March 2010 Archives

RIGHT, you're all adults. And very astute. The sharpest dressed, best informed bunch among the cyber-space Borognescenti. So I won't be trying to pull your collective leg with any of those April Fool japes. Oh no.

WATFORD were fourth bottom and had lost three out of four at home but Boro - who needed to win to keep the season alive - couldn't beat them. Boro had two shots on target and until Leroy Lita came on they had nothing up front.

Boro have not won away in six - since Adam Johnson left - and have not kept a clean sheet on the road since Gordon Strachan took over. They lack a creative force, pace or cutting edge going forward and for all the added steel of McManus and the departure of erratic Sean St Ledger they still can not withstand sustained pressure. The end result is far too many disappointing draws against the dead men.

And that is why Boro are not going to feature in the play-offs.

ANOTHER week, another do-or-die, must-win, white knuckle ride as Boro go to Watford needing a win to keep the flickering play-off hopes alive. If you can't be there you can follow the quip-by-quip coverage on the Gazette live matchday blog and enjoy goal flashes, cynical commentary, nostalgia, music related puns and all the chaotic cyber-terrace babble from the Mosso Posse in the virtual Bosco Jankovic Stand. Join us.

LOCKDOWN! Infected Boro players are in medical isolation as a mystery virus rips through the already wafer thin squad leaving even the fittest, strongest highly trained athletes a sniffling, shivering mess. You've seen Survivors, you know the score.

SPAWNY AS! Jammy Boro were battered for long spells but scored twice on the break when under the cosh. Get in. A stonewall penalty is turned down, a ball comes back of the post hits the keeper and bounces wide then the best player on the pitch spoons a last gasp clearance to the feet of an unmarked Boro player six yards out from an open goal.

You have got to feel for Preston. That was as big an injustice as you will see this season but hey, we were due one.

THERE'S not much that the fractious Riverside crowd is united on in these turbulant times so it is nice to see a huge groundswell of daft quid fixed odds coupon consensus on Sean St Ledger tonight.

The "typical Boro" fatalistic streak enmeshed in our DNA has surfaced with a Teesside wide conviction that Boro's former £100,000 a game aborted loan cul-de-sac will score.

WORD leaked out in the press room that Reading boss Brian McDermott was the cousin of chrome-domed overly inventive TV chef Heston Blumenthal (snail ice cream? have a word....) and there's no doubt he has served up a revival recipe for the visitors.

For Boro though, the play-offs could now be off the menu after this hard to swallow and stodgy Riverside stalemate.

LIVE and direct from the virtual massive in the Bosko Jankovic Stand... Boro v Reading.

All the usual cynical quips, tourist advice and poor music based quips plus observations, news, views, live score updates from a global cast of thosands (well, hundreds anyway) and the occasional bit of live match reporting and food reviews from the Riverside.

Join us then. Or get in early with some pre-match punditry. Or be first on this thread with your post-match assesment. Come on Boro!

BORO have frozen their season ticket prices for early bird buyers.

That follows a slight trim last term and three years without price rise. That added to the extra games you get in the Championship - and you will almost certainly be getting them next term too - it represents a decent deal in financial terms. At a few coppers over £16 a game in the North Stand and less than a fiver for kids it is better value for money than many tickets at Hartlepool and Darlington and far cheaper than most of their rivals.

The benefit of buying a season ticket rather than going game by game works out at nine free matches. But of course, it is not just a financial consideration.

AT ONE point during the game with Derby all the results were going Boro's way and we were just one point behind Cardiff. On the whistle we were six. It feels far more.

That must be it now. Nine games to close that yawning gap - and they have a game in hand - and hope that all the other team chasing sixth place slip up along the way as well. And we would need to we would have to go to West Brom and Leicester and get something. No chance. Not if we are going to continue to let teams wriggle off the hook like that, failing to make chances count and then retreating to invite pressure. Self inflicted wounds again. Game over. We may as well get on with the cull.

More later...