Saturday Morning Slaver
When I opened my eyes about an hour ago, the sun was streaming through the curtains and everything seemed to say to me “victory”. Certainly, defeat doesn’t bear thinking about. Boro have done well so far this season and with Julio likely to be in the game at some point as well as Shawky plus Mido hitting form at last and Downing playing well, they’re going to be a real handful. Our 3-2 victory back in late April confirmed our Premier League status for another season and was a classic match with another characteristic late-winner. So far our performances have slackened off in the second half and we need to play to the whistle as we often did so effectively last season. Wigan’s equaliser last week also made it clear that our back four are far from solid so let’s hope they’ve managed to gel together in training since then. I hope Chopra is on the bench in case we need to bring him on to get a late winner as I think he’s definitely capable of doing just that. Is it a derby? It was always considered as such back in the Sixties when I lived in Sunderland but times have clearly changed. We used to chant that we were Geordies back then too. Result? It’s going to be another rough and tumble affair with us emerging as 2-1 winners.

The Match
I was under the illusion that the match was on Setanta but when I got down to the Pavilion at the end of my street, I realised my mistake and managed to get back home and get Radio Newcastle on the computer in the eighth minute of the game. Pretty soon we got our first corner after good work by McCartney but Boro sounded dangerous on the subsequent counter-attack and were the more impressive side for the next ten minutes or so, culminating in a good Gordon save from Downing. Cisse stormed back up the left to relieve the pressure and win the first of two corners and a few minutes later Turnbull made a great save from Cisse, not knowing he was offside. There was a big ripple for Julio as he warmed up on the sidelines, no doubt from our fans as I was surprised to hear that Boro had failed to take up all of their 3,000 ticket allowance. The attendance of 38,388 was surprisingly low. Wheater avoided a yellow card after booting Malbranque’s ankle. He didn’t do much to endear himself in the last match between us, I seem to recall. By the half-hour mark we’d managed to restore the balance of play with Whitehead and Malbranque getting a lot of positive comments. It was end to end stuff for the last ten minutes with a few decent chances for both sides. Just before half-time an injured Tainio was subbed by Chopra, who moved up front to accompany Cisse. So, it was 0-0 at the break and that meant we hadn’t scored a home goal for two and a half games. My earlier optimism had somewhat faded by this stage and it was looking like 1-0 either way.

Boro weren’t missing Mido, who’d been injured in the warm-up, as Alves was doing well as his replacement and Gordon excellently tipped his long-distance shot over after we’d been on the back-foot for the first ten minutes of the second-half. It was sounding like we’d never create a serious goal-chance and my frustration was echoed by the SoL crowd but just after the hour-mark Boro messed up a clearance and Cisse’s effort was blocked on the line. That livened the crowd up a lot but then after some good build-up play, Cisse failed to pass to an unmarked Diouf in front of goal and I could just picture his face. I have the horrible feeling that Cisse’s great future is already behind him. Boro continued to show they could break dangerously with Downing’s shot being well saved. In the 68th minute Shawky and Hoyte replaced Digard and Johnston while Reid and Murphy replaced Diouf and Cisse and both teams were now playing 4-4-2. Shortly afterwards Turnbull saved very well from Richardson but almost immediately the latter was booked for the third time this season. In the 73rd minute Boro were awarded a dodgy penalty, when Nos was judged to have brought down Alliadiere after Whitehead’s mistake, but justice was done when Downing blasted it way over. We were straight back up the other end and the crowd were buzzing for the next five minutes or so 'till Chops kept his cool and stormed through the box to slot us 1-0 up. A few minutes later he went close again when his header from a good cross from Murphy was well saved by Turnbull. Chimbonda had certainly pulled his socks up since the Wigan game and was getting loads of praise for his storming runs down the right while McCartney was doing a similar job on the left. Boro pressurized in the last five minutes and though I was sitting on the edge of my sofa in Ladbroke Grove, I was right by Nos’s side heading away their every cross (and there were rather too many of them for my liking). In the second minute of added time Murphy’s shot fortuitously fell for Malbranque, who coolly rolled the ball into the path of Chops and he made no mistake as he scored our second.

Good substitutions won us this game with Reid, Murphy and Chopra all doing very well after we’d never really looked like scoring. It was a great result for us all and especially for Chopra, who after his recent troubles must this afternoon be feeling on top of the world. We’re now fifth in the Premier League, for a couple of hours at any rate. See you at Villa.

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