Red Zone Repeat At Preston
COOPS was seconds away from joining John Pickering in an exclusive club of Boro bosses with 100% records when some sloppy defending deep in the red zone allowed Preston to scramble to a late leveller in a game that should have been dead and buried.
Both Boro goals were moments of quality and there coudl have been more but their keeper made a brilliant save from a cracking O'Neil free-kick, Johnson carved into the box but opted to shoot across the face of goal with Emnes and Lita unmarked and screaming for the ball and then Williams put a pildriver against the post..
Both Preston's raised serious questionmarks over the discipline at the back.
Boro were briefly on top for a few milliseconds late in the first half but had to settle for a place in the scrum. It was two points dropped at the death again. Had the late goals not been conceded at Coventry and Bristol City as well Boro would be five points better off and clear at the top. Fine lines as Gareth said on Tuesday.
The former boss meanwhile has spoken for the first time about being axed in the Mail.
More later.
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Anthony Vickers
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Well the defence will no doubt improve with stratchan, but we may very well see a decline in our attacking style of play. I expect 1-0 wins all season now.
After reading the interview with Southgate, I really do feel sorry for him, Gibson said he had taken into account the results against those near us in the table, how many of those teams have we actually played? West Brom is the only one I can think of. Its like he based his decision on one game. I mean you either sack you manager after relegation or you give him a chance to prove himself and bring the team back up. Gibson has done neither.
I honestly believe Southgate was the man for the job, I think we would've gotten all three points yesterday if he were still manager. What disappoints me greatly though is how Gibson underhandedly went about getting a new manager. Of all the times he chooses to do it now.
Anyways Southgate is a gentlemen as always, Hope to see him back in management soon, hopefully at a place where he will be backed and given the resources he needs to do well.
As this match showed, the current coaching staff needs a good clearout. The same mistakes and lack of concentration lead to us conceding another late goal, and throwing two points away.
The new manager needs to bring in his own coaches, and kick a few player's backsides. If they are not capable of learning lessons and maintaining concentration, they should be moved on. Such players are not wanted at the club. We can't afford to carry passengers. we need a harder, tougher regime at the club.
Having seen the second equaliser it reminds of a comment about Liverpool after we had scored against them.
It was along the lines of that they had been struggling over whether to play zonal or man to man marking but had come up with no marking at all.
Jones must have rushed of the pitch to check the deoderent under his arms, he probably has his own area of the changing room. His marker just ran away from him, I thought it was the attacker who was supposed to make runs to try to lose the marker not the other way round.
Read the Gate article, the whole business was sad. When I was painting the hall before the match I was listening to radio 5, we got a real kicking by Ian Dennis. It looks as if the media are lining up to have a go.
You can probably add Leicester to the list of Coventry, Bristol and Preston and another point - not to mention last season's list, which ultimately cost us our PL status.
It's got to be the priority for Strachan to sort these defensive lapses out if we are to gain promotion - plus perhaps a real striker who can finish.
I'm wondering also if he needs a new captain as Wheater's form seems to have dipped with the award of the captaincy - he's already confessed that he's not a talker, so is it just a courtesy title or should it actually be the holders job to organise and motivated the players on the pitch?
I read the Mail interview with Southgate and initially found myself feeling sorry for him for being entranced by the Count as he shook his hand and stared him in the eye.
It's easy to see why Southgate is well-liked by the people he works with as he doesn't make their lives very difficult but you got the impression Gibson was struggling to throw his favourite puppy into the street.
Though, I think Southgate is in denial - most observers in the know were not surprised by the sacking because the team's performances were simply not good enough for the paying public to swallow - would defenders risk the wrath of SAF if they failed to do their job at set pieces? Perhaps they'd get away with it once.
For different reasons, none of the MFC dramatis personnae comes out of GateGate with their reputation enhanced.
How interesting that Coops and Aggers thought to form a Southgate tribute band for the Preston game. Unfortunately, they chose 'Coventry' as their karaoke performance rather than 'Reading'.
Still, it gives a successor plenty to work on - and, to be fair, plenty to work with.
Devastated. It was like coming away from Deepdale after a defeat. The Preston fans couldn't believe their luck to salvage a point.
Coventry all over again, it seems that every time the fourth offical holds up the board with time added on, the Boro players just switch off or go into panic mode.
I think we have found a gem in Joe Bennett, a bit of a rough diamond at the moment, but if nurtured properly, he could turn into a very good player.
Something that worries me is the fact that we are murdering teams in the first half, but haven't got a forward to put the ball in the net. The game yesterday should have been dead and buried by half time.
The new manager in my opinion still has a lot of work to do. We still need a better keeper, BJ is like a ticking timebomb just waiting to go into self destruct mode. The forward line still requires attention. Can't fault the work rate and the running off the ball, but it is the end product that is lacking.
Just hope it can be remedied sooner rather than later, or we will struggle to stay in the race for an automatic promotion spot.
The first thing Strachan needs to do is to take the captaincy off Wheater.Twice this season at Bristol and yesterday he has completely switched off costing his team at the death.He needs to pull his socks up .
I know it is only stating the obvious but the glaring need for a centre forward with a presence becomes more apparent with every game.
OH,lets all feel sorry for poor Gareth, after all he was given a job he wasnt qualified for, paied a million a year to do it, spent a fortune on garbage players (who was is first signing? Euell) and by the way got us relegated whilst the likes of Wigan, Stoke, Fulham, name another ten teams our size , still where we should be!
Give me a break. He'll get another job and be telling the world hes at the best club in the world. There are managers in the lower divisions with less resources who have done fantastic jobs .ie Darren Ferguson. NUFF said
Yesterday epitomised why Gareth lost his job: we keep blowing points in these games against inferior opposition because of uncertainty at the back and we are not clinical up front. Ultimately this will deny us promotion and therafter, in our second season, we won't be so superior and so the decline will continue.
This is Gibson's logic but of course it is lost on the national media because they really don't give a fig about the Boro and will struggle to produce a balanced analysis - just like that emotional tart Ian Dennis did on Radio 5 yesterday.
AV I'm sorry you didnt post my latest comment but I think you should post a balanced view of at least where we are as a club. Don't let us believe that Gareth didn't bring down his own predicament, in fact if we are to believe he was usurped by his employers, then he is in fact showing a weakness in his own makeup
**AV writes: Sorry, but I didn't "not post" any comments by you. Or anyone.
I am actually going to try and take some positives and negatives out of the match.
Lets start with the negatives because you always finish on the positives.
1. Our defending for the second goal deserves prosecution under the Trades Descriptions Act.
2. Failure to get that extra goal or even more specifically from a striker.
Positives
1. We played very well against one of our chief opponents for promotion - one of the measures that did for Gate.
2. We came back after the first equaliser to take the lead again. We have often crumbled before.
3. Johnson on the left did really well. Actually, delete the last bit and just say Johnson on the left.
There is an argument that we will get some late goals going our way and get some bonus points. I personally dont buy into that. Lost points are like unsold seat on an airplane or even the Riverside, once they are gone you can never sell them again. The lost points are gone forever. They are perishable.
At 2.59pm I would have taken a point but at 4.59pm you feel a bit deflated.
Hopefully the managerial situation will be sorted sooner rather than later and we can properly move on.
Tried posting this morn - any sign?
Great article in the Sunday Times today on the sacking of Gareth.
Now we know that Strachan was interviewed 2 weeks ago for the job, it has left a real sour taste in the mouth. I thought our club was above that. Gibson's rep as the best chairman in football is shattered. He won't be able to look Southgate in the eye ever again.
Yes, another frustrating last minute goal, but I think we'd have been happy with a point beforehand. A win would have been fantastic.
Now, the big question. Assuming Strachan takes over on Monday, how many of the missing thousands will return on Saturday?
Unfortunately for Steve Gibson, I think it might be less than he hopes.
I do not feel one bit sorry for southgate. I felt sorry for the young players he cast aside and wrote off as failures like Cattermole, Morrison, ect and gave them away for peanuts.
I feel sorry for the Boro fans who he week in ,week out tried to blame for his failures and his teams failures.
I feel sorry for the Boro fans who had to endure this grossly out of his depth and incompetent fool for three years and 4 months.
I feel sorry for the fact that despite a revved up and full house at the Riverside - exactly what Southgate wanted for the cardiff FA cup game - and despite having the best opportunity our club will ever have of winning the FA cup , he and his team produced one of the most gutless and useless performances i have ever seen on a football pitch.
I'm sick of hearing people in the media and a lot of my fellow Boro supporters saying they feel sorry for this guy.
Southgate was given a great opportunity , he fail completely and utterly and now after relegating and destroying my club, he's had his massive five year £1m per year contract paied up.
They are plenty of people in this world i feel sorry for , but failed and incompetent managers like southgate are not one of them.
Well, I agree with the missing five point assessment AV, it continues to dog our promotion campaign. But you've got to hope that GS or whoever makes it their priority to sort out, especially if he really did spend all weekend watching Boro's games from this season.
But I have to say that the first 45 minutes yesterday was the best I've seen us play this season, and offers real hope, despite not adding more than one goal which eventually cost us dear. We were simply on another planet to Preston, and them being one of our nearest rivals.
If we sort out the comedy of errors at the back, we are gonna be OK. But I'm already dreading the January window, when the prospect of losing our star asset outweighs the prospect of seeing someone decent come in.
We shall see. There's a lot of points to be won until then. First home game for Strachan is looming, and I'm very excited.
Losing goals at the end is our speciality as a football club - our USP. We cannot let this continue as it will cost the club at least £35M.
The question is why does it happen so frequnetly to us (and I say this without having seen the last goal, though everyone seems to think Wheats had switched off whilst their player ran to the six yard box unmolested).
Suggestions:
1. The players are not as fit as they would like to think and simply run out of fuel at the end, and so make mistakes.
2. The dreaded zonal marking raising its ugly head again, and either failing or causing confusion in the players. As wise people have said in the past, zones or spaces never score goals. Unmarked players score goals.
3. If lessons have been given in the past about the need to play 95+ minutes a game (in fact until the final whistle is sounded), then those lessons have been ignored by the players or the coaching staff (or both).
4. Football can be a cruel game. We must not give a sucker an even break. If we are on top in a game, it doesn't count unless we can put the ball in the net a few times.
Unless we can sort this out, we will NOT go up this season. We are not so good that we could afford to give an advantage of, say, 15 or more points over a season to the other promotion candidates.
Interesting "interview", I do wish he had vented his spleen then, a few times as a manager and mostly by taking a swing at Keith Lamb, that mans stupidity will kill this club!
I had been joking at work this week that the reason Strachan hadnt been unveiled was that Lamb was haggling over the finance!
I find it hard to put my money into a club that employs that man.
I see a few comments on here bewailing the fact that 5 Live have given us a bit of a pasting over getting rid of the noble Gareth.
Well I always liked Southgate as a player and a person, and I long hoped he would do it for us as a manager, but when the going got serious I, for one, am grateful that Steve Gibson forgot his sainthood for a moment, and thought about the future of his (and our) football club.
So his halo has slipped a bit, and the London-based media aren't happy about it. So what - when have they ever given a damn? Gibson has a higher agenda than mere personal feelings, even those of a good friend and confidant. The future of the Boro has to come tops, and I'm glad it did.
He showed a streak of utter ruthlessness that any dictator would be proud of, but that's his prerogative. Get over it people - its the way of the world, and personally I'm comforted we don't have a complete pansy in charge! Perhaps it would have been best had the same decisiveness been shown 6 months ago, but better late than never.
We will move on from this and be stronger for it, and if it demonstrates to the media that we are no pushovers and deadly serious about the future, then so much the better.
Boro for ever.
On thinking about GS's departure I can't help feeling we got it wrong in so many ways. The stats on replacement managers are that on average they have a small, but short term, effect. If true then if we get promoted then some of the credit can be given to GS. We are gambling that the devil we dont know is going to be better than the devil we do know and what's more it will be impossible to tell if he fails or succeeds to whom we can make the attribution of success or failure.
I think I am one of not a small number of people who think that where we are is remarkable given the circumstances. How much has the current team cost? And where are we in the league? Come on lads get real. I think that Steve G has listened too much to the moaners and lost sight of the bigger picture and has succumbed to the idea that the squeakiest wheel gets the oil.
Talking of the bigger picture - I really want us to win the league. I am not sure, however, that I want us to have a crap time in the permiership again. Should we get promoted - what will be different next time? Or, are we aiming for 12th again and being content with that?
Personally, I prefer to win more than we lose and I dont care who it's against. Is there an option of winning the league and refusing promotion? Or, maybe we accept that we will have a torrid time, get relegated again, spend the parachute money wisely, have a good time, get promoted, then relegated ...
This might be our lot in life and, rather than continuing with expectations that don't match reality, we get happy with it. Once we accept what we are then we can support the club and those associated with it as long as they share our values and vision, safe in the knowledge we are doing as well as we can given the facts of life.
This is not to say we shouldnt be aspirational, but for that we need a well articulated plan that people can sign up to and assess our progress against. The problem the fans have is we dont know what the plan is. The senior executive arent taking us with them other than asking us to have blind faith. How can we, or should we, have that when they are reacting to us (perhaps because they dont have a plan)? I dont call that leadership.
The only thing we hear about is getting promoted - fair enough - but then what? Will whoever is manager be endlessly pilloried if we dont end up in Europe in the first season? Should he be sacked? Without the cash to splash it might not be the manager's fault and relegation is a plausible outcome.
GS was boro through and through. He loved the club, worked hard for the club and was well on the way to getting it right (in my view). I bet he could have articulated a grand plan at the drop of a hat.
GS is a good man who I think has been treated badly by the club. Both the club and a large number of fans should feel ashamed of themselves at the way he has been treated. In the way the Club went behind his back, someone somewhere in the club has failed my test regarding what I believe to be one of the key Middlesbrough values; Honesty and Integrity.
Given the senior executives hired GS shouldnt they take some of the credit (and I mean credit) for where we are (under the circumstances). Hopefully we wont do a Leeds, Oldham athletic or a Bradford City (or a Carlisle for that matter). If the powers that be think their performance hasnt measured up to the hitherto unarticulated grand plan, maybe they too should walk away with Gareth.
Mirror reports: "Middlesbrough boss Gordon Strachan will put Huddersfield keeper Alex Smithies at the top of his hit-list when he moves into the hot seat. Smithies, 19, is already a £1.5million target for Stoke City, so Strachan will have to dig deep to land him - although he is being strongly recommended to take a punt on the youngster."
Hard to believe - we already have Jason Steele of same age. Where do these stories come from? Our defense needs experience - but then we have Coyne and Poggy available.
More worrying - Everton were at Preston to watch Johnno. So the new GS should solve this problem first!
Up the Boro!
It's well known that Arsene Wenger has long been an admirer of Southgate but he may be taking it too far by trying to emulate him - Not only did Arsenal throw away a two-goal lead but after the match he managed to paraphrase one of Gareth's excuses "The games not won when you're 2-0 up away from home" he said philosophically.
By-the-way Colin Cooper also managed to pay homage to Gareth by trotting out the need to 'learn lessons' mantra following the late defensive lapse.
Come on AV whats happened to our new manager is there a problem.
Late goal again if Wheater is not a talker then how can he be Captain.
Still think Coyne was the talker in the back five and yes he let in five in one game but prior to that was good.
I've followed the Boro for 40 years and they haven't changed a bit so why do we think that the new manager will be any different?
Agree with many of the comments made here. GS had to go - far too many points thrown away again this year and something had to change before it was too late.
I do think, however, that SG and the Count have done themselves no favours and lost some credibility, (especially with those who were already doubting their abiltiy to run this club), at the way they have handled the sacking.
First job for Mr Strachan is to change the goalkeeper and keep calamity Jones on the bench. Coyne was dropped for letting in 5 goals in what was a poor overall performance by the team as a whole. Prior to that his shot to save ratio appeared to be pretty good. With Jones in goal the defence seems shaky and looks as if it lacks confidence in what is behind them. Watching, you tend to feel that as long as it's on target it has more chance of ending up in the net than being saved. His fumble on Saturday and inabililty to hold the ball led to the first equaliser.
Gordon - lets see some real changes this Saturday and real signs of improvements to come.
Up the boro!
Saturday at Preston was the first time in a while I have really enjoyed a match. The fans were brilliant, great view, compact little ground.
We were streets ahead of Preston. The only danger they posed was a long ball into the box. Highly frustrating then, that they were able to score twice via this method.
As soon as the board went up to show three mins of added time we gave away a free kick. Needless. A quality ball in but an unmarked header on the edge of the six yard box! Dreadful. For that matter alone we did not deserve to win the game.
The majority of the ingredients of a good/best Championship club are there. We need a Goal keeper who can come and collect crosses and instil some confidence into the fans and back four. And a target man would have helped us kill the game in the last five.
On the down side I thought our attempt at professionalism was laughable. The time wasting at throw in’s was schoolboy stuff. Ironic how after the ref made a big gesture that he was adding on time that we give the goal away in Injury time. And if we keep Johnson and keep him fit he will get us promotion. Just a shame he should be booked again, but he should have got one for diving. No need at all. He should have won a penalty but wasn’t given but shouldn’t start diving to win one.
A shame we didn’t go top but I don’t think wee Gordie will mind. The only way would have been down.
Onwards Gordie, onwards
Jwm367t
I have no problem with people backing Southgate, I for one wanted hime to succeed but to state that if we had been manager we would have won on Saturday is a tad optomistic.
Saturday was the first occasion for some time that we had so much possession, that we had twice as many shots as the oppostion and three times as many corners, that we dominated for such long periods.
We let in a late goal that cost us points, never happened under Gate of course!
I was checking up some info on views on Gareths sacking and came across an article by Louise Taylor from last March.
Her view was that Gate should walk away with 8 games left to give someone a chance of getting enough points to keep us up. If he had done so he would have left with his head held high having been dealt a bum hand, he would be the man who lifted the Carling Cup.
If he stayed he would end up being a failed manager having taken us down and get sacked by Xmas. She may have had a point.
Exiled in Edinburgh.
Dont confuse a statement of fact with 'bewailing'.
The sacking of Gate was a sad business, it couldnt be anything else, it is the nature of the beast. It is not a joyous piece of business.
Radio five giving us a kicking is precisely that, cant change their words or tone.
Neither event require bewailing but deserve comment.
The relevation by Lamb to Gate that they had already talked to Strachan was unnecessary. We all assumed that it was the case, it happens all the time. Strachan was not employed so there was no breach of any rules.
It is all done and dusted now so lets get on with the business of supporting the team.
Gidge Gadgie:
A fine principled post, well articulated! It's been my life's experience that guys at the top are rarely able to be held to account - only when they come up against someone else who has even more money and power, or who has the force of democratic indignance and threat of totally united and focused peasant revolt behind them.
The alternative is replacement by someone or lower of equally low principle, and what's the point of that?
Why the hell is Calamity Jones back as preferred no 1? Is Coyne injured? Can't seem to recall many games when Jones has kept clean sheets. As proved once again from this result with the late goal, he's an absolute disaster from start to finish and it beggars belief that he is still allowed to start games.
And to think Southgate/Gibson never renewed the far superior Turnbull's contract, allowing him to defect to bloomin Chelsea on a free. Jones has always been rubbish, so get rid of the bad rubbish Mr Strachan, I implore you!
This could have been another pretty satisfying away result, spoiled by the fact that yet again two priceless points were dropped.
Gareth's sore - understandably - but it's a tough business and he's done his share of dropping people/sacking people.
Thanks for what you did with the club, Gareth, and best of luck for the future. Now come on Gordon Strachan - and up the Boro!
Now that we have an experienced manager we have a chance of keeping Adam Johnson. That would have been almost an impossible dream under Southgate.
In the not too far distance past Southgate stated that if Steve Gibson thought it was in the interest of Middlesbrough Football team he would change the manager.
That has come to pass .
The critics of Steve Gibson should lay off him. Most of those critics will never experienced having to do such a difficult job. Steve Gibson still remains one of the best Chairmen in in English football and has confounded all his critics who said Southgate would still be in post no matter what the results. The final score for Southgate was two points above 10th place.