap into the empty net.
Before going behind I never felt Boro to be playing really well and I wasn't confident of getting 3 points. After we went behind and down to 10 men the team, paradoxically, seemed to play better. But 2-0 was probably about the measure of the game - Sunderland played better than Boro and deserved to win.
The result doesn't cause the sky to come crashing down. Hopes of a play-off place remain even if automatic promotion now seems massively unlikely. It's about whether the team can bounce back after today's disappointing performance and result. I'm NOT saying the players didn't TRY (as someone said on the post-match phone in) but too many played as if they were a little off-colour. Things didin't work out. Luck wasn't on their side. It was certainly a "bad day at the office". However a new sun will come up tomorrow and hopefully the manager and coaching staff can direct the players back to where they were in the middle of the recent purple patch of form.
Definitely a penalty, but can’t agree with Don Goodman when he said that Diallo won THE DERBY. It was Pinza ridden by Gordon Richards in the Coronation year of 1953 who beat the Queen’s horse Aureole and ultimately ruined the Queen’s year.
These youngsters have no sense of history.
Definitely a penalty, but can’t agree with Don Goodman when he said that Diallo won THE DERBY. It was Pinza ridden by Gordon Richards in the Coronation year of 1953 who beat the Queen’s horse Aureole and ultimately ruined the Queen’s year.
These youngsters have no sense of history.
🤣
Seriously though, Sunderland were by far the better team on the day and deserved the three points. Not too concerned at the moment with still 10 home games and 8 away to play. I’m not looking at League Tables again until after Easter when 6 matches will remain.
@forever-dormo. Good post Dormo, although I think we did have some luck today, certainly in the first half, otherwise the game would have been over then.
Personally, I think MC has done very well and Boro have punched above their weight, another auot promotion was never on, we just do not have a squad of players good enough overall. There are weak links within it.
Steffen continues to make mistakes. Giles cannot defend although he is probably the Championships best assist player. Smith is good a defender but offers nothing in the opposition half. Midfield overall lacks that something extra needed to control games.
We miss Jones at his best and if Akpom has an iffy spell, we may struggle.
Unfortunately playing Watford next Saturday could be difficult after today. The next 6 games gives some opportunities, but there are three very hard matches in that batch.
MC has done well. Can he pick the squad up and get them back on track. I would start with Archer and see what he is about, and we could do with a couple of new players in.
It was NEVER a penalty. A foul definately OUTSIDE the area. Stewart fall inside but was never touched by Fry inside. Strange. UYB!
A comment re-tweeted by Vic, who himself had pointed out that the "foul by instalment started well outside the box".
Just realised that I managed to omit the actual comment re-tweeted by Vic which was:
Fry started fouling him in Peterlee
but it's now too late for me to edit my original post. I thought it was quite funny.
I agree with the red card (Fry was the last man) but since the offence started way out of the box, it should have been a free kick, giving Sunderland a penalty was double the punishment, I am interested what former referees (hint OFB) view was.
Come on BORO.
Sunderland deserved the win. Middlesbrough were awful. Lacking so much passion in a local derby. Mowbray got his tactics spot on. Our goal keeper is very poor and like Lumley will cost us points for the rest of the season. Seems like according to various reports that Man City whether true or not that he must play every game as part of the contract. Time for the club to be ruthless and drop him. He is a total liabilty and the players know that and affects their mindset during the game.
As everyone else has pointed out the best team won. This was in fact that, due to a variety of circumstances, I have seen a full MC managed match. In truth I was disappointed. We still lack pace, which the Black cats seem to have an abundance of. They also seemed younger and hungrier. The send off was crucial, and I think correct but the penalty was incorrect as there was no contact in the box. I was also expecting as the chase unfolded to see Steffan hurtling off his line. If he had then I think that the result may have been different. Also the linesman on that side seemed to be struggling to keep up with play and would not have been able to tell where the contact, if any was. So we go around again next Saturday against Watford and I can watch again as it is on live here on BeIn, so probably available worldwide and possibly not on the Boro feed.
Still, it was never a penalty. See the attachment.
This is my last post on the matter but wanted to share this picture. Unbelievable.
But we move on. Hope we have better luck in the future with desisions made by the refs. Up the Boro!
@mw-in-darwin. Thanks for the heads up about next weekends game being chosen for International broadcast and as you say will not be available for worldwide streaming via Riverside Live.
I have also discovered the same applies to the following mid week match against Blackpool.😎
@jarkko. It will be interesting to see if the club appeal. I don’t think they will despite MC saying he was unhappy. 😎