
Last night, our red and white army held our breath in more ways than one as we headed to the land of smog and parmos. Years ago whilst driving through the streets of Boro I saw a bloke casually stood outside one of the town's many fried chicken emporiums with an eagle Owl on his arm. Do with that information what you will.
Anyway...
Adil headed off to Pompey last week. The fresh young Frenchman's been the closest thing we've had to a classic winger in a while. While his pace and skill haven't exactly set Wearside on fire he's at least done a job when we've needed him. He's got the odd decent ball into the box and been reasonable at most of his set pieces. However, the electric abundance of talent around him including the returning Watson, Mundle and Browne unfortunately leave no space for him. He does deserve first team minutes and hopefully Pompey will provide that for him. After all, the lad is only 22 and had an excellent youth career before he joined us, and still has many years ahead of him to grow into a decent player. We may see him return. Au Revoir, Mr O'Cheese.
Dodd's also wandered off to Wycombe this week. Apart from his short stints in a managerial role it’s difficult speculate how this will effect us in the short term. There have been periods of time where he had us playing some really nice footy. But then he also squandered opportunities when given the chance to step up. It's a hard job though and the players obviously love him. All the best, Mike.
By far the best bit of news this week was sealing the deal with Wilson. I know I'm not alone to be surprised by this. Usually, loanees who score don't usually stay. I'm sure you've noticed. "Don't fall in love with a loanee" they say. Since bursting onto the scene Wilson's scored goals, caused problems for defences and all whilst being 'fou comme un brosse'. Considering he did the interview on his permanent move to Wearside in his second language, he managed to not only eloquently underline the work he's done so far but more importantly be blindly authentic whilst doing so. The passion he expressed was heart warming, putting most of our big signings’ words over the last 20 years to shame. In short he seems a genuine person who cares. He's come up with the goods on and off the pitch. More of the same please, Issy.
Some might argue we're still lacking an assassin with an eye for goal but I feel like we have enough quality calibre players on the books to build a team around, as opposed to forcing players upon manager when they have a fairly rounded plan. Some nice rumours had surfaced but at the time of writing this most of them had seemed to be second hand news. Young Tommy Watson had also done a U-turn on the A1 and seemed to be staying put. It's nice to have the problem keeping players rather than buying them.
The last time we'd faced the Boro, Christopher Rigg had scored an audacious backheel that sent the red and shites back to Teesside with nothing but the honour of a day out at a proper football club.
After the mad changes RLB had made against Plymouth and Stoke in the cup earlier this month it had become clear that the gaffa had not only been trying to mix things up but also rest some of December's first team successful stalwarts. Samed's inclusion in last weeks side hadn't worked out. Let's leave it at that. Mid week RLB had discussed his refreshing approach to adaptable tactics. But would they work against the Teessiders?
Monday, 8pm - proper kick off time? Maybe on Mars...
Boro's tunnel was narrower than the points gaps at the top of the table. To their credit Middlesbrough had turned the Riverside into a smelly fortress - flashy lights, banners and a drum they'd learned how to bang. I'm sure I could even hear a megaphone. That kind of technology might be a bit advanced for them though.
We pressured early as the home side tactfully kept everyone behind the ball. Their new loanee from Bournemouth between the sticks had quite the baptism by fire ahead of him.
'We hate Sunderland' was heard from the home fans. We're not really that arsed. Sorry not sorry.
The home side started strongly and before we knew it we were one nil down. Roberts got fouled twice in the buildup. Could I say they deserved it? Nope. The assistant ref decided he'd seen nowt.
Afterwards, a studs up challenge on Bellers was ignored. Was it going to be one of those nights? Meps tested his Bournemouth teammate Travers with a blistering header and then followed it up by allowing said goalie to land on him as he attempted to catch the ball. Then the ref finally found his whistle when one of their lads pulled over Chris Rigg to the ground and we saw the first yellow of the evening. The home team were clearly trying to beat us at our own game - on the break.
Azaz tried and failed to add some pizzazz but most of the action was still going against us in the opening 20 mins. We began to sit too deep, on occasion stupidly playing out from Patto in his 6 yard box. The noisy home ground was strangely adorned with the dates of the years gone by, assumedly to mark dates when they hadn't achieved anything.
On the half hour mark, against the run of play Dan Neil stepped up. His shot took a whopping deflection, but nevertheless it was still on target so the goal deservedly went to him. We'd showed some excellent build-up play too. 1-1, game on.
Rigg got through on goal and Boro picked on him again, barging him to the floor and getting non of the ball in the process. It was one of those nights. Chris had arguably been our best player in the opening fotty minutes, tracking back and bothering them in the final third. The Reds had begun to look ropey. Enzo produced a backheel 'megs worth its weight in gold.
At this point I'd like to point out I'd definitely seen the ref look into camera twice. Again, do with that information what you will. The aptly named Steve Martin had so far been a bit of a joke. No Banjo though. Half time rolled around and things had gradually swung back our way. Le fee had left Ayling ailing on several occasions. Julio appeared at half time and we saw the old fan favourite receive some kind of certificate. Fair enough. He scored more goals for us by the way, Smoggies.
The second half began and we began to dig our heals in with grit and gusto. Boro looked visibly worried. This culminated 5 minutes in, when Enzo slotted a perfect ball to Wilson who promptly ruined Travers’ debut with a brilliant shimmy, sending the goalie the wrong way before passing into the goal to put us ahead. Gerrup.
This woke up the home side again, albeit briefly. Things seemed to have clicked for us. We'd narrowly missed the mark on at least three occasions in the next few minutes. Backheels, switching the play, clever runs off the ball - all that jazz. Then, totally against the run of play, the Smogs scored a worldie. We lost the ball in the middle, dropped off too much and gave their homegrown midfielder Hackney enough space to do the business. At full stretch Patto could do nowt about it.
"You're not singing anymore" - we were though. But well done for trying.
A brilliant tackle from LO9 on the edge of the box and we pushed back in the right direction. Issy got through on goal with a snapshot out of the blue. The resulting corner somehow ended with Enzo crumpled in a heap on the floor. He was fine though.
On 70 mins Samed was swapped for Rigg. We'll just gloss over that for now. We began to sit too deep for my liking. My son Jack (Grandson of Sobs) then joined me, tactfully asking if he could watch even though it's a school night. I can't say no to that, can I? Well played, son.
Mayenda joined the fray with a minimum of 10 minutes to play, Wilson having put in a good shift. With not long to go the stats remined me Boro had a habit of scoring late on and we had a habit of conceding.
Jobe pivoted into the same higher position role he'd played last week and Samed slotted in behind. Enzo once again stepped up and provided a cross so good that the home side score against themselves. Jack must be good luck! 2-3 to us.
"BY FAR THE GREATEST TEAM THE WORLD HAS EVER SEEN"
After celebrating for too long and explaining to Jack exactly why Enzo was mint, I noticed Poveda had come on. He has seemed like a promising prospect. In the short time he's been with us, I can't remember seeing him run anywhere else other than at goal. However he then had an opportunity to kill the game, sadly the young Columbian was terrified to use his weaker foot and fell over instead. He picked himself up, panicked and put in a silly challenge gaining him a yellow. Impactful to say the least.
95 minutes and it was all over.
Samed had put in a much better shift than his last appearance, but that bar was lower than a limbo grand final. He seems to permanently have the expression of teenager who's snuck into a rival school's disco. Today however he'd done some good things. Our fullbacks had also provided decent displays. Mr O9 had saved us from some squeaky moments, including one great header that got them out of our box. Meps had been his usual calm self. Riggy had a brill first half but ran out of steam a little bit, and I can't remember Jobe losing the ball at all… apart from the bad pass that led to their 2nd goal. I don't do a man of the match, Fatha does that. That being said, Enzo looked effortless tonight. His first touch before the cross for our third was excellent. Even Ayling seemed to smile on more than one occasion when he got skinned by him.
Far from a perfect performance. There's always room for improvement but at the end of the day - we got the job done. The scenes post-match were simply incredible.
Keep the faith,
GPD.