It's A Matter Of Control For Boro

A matter of hours after everything good about Boro came to fruition in a dazzling second-half demolition of the not-so-Tricky Trees, a Rovers Return laced with realistic reflection and pitiful regret awaited for the 7,000 Boro fans who travelled to Ewood Park and back on a very frosty Sunday.

Another chance to maintain pace with the Championship’s top two was foiled by a spirited Blackburn side up for a battle. Once again, their Eastwood – Simon, that is – was not about to make our day, denying our forwards with clever positional sense and a handful of good saves.

It is a sign of how far we’ve come as a club in 2014 that we regret dropping points rather than realistically accept that an away point is a good point, especially against play-off chasers and especially in the midst of a congested fixture list, where player rotation feels mandatory. Lest the game sound one-sided, Blackburn had their chances too, most notably through Jordan Rhodes, Rudy Gestede and the excellent Tom Cairney.

And there were positives. Dean Whitehead played very well as a makeshift right-back. Ben Gibson and Daniel Ayala were superb, keeping Tabbs (sic) on Blackburn’s crosses where and when Boro’s backline against Ipswich couldn’t. In the second half, Grant Leadbitter stepped up a gear and drove Boro forward with urgency and skill.

On its own terms, the performance and result are commendable, but in the greater scheme of things, those terms are piddling. All fans will see is bubbling Bournemouth, irresistible Ipswich and deadly Derby creeping further and further away as our chances of automatic promotion seemingly thin.

Still, it is possible to misread or overlook things. For starters, I thought on Sunday that Milos Veljkovic had a poor match. He had been invisible; age, inexperience and being in Adam Clayton’s shadow had gotten the better of a player who lacked presence and ran out of steam in the second half. Only on reflection did I realise that he had likely been assigned a Michael Carrick-esque role of breaking up attacks so that the rest of the team could “get on with it” – a task he carried out impressively in the eyes of Philip Tallentire and Len Masterman. It’s the kind of individual performance that can easily be overlooked in the heat of a match you’re so keen to win.

Similarly, I wasn’t too impressed by Kike. I felt his attitude and poor decision-making had weighed down the team. Never mind that it later transpired that he had shown the three best first touches on the pitch, and that Boro could – not necessarily should – have put the game to bed long before his post-hitting thunderbolt, Patrick Bamford’s missed sitter or even Jelle Vossen’s first-half effort.

No, for me the definitive miss of the game was Adam Reach’s early, early chance, taken from him after a too heavy touch allowed Eastwood to make the save. It was the sort of opening you would have expected Reachy to put away, and by missing it Boro burdened themselves with unnecessary hassle and pressure.

But it’s not, and never has been, as simple as blaming our failings on individuals and individual foibles on the day. I recall that gloriously unexpected Saturday afternoon in February 2006 when the cracks began appearing in Jose Mourinho’s magic formula, thanks to Boro puncturing the aura of dominant fear he had managed to cast over nearly every team that had taken him on in the Premier League for two seasons. The magic of the early goal – scored by Fabio Rochemback that day, and scored by Patrick Bamford three times this season for Boro – is how it can spur teams like Boro on and fill them with belief they never knew they had. However, what if such teams do not capitalise on their early dominance? What if opposition sides are technically strong enough, spirited enough or well organised enough to deal with every single one of their forays?

Blackburn had both the spirit and organisation to prevent Boro dictation in either half. Our right flank was negligible as an attacking force; twice, Yanic Wildschut was forced to cut inside to create opportunities. Even when Bamford replaced Wildschut, Gary Bowyer’s side quickly adapted to closing down Boro’s goalden boy. When he hit the bar of a gaping goal, that summed up Boro’s day as a whole: a classic case of calm composure giving way to desperate frustration. The same frustration that played a part in Vossen disappearing (again), Lee Tomlin disappointing, Kike’s attitude and George Friend’s below par crosses. By game’s end, the swagger of the first ten minutes had vanished entirely.

And playing with a swagger has its ups and downs. It creates an image of superiority, enhancing both a team’s confidence and chances of victory because they feel like the big fish in a small pond. But it also creates entitlement, ensuring that said team is less likely to earn the admiration they clearly desire – it is a matter of trying to have their cake and eat it too. On one hand, Boro cry “Dude, Where’s Our Respect?” when we don’t get much time on the Football League Show; on the other hand, we don’t like it when our manager and players are linked with bigger and better things. It’s like trying to stay under the radar while being keen to be in the spotlight – and you can’t have it both ways.

Bournemouth overtake us in this regard, alas. Because, with their modest, affable fan of a manager, their small stadium, and their not-very-well known squad, they are the genuine “little big fish”. Their rise from the bottom to the top of the Football League is the stuff of dreams, made for Hollywood movies. Ask yourself, who is more likely to be everyone's favourite second team (TM)?

So the real question, which seems no nearer to being answered, is: how are Boro going to cope on off days, when we will be required to grind out results and when we will not be in control of things? That, I believe, will ultimately define where we finish in 2014-15.

(The original version of this piece was published online at GazetteLive on January 2, 2015.)