Boro Dogged By Palace Coup.
EVERY dog has his day. Or not. Gordon Strachan denied the defeat at Palace was down to bad luck. "When the ball is going in the net and a dog runs on the pitch and stops the ball, that is bad luck." Boro failed to score. Again and again. Four decent chances went begging. It was ruff justice
Marcus Bent missed a sitter, spooning wide from eight yards out then soon after passed the ball back and forth with Lita in the box with neither marked or looking willing to pull the trigger. Gary O'Neil went one on one but had his chip tipped over.
And Leroy Lita broke free and with three team mates running clear and unmarked inside he opted to go outside and wide of the one remaining defender and took it took it wide before putting in what could have been a cross or equally could have been a shot from an angle that only exists in theoretical mathematics.
Jonathan Franks had a snapshot blocked too but didn't have a lot of time and it would be harsh to point the finger at him. The rest though came down to rank poor decisions over shooting and passing. And they were by Boro's most experienced players.
And the opposition scored from a poorly executed Boro set piece. For a second week running. Grrrr. Promotion hopes are fading fast. Unless Boro start to hit the target this team may not even make the play-offs.
Already people who had been screaming for Southgate's head are starting to wonder if they had not been too hasty in their early triumphalism. When Southgate went Boro were a point off the top. Now were are nine adrift and have slumped back to tenth, have not scored under the new boss and have not been magically transformed.
Already the honeymoon is over. Now there is an international break before the next match at home to Forest. It is crucial that Strachan's Boro are seen to have made progress in that time and that they put in a productive performance or the discontent will bubble back through the cracks and the anger put on hold for the new boss will reassert itself ... and this time it will not be aimed at the manager.
More later.
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Anthony Vickers
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I hear that the training cones are to be replaced by Banjos and cows backsides!
Same old stuff. A new manager isn't going to suddenly make our players better or more composed in goalscoring situations. Doesn't make it any less frustrating or annoying though.
Are we now allowed to start feeling seriously worried about any prospect of promotion?
It's now nine games since we last felt optimistic about our chances - it was after beating Sheffield Wednesday convincingly - and I remember reading all the praise from the Owls blog who described us as a class above the other teams in the division.
But we followed that up by being thrashed in the top-of-the-table clash against the Baggies and have now only mustered nine points from a possible 27 - which is pretty close to relegation form.
So it's back to that deja vu feeling again - a promising start...the goals suddenly dry up... we're conceding stupid late goals... lose matches we should have won... speculation our left wing wizard is leaving in January - a kind of Groundhog in a Freddie Kruger theme park.
Only Boro could get two big strikers on loan that might not even end up scoring any goals - Forlorn did nothing before getting injured and Bent has shown no indication that he's better than his 1 in 8 stats.
AV, can you give me anything to make me optimistic about getting promoted?
**AV writes: On the plus side, this is a very poor league so it is not as if the rest are vastly superior. And Boro ARE still creating chances, lots of them. It is not beyond the realms of possibility that either the new partnership can click or Boro bring in another one up front that starts to hit the target. But it now needs to happen very, very quickly. It's an important international break for GS2.
Ah well, another defeat. It would be easy to sit here and write about doom and gloom. However I am still full of optimism. We have a new manager! I am 100% convinced that Gordon Strachan will get it right.
He just needs time, as he says, to get his message through to the players. Yes we have too many young, inexperienced players at the moment and not enough older, wiser heads who can guide them through the rough, tough games. But it will get better and we will start winning games regularly, and soon.
We are creating chances which will be converted into goals. It just takes one miss-hit half chance to sneak into the net and confidence will return. And it could be someone like Jonathan Franks who will score it.
Roll on 21st November, home to Nottingham Forest. Have faith in Gordon Strachan!
Just to put some numbers on the task ahead:
If the front two continue to perform as they have for the remainder of the season, of the remaining matches (30), Boro will have to at least:
Win 22 and Draw a minimum of 1 (7 losses max)
Win 21 and Draw a minimum of 4 (5 losses max)
Win 20 and Draw a minimum of 7 (3 losses max)
Win 19 and Draw a minimum of 10 (1 loss max)
to get an automatic promotion position (2nd).
Anyone confident?
.......other than Lord Ken of Portrack?
I genuinely have no doubt we will turn it round and finish top two. We are just making it a lot harder for ourselves than it should have been.
The speed of Boro's decline is wholly alarming and I'm afraid I can't share any of the optimism declared here. Another couple of weeks and we will be firmly en
sconced in the bottom half and heading further south.
Any thought of this team being promoted is whistling in the dark I fear and now the 'fans' don't have Southgate to hold responsible just who is to blame?
Clearly the players Strachan has inherited are not good enough, even for this 'poor league', and without wholesale changes (which are not going to happen let's face it)the prospects of finishing in the top six are very dim.
I sincerely hope I am wrong but sitting here on a Sunday morning having been beaten by Crystal Palace and lying 10th in the table and sinking fast, I find it difficult to suppress my depression...
Well, what a shame. One point from the top, best away form in the division and on the brink of finally finding good home form.
Now, three games, one point. And fans (and Gibson/Lamb) are waking up to the harsh reality that maybe this wage cut and young squad wasnt actually that easy to manage. Just maybe mr Southgate was doing a great job. Whay a shame.
Southgate would have won the last three games, more probably than not.
Lets just hope he gets a decent club so he can countinue his excellent development into one of Englands finest managers.
And good luck to Strachan, who deserves our full backing along the hard road ahead. Still miss the gate, though. In a couple or more years the fans in general will realise what kind of talent we sacked.
We still have one of the best squads in this division and over the entire season we will finish in the top third.
It's not looking likely that we will finish top 2 at the moment. But that can change. More likely is a play off finish. To end the season with a wembley victory would be the ideal scenario.
COME ON BORO!!!
Lord Ken of Portrack you have made me laugh for the first time in a month. Portrack is part of Stockton so you must be a makem. No self especting boro fan could ever be so optimistic
Any way at least we won't lose next satuday which is a plus
Its not the result we looking for, and it hasn't been a good start for Strachan but we still have 30 games to go, and that means we have time to turn things around.
In the end I think we'll place 4th and face either QPR, Cardiff or Nottingham Forest come end of the season
Werdermouth is right to point out the parallels with last season. We had a really good start and played some decent football in the first two months before unravelling in what turned out to be spectacular style.
Nine from the last 27 points will not get anyone promoted and an 8 for /13 against goals tally in the same period doesn’t look too clever either. The question now is whether GS2 has the ability to pull things round and avoid the drift we saw last year. We also have to wonder if he can do it fast enough to give us any chance of being promoted.
Personally I see no reason why we can’t be in the mix, but it’s clearly going to be a much bigger task than many BORO supporters thought.
Oh dear looks more like Gordon "Stricken" than Strachan!
From Endhoven to mid table in the Championship, Messr's Gibson and Lamb are stretching "Blind faith" to unfathomable depths.
Looks like its going to be a cold and lonely winter at the Riverside unless GSII starts to actually make a difference rather than stating the obvious. At least now he knows why he was offered the Job but worryingly it doesn't look like anything has changed for the better.
I'm prepared to accept that things often dip when changes are made until everyone gets up to speed with the new methodology, its commonplace in industry but this is football and fickle fans with patience at a premium.
"Sold down the River" along with "Sack the Board" or even "Blind Faith your'e having a Laugh" are starting to look more and more ominous as Xmas draws ever nearer. Our own version of "A Christmas Carol" with Ghosts of Christmas Past, Present and Future may be beckoning over the Yuletide. Charlie Amer to play Jacob Marley (removes tongue from cheek)?
Anlov said:
"Southgate would have won the last three games, more probably than not. Lets just hope he gets a decent club so he can countinue his excellent development into one of Englands finest managers."
Can you tell us what hallucinogenic drugs you are taking? Your world looks brighter, if not entirely real. Can we all have some?
I thought it was a good performance, we weathered the early storm. Created four good chances, shame about the late goal. As an away performance it was just about complete, some of our finishing was top notch, Fabregas’s goal oozed quality. What is missing is …… oops I seamed to have stumbled on a Boro blog by accident. I am now officially a Gooner.
If only it was that easy. As mentioned before we are not too far away from having a decent side for this division. Unfortunately an inch may as well be a mile as we keep making the same silly errors. If we can sort it out I fear it will be too late for an automatic spot anyway. Twenty wins from 30 games, not impossible but as good as.
Is this as low as we will go? From behind the sofa, where I now spend Saturday afternoons, what can I see looming on the horizon? The devil itself! Saturday the 21st of November. Judgement Day. Why does it have to be them? Couldn’t it have been Arsenal, Man Utd, Real Madrid, anyone but the beast from the East (midlands).
Has anyone else noticed our dip in form has coincided with Sickly Come Prancing and Hex Factor coming on TV? I hate Saturdays.
Victory on the 21st
Mythbuster:
Well, there is no reason why Southgate wouldnt have continued his excellent away form against Preston and Crystal Palace. And after the Derby win at home the whole squad would have got a bit more confidence at home, and therefore beaten Plymouth. I'm quite convinced, actually.
But if this is true or not we will never know. My main point was that I hope the fans gradually will realise how hard Southgate's task really was, managing such a young and cheap squad.
His results with us were actually quite ok. Not even Capello or Wenger would have an easy time fighting relegation with the policy imposed from above. I reckon even the hardcore anti-Southgate fans will realise this, eventually.
steve h said:
"We still have one of the best squads in this division and over the entire season we will finish in the top third. It's not looking likely that we will finish top 2 at the moment. But that can change. More likely is a play off finish. To end the season with a wembley victory would be the ideal scenario."
Eh???!!!???
This is the worst Boro team since liquidation. They are destined to spend years in the Championship. The team just keeps repeating the same old mistakes which suggests either they aren't bothered or they're simply useless.
So far Strachan has spent two weeks making precisely no difference whatsoever.
This whole season has been utter rubbish and there's plenty more where that came from.
Pointless getting rid of Southgate and keeping Cooper and Agnew. Results haven't improved now Southgate's gone, so we still have the same people doing the everyday coaching of the team, and like Southgate, they're not good enough.
Forget the cheap option, and 'continuity', you get what you pay for. Continuity didn't work last time we changed the manager, either.
Get rid of Cooper and Agnew, and let Strachan bring in his own coaches. Then we might see some improved performances out on the playing field.
Not so long back I can remember a song which went "1 - 0 to the Arsenal".
I think the Boro fans could start an inverse of that "1 - 0 to the other team".
Seriously though, there is not much wrong really, if Bent and Lita can quickly forge some kind of scoring threat, then with the chances we are creating, we should start climbing the table.
We may not go up top two and have to settle for a playoff route; I also don't think both Newcastle and WBA will fill the top two spots, I think they may lose more players than us in January, this is what goes with being top, you get noticed. It actually maybe canny to be 5th or 6th come January as less of our players (AJ apart) will gain attention.
It still means that we should not be more than six points off a promotion spot, don't want to leave ourselves with to much to do, once the Skunks and the Albion have been weakened. Still think we should go in for Chopra.