UNTYPICAL Boro? Last year Boro would have lost that game. Either because they would not have recovered physically from the early aerial assault as a long ball outfit grabbed the game by the throat and turned it into a toe-to-toe war of attrition and would have wilted and leaked under pressure, or because they would not have recovered mentally from the blows of missing the penalty and then leaking an own goal. Last year after the set-back of the oggie they would have unravelled in the closing stages and also conceded a last gasp winner.
It is easy to criticise if you really want: Boro let a limited side set the agenda for the first half hour and allowed themselves to be dragged into a scrappy, shapeless tussle that was a hostile environment for the silky stuff that is our forte and they squandered a string of good chances to seal it. Alves looked like he was carrying a fake Brazilian passport as he headed wide and stumbled over the ball early doors. O'Neil and Shawky, industrious and unflustered at Anfield, were ineffective and chaotic in the middle in the high-tempo hectic first half. Justin Hoyte struggled at times as high rise Stoke threw the ball forward. And at times it was far from pretty.
But the win over Stoke - the kind of a game that historically Boro as favourites would have under-performed in before being caught cold and losing - shows a new toughness and determination. They showed patience, resilience and steel. Psychologically it was a massive result for the team and for the crowd. A defeat would have sent the faint hearts and cynics scurrying for the comfortable certainties of historical mediocrity. In fact the crowd stayed patient and determined themselves, they cheered Stewie Downing passionately and supportively after he missed the penalty, a symbolic vocal arm around the shoulder, and who stayed and cheered to the end, even at the expense of beating the traffic.
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