Gunned Down Boro Must Look Back Up

Let's start with a little trip down memory lane.

I still remember when a Boro fan from Stockton wrote into the now defunct football weekly 90 Minutes to state that the magazine ought to revise their prediction of 11th for the infamous class of 1996-97.

The fan was convinced that Curtis Fleming, Steve Vickers and Robbie Mustoe were quality players of the highest level (which is clearly overdoing it, love them though we do) and that Boro had earned the right to be classified as potential treble challengers (which was really overdoing it, love that though we would have).

Yet you couldn't blame him for getting excited. For he wrote that letter in the middle of September 1996, when we had recorded four straight victories, conceding just two goals and scoring a remarkable nineteen. Even if fifteen of those goals came against then fourth tier Hereford United and two struggling Premier League sides who would ironically survive at our expense.

Then, as 90 Minutes' reply put it, poor Vickers “gifted three points to the Arsenal” as Boro were comfortably swept away in a 2-0 defeat to the Gunners. Being the second highest scorers in the league with eleven goals at the Riverside had counted for little against a strong side who closed down our foreign legion brilliantly and poked holes in our defence. Struggling Southampton did the exact same at The Dell the following week and our league form began its downward spiral.

Something similar is extremely unlikely to happen today, particularly with our foundations being much stronger (albeit almost wholly in second tier football), but I couldn't help but get deja vu at the final whistle on Sunday. Marching into the Emirates on the back of SIX successive victories, with twelve scored, just three conceded and a great triumph at the home of the Premier League Champions in the bag, we had every reason to feel confident.

Perhaps overconfident. The talk in the run up to the game, especially from the broadsheets, was of Towering Totem Tomlinho taking down the Gunners and Aitor Karanka claiming another Premier League scalp. Now, no one's doubting Lee Tomlin's ability or his improvement under Karanka, but come on; one great turn and shot against City and he's suddenly England's Next Great Hope? Please.

It's easy to say in hindsight, but perhaps AK, Tomlin and Boro needed their bubble burst to put things in perspective and remind them that promotion really is the priority. And if one casts a more critical eye over that great Etihad victory, one will find that City were going through a barren spell of just one league win in six, with a home draw and a near home defeat against struggling Burnley and Hull respectively.

By contrast, since losing at Stoke in December, Arsenal had won ten out of thirteen league and cup games prior to facing Boro. Not that this would deter Boro - “so much for the form book” is an often-uttered cliché – but this in-form Arsenal team were an entirely different beast to an out-of-form City.

This was not Eastlands, where Boro were able to match City's patient, pressing passing game with extremely stingy defending, penetrating midfield breaks and moments of Tomlin magic. Hampered by additional and unwanted nerves stemming from increased expectations and a raised profile, Boro found themselves feeling the full force of Arsene Wenger's classy collective from the very first whistle.

Inspired by the brilliant Santi Cazorla, the Gunners burst out of the blocks at a high tempo and, once Olivier Giroud's brace had established their lead, comfortably saw the game out, threatening to add to their margin of victory through a mixture of calm possession and penetrative, visionary passing.

It felt like tiki-taka with a difference, a combination of playmakers and match-winners who dreamed to dare, and effectively silenced the opposition's own attack through graceful dictation rather than dogged defending. If Boro weren't a threat, it wasn't so much because they limply folded. It was more because their style of play and mentality were not geared to take the Gunners on at their own game.

Arsenal's calm assertion took its toll on the entire Boro team, barring the excellent Tomas Mejias. Tomlin was virtually invisible, and Jelle Vossen and Kike fared little better. Grant Leadbitter, Adam Clayton and Patrick Bamford were all negligible as attacking threats, with Bamford really feeling the pressure from having to repeatedly drop deep to try and win the ball.

Even Boro's central defensive pairing were not as impressive as we hoped they'd be, Kenneth Omeruo's wretched distribution and uneven positional sense casting a shadow over an otherwise determined display from the Nigerian.

To their credit, our flankers – particularly Ryan Fredericks, George Friend and substitute Adam Reach – battled gamely to inject life into a blunted Boro. Yet it was not Fredericks' cross and Kike's post-hitting header that lingered longest, but poor Albert Adomah's short run and shot that flew wide. He had tried, and failed, to recapture the Adomah of old, gradually left behind after AK reigned in the attacking instincts of our wide men in a successful bid to tighten us up.

Now, to a point, there's nothing wrong with that. Especially when it's part of a platform to contain opposition attacks and establish dictation. But what happens when the team comes up against a side with the sharpness to deny them control and the vision to pierce their back line? And what if you don't have the requisite pace to counter theirs? (Here's where AK gambling on Yanic Wildschut or Emilio Nsue might not have been such a bad bet.)

Another big question AK should ask his men is why, after having repeatedly proven themselves full of attacking options, Boro looked almost entirely out of ideas once Tomlin was snuffed out.

Yes, I know we were playing Arsenal in their own backyard. Yes, I know teams have off days. But that doesn't mean that the game can be just swept under the carpet as if it never happened. It's the “We got a bad result, but no problem, we'll get it right next time” attitude.

The team may very well get the right result next time. But that's not the point. The point is, the longer you paper over cracks, the more likely they are to come back and bite you in the proverbial... as Liverpool found out last year when Steven Gerrard slipped against Chelsea.

And as we may find out, if we don't pull ourselves together and set out to right the wrongs at Birmingham and during every match that follows.

Here's hoping for much better at St. Andrews.

(Originally published online at GazetteLive on February 17, 2015.) Read more...

The SAM Index - Structure, Adaptation, Mentality - Is Key To Boro's Jolly January

We reflect on key issues and memories from that rarest of Januaries for Boro – a generally happy one

It's been uttered ad infinitum, or worse, ad nauseam, that “Boro come down with the decorations”.

That any Boro squad who fill us with hope and glory in the closing months of one year will almost certainly let us down at the very beginning of the next, if not for longer.

The three straight league defeats that threw MoggaBoro's promotion push right off course in January 2012 come to mind. It was even worse the following year with the run of FIVE straight league defeats that began at Pride Park at the very beginning of 2013, a year of very few thrills for Boro.

Going back much, much further, who remembers when the “wise old heads” who won at Old Trafford before Christmas 1998 alarmingly metamorphosed, as one newspaper put it, into “horribly one-paced, goal shy pensioners” when they played at Elland Road in January? Even in the successful promotion campaign of 1997-98, we didn't escape January unscathed, a 3-0 hammering at Charlton being a lowlight. (Good job we only played twice in the league that month.)

Aitor Karanka's Boro and their delightful bucking of said trend has been more than a breath of fresh air – it's been, despite the odd hiccup, a pleasure. Five wins out of six in league and cup with a solitary goal conceded have hugely lifted spirits amongst Riversiders and the travelling Parmo Army. Especially the travelling Parmo Army who were there at the Etihad.

What's our secret? What have AK, Steve Agnew, Leo Percovich, the rest of the coaching staff and the players – for it really is a collaborative effort – done to create a side that, all being well, looks like it could be the most robust, solid and durable of the Riverside years?

There's no easy answer, but I put it down to what I call the SAM Index – Structure, Adaptation, Mentality. All three of which were fully in effect against Manchester City.

We will talk of Lee Tomlin's chipped pass to Albert Adomah, of Dean Whitehead keeping Sergio Aguero in his pocket, of Tomas Mejias finally winning over the doubters, of Patrick Bamford's dogged persistence, of Kike ending a goal-scoring drought and a “Tomlinho” turn that left Vincent Kompany for dead and deserved a goal it didn't get.

But there was no one hero from the display (although, if I had to pick one, it would be Daniel Ayala) – it was truly a team effort, build on rock solid foundations, flashes of maverick-like skill (from Tomlin) and the correct mental and organisational approach to the circumstances at hand.

In the centre of the park, Boro work best in pairs. That much is clear. And with our first-choice centre back pairing of Daniel Ayala & Ben Gibson available, and the engine room of Grant Leadbitter and Adam Clayton on song, the patient, probing passing game of Manchester City – which reminded me very much of our own passing game – was eventually drained of its effectiveness and induced with a panicky streak.

Boro, billed as the underdogs, thrived in the guise of such a tag; the reality was that one good team was taking on another, with the pompous and entitled bubble of the Premier League Champions set to be punctured.

You sensed that AK suspected that City were there for the taking, and told the players so at half time. And so it was that as City tired, Boro grew in confidence and countered their passing movements with penetrating, direct breaks through the centre of the park – two of which led to goals. Boro had adapted while a strong defensive structure and positive mental attitude had been maintained.

A degree of praise should be offered, too, to the previous managerial regime that helped lay the foundations for this success – Whitehead, Ayala, Gibson, George Friend, Leadbitter, Adam Reach and Albert Adomah, half of the fourteen who featured on the pitch, were all initially signed by or came through under Tony Mowbray and Mark Venus. It's enough to make any Boro fan feel immensely warm hearted.

Alas, there are downsides to all of this.

We talk about “strength in depth”, but those three words can so easily be exposed as myth when the right players are missing. It's not about quantity, but quality, and City have always lacked that extra zip in the absence of totem Yaya Toure. Nor should it be forgotten that once Manuel Pellegrini brought on a genuine midfield match winner in Frank Lampard, he almost got City out of jail.

The arrival of Adam Forshaw, who looks right at home in Boro's engine room, has given us much needed back-up in the centre of the park, but even so, are we anywhere near as effective without the pivotal Grant Leadbitter? Leads has been referred to as “Boro's Xavi” and while that is rather hyperbolic, his presence elevates the entire team performance.

And it was needed against Brentford last Saturday. Boro may have passed the Promotion Test of “winning while playing badly”, but virtually every note about that performance rang false. Mentally, it only differed from the Portman Road defeat in that Boro didn't get punished for not being at the races, particularly during one moment in the second half where all the defenders seemed to converge at the near post for a corner. So much for organisational skills.

Boro suffered the curse of a raised media profile, which leads to every opposition manager starting to pay more attention to your team. Lee Tomlin's three goals in two games and barnstorming match in Manchester hadn't gone unnoticed; every Brentford player seemed to have their eye on him. Mark Warburton's side worked hard to deny us room to break through the middle, forcing Boro to resort to almost aimless long balls, except the one that led to the converted penalty.

For a team that has, in my opinion, the three most technically gifted front men in the league and has shown endless attacking alternatives this season, it was surprising how short of ideas we seemed. Hopefully this will only be an aberration.

There were, of course, positives: our usual solid defending (once we'd woken up), Leads leading the way as only he could, Forshaw's commendable cameo and Ryan Fredericks working his way back to fitness. He will offer us an extra attacking outlay from the flank that we've been lacking recently.

But what of Albert Adomah? What, indeed? While Mogga-era players like Friend, Reach and Gibson have successfully adapted to and even improved under the AK regime, the flying winger we signed from Bristol City a year and a half ago doesn't look entirely comfortable.

His lack of confidence in front of goal is all too clear. It's quite probable that he would have converted that chip against City and that missed chance against Brentford last year. Such misses seem consequential of a change in footballing identity from individual match-winner to consistent team player. One who is more defensive and disciplined than daring and, arguably, directly visionary.

Clearly, AK believes in Adomah, but not in the way Adomah wants AK to believe in him: you sense Albert thrives on being the centre of attention in attack. I think if AA re-invents himself fully and gets back on the goalscoring trail, like Andy Cole did after a similar painful period at Manchester United years ago, it may well be one of the stories of the season.

And on that note, it's time to look forward to February - starting with Charlton.

Up The Boro!

(Originally published online at GazetteLive on February 6, 2015.) Read more...

Kip In The Cup: Boro Snooze Off New Year Hangover

Boro's interest in the FA Cup ended as early as it has tended to in recent years, with the "concentrate on the league" mantra masking a wretched, spineless and slightly worrying display against the future City Of Culture's “Tigers". Naturally this writer, a citizen of the 2013 City Of Culture, was more than a little miffed.

Playing in an overly defensive formation, our players seemed too in awe of a Hull City side that frankly won at a canter.

Of course, it's not the end of the world. This is a much improved Hull City from the team we turned over 2-0 at the Riverside last season, and a cup exit does not, or at least should not, directly affect our ability to continue our recently improved league form.

Unfortunately, the emphasis ought to be on "should not" – the 2-0 defeat here carries on the loss of momentum after the first twenty minutes at Reebok Stadium to date.

More than that, it felt like the last week of 2013 had never happened, with disinterested players phoning in their work as if they thought the day was a holiday.

To state "with Boro's No-Longer-Rolls-More-Like-Reliant-Robin-Rhys reinstated the clean sheet record and winning run ended" might sound simplistic, and go against the "no scapegoats" theory I promoted heavily in my last column. But his mentality and lack of confidence appear to be spreading themselves to the rest of the team in the same manner that Nigel Pearson's absence in 1996-97 and Robert Huth's departure in 2009-10 severely damaged the all around strength of our back lines then. And in Karanka's Boro, where the success has been founded on collective solidity, this is a major problem.

Anyone's worst fears about Rhys Williams should have been confirmed yesterday – he is too moody, too cavalier and too in love with his own ability. He is the Nicklas Bendtner of Championship utility men – you sense that if he were half the player he thinks he is, he’d be twice the player he actually is.

But Rhys was only one problem on a day when tactics and team selection unexpectedly, and worryingly, backfired.

Rare starts were given to Dimitrios Konstantopoulos and Luke Williams in what was, perhaps understandably, a more cautious containment system from AK. The boss played a 4-2-3-1, featuring Grant Leadbitter and Dean Whitehead as holding midfielders in front of a back four with Reliant Robin Rhys in the centre. This gave Emmanuel Ledesma and Luke Williams freedom to roam either side of Marvin Emnes, behind Curtis Main.

The idea undoubtedly seemed that, as has been Boro’s wont recently, Main would hold the ball up and create chances for our attacking midfield trio, if he wasn’t lucky enough to receive goal-scoring service himself.

It didn't pay off. Leadbitter's deeper role curtailed his licence to attack. AK's policy of restricting the full-backs' runs reduced already limited penetrative width. And with Ledesma playing slightly more centrally in front of the engine room, his mistakes were less likely to be covered up; as it proved when his unnecessary dwelling on the ball led to the first Hull goal.

Disappointing though both "Dimi" and Luke Williams were, I won't blame them – both were thrust into the spotlight and expected to perform. More worthy of negativity were the team's attitude and general performance level in the second half.

Following the half-time break, AK attempted to rectify things by immediately bringing on Albert Adomah for Ledesma, and Lukas Jutkiewicz for Luke Williams. Rather, however, than push Emnes out to the wing, advance our central midfield pairing and play Main and Jutkiewicz in tandem, as expected, AK appeared to stick with his more cautious formation and move Main to the left. By the time Jacob Butterfield came on for Emnes, no one appeared to care, the stuffing having long been knocked out of Boro by another Hull goal.

Cup game or not, such a snooze worthy, apathetic display should not be cast aside as a mere footnote. Were David N'Gog's late goal and AK's public criticism more damaging to team morale than we thought they would be? Was it more a question of the right system, but the wrong players?

Amidst this hopefully temporary gloom, there is some good news.

Nigerian international Kenneth Omeruo is set to join Boro on loan from Chelsea as a more than likely replacement for Daniel Ayala (at this moment in time, we have heard no guarantee of Ayala's loan being extended).

While we should of course mistrust all YouTube highlights – we have been there before with Afonso Alves, and they can be very selective indeed – I like what I see in Omeruo. He appears to read the game well, he looks strong, and, on the whole, comes across as the kind of ball playing centre half that might fit AK's high tempo pressing game better than Rhys.

At least there's some light at the end of the Boro tunnel leading up to the Blackpool game. Read more...

Boro vs. Chelsea: Won't Get Fooled Again?

Even if Boro get a good result tonight, will it actually mean anything? Si's Insights looks forward to tonight's FA Cup clash with caution

I remember the days when one look at the entrance of the then-Cellnet (ah, the joys of corporate sponsorship) Riverside Stadium was enough to give one a tingle, to make one dream of going there. Sixteen-year-old me loved the futuristic look of the stadium, and the fashionably unorthodox kit, with the BORO in the background and the badge on the sleeve. Little did I know at the time that it was a glossy veneer spread over a flimsy, tacky framework... like much of season 1996-97 was.

Every now and then during the first half of that wretched campaign - let's face it, excluding August, the first half of September and most of March, that season was hell - a good performance or goal would rise, convincing us that we might just have turned the corner, only for us to revert to type soon after. The win over Newcastle in the last sixteen of the then Coca-Cola Cup was the ultimate case in point. With injuries and divisions in the camp escalating - Emerson and Ravanelli had hit the headlines for all the wrong reasons, and Juninho had to publicly state how happy he was in the area to quieten the tabloids - we proceeded to pull the wool over everyone's eyes, me included, with a Juninho-inspired all around attacking display that sent us all into dreamland. But the Newcastle game was simply a case of spoiling us rotten to try and make up for and disguise league ineptitude. It was a mirage, not an oasis.

The 3-1 victory was utter wishful thinking, a sign of the team we hoped Boro would be. But in the long term scheme of things, it meant nothing. Sure, it felt great to see our foreign legion in full flow - well, one of them anyway. It felt great to see our two mismatched - not that we cared at the time - strikers scoring. It felt great to see the maligned Derek Whyte taking the chance to stick one up at his critics. And it felt great to beat the title contenders at a full Riverside.

But look at that Newcastle team again. Vulnerable on their travels; a big name, weak-willed manager; a wealthy local benefactor; an international attack; an erratic South American; a dodgy defence. Were they really that different from Boro? To be brutally honest, it did appear that having seen their progress following promotion, Gibson and Robson were trying to emulate them. If so, this was folly; Boro were attempting, and failing, to take after a flawed team who were just fortunate to have a much larger fan base, plus Shearer and Ferdinand at their peak. Yet we've still won more than them in the last two decades...

Fast forward thirteen years to a not-too-dissimilar situation. A Boro side with a dodgier defence and a promising but erratic, wasteful and worst of all, misfiring attack find themselves virtually sleepwalking to the dreaded drop. Yet once they reach the last sixteen of a cup competition, this time, the FA Cup, we see exciting flowing football, a solid determined defence and two superbly taken goals. Better still, it paves the way for a 2-0 triumph over Liverpool at the weekend, one of just two defeats that season for the Merseysiders.

Alas, normal service is resumed at Spurs the following week.

I've concluded on numerous occasions, perhaps slightly unreasonably, that Boro have shown themselves capable of consistency and professionalism and choose for the most part not to be. So much for the Doom To Boom waxed lyrical about in Dave Allan and Adrian Bevington's book of the same name... more like almost consistent doom with a temporary, misleading boom here and there.

Even a win over Chelsea tonight and a win over Cardiff at the weekend will around mistrust. We've established ourselves as The Club That Cried Wolf, a team that's given so many false alarms that you wonder why we should be convinced when they actually do produce something of worth.

Now, tonight could (don't laugh) see something like that famous 3-0 win over Chelsea seven Februarys ago. You know, the one that inspired survival and two memorable cup runs. But, judging by history, it's bound to be a fleeting moment.

It's such a shame. There is undeniable talent at this club of ours. But what will we do with it?

* * * * *

POSTSCRIPT: Well, we didn't get a chance to do very much with it in the end. We gave it a good go, and it was great to see Scott McDonald back to full fitness. But the gulf in class was all too striking - we didn't seriously, consistently threaten the Chelsea goal until the game was beyond us and they had "switched off" a little. It remains to be seen whether a "combative loss" will be enough to spark a winning run, especially since our imperious home form seems to have evaporated. Read John Powls' piece at Boro Banter for a more detailed account of the match. Read more...

Penetration's What We Need

As Si's Insights celebrates its NewsNow approval (yes, you can check us out there now too), another barren January, with very few moments of light relief, concludes. Another transfer window closes. And despite what you have to admit has become a typical run of form at this time of year, we find ourselves in the last sixteen of the FA Cup and with the chance to close the gap on second-placed Leicester City to three points.

But the question of what to do about Boro, which I posed when I sat down for a while to gather my thoughts after the Watford defeat, remains no different.

For almost the entire first half of our last home league game, it was like watching... how do I put it? "Borocelona". The foundation of our success this season was there for all to see; a steady, patient, probing passing game that has been, for the most part, extremely effective, and at times a joy to watch.

Problem is, the "patience" in said style of play makes it extremely difficult for us to get back into a game once we go behind. So our second-half self destruction, while painful to witness, wasn't entirely unexpected.

What that game did was expose the limitations of our "dream midfield quartet" of Leadbitter, Haroun, Ledesma and McEachran. Gifted, committed team players they may be, but can any of them genuinely be relied on to "beat their man" on a regular basis? How many players in this squad can genuinely stretch the opposition? How many can actually capitalise on the space down the flanks and provide the kind of service that our strikers have been sorely lacking all season? In other words, service that would raise our goal difference and firmly establish us as automatic promotion contenders, rather than automatic promotion hopefuls?

I never thought I'd be really sad to see Justin Hoyte on the treatment table for an extended period of time, but the very season he becomes the key to our problems, he falls victim to a long-term injury. Ditto Mustapha Carayol. Even George Friend, already a cult hero, is more central than his inferior predecessor Joe Bennett. And while the effectiveness of Adam Reach hasn't gone unnoticed, to pin all our hopes on a still rather raw talent is a little ridiculous. Not to mention a burden for the lad.

McDonald, Miller, Jutkiewicz and especially Emnes have received their fair share of stick this season, some of it more justified than others. But I think that the central cause for our January failure is that even when we were on top of our game, we carved out very few clear cut chances. And this is of no benefit to strikers like McDonald and possibly even Juke, who don't possess extreme pace or technique and depend on being given the right ball in the right place at the right time. It's the epitome of Mogga's playing style, which was also evident while he was at West Brom – feigned penetration without actual penetration, all huff and puff, no end product.

Timing isn't just the solution to the problem. Timing is the problem. The first Watford goal, as we all know, came right at the end of the first half, when Boro had no time to immediately respond. Rolls Rhys was demoralised, we were unexpectedly forced into contemplating a Plan B, and it's just gone from bad to worse since then, with the exception of our late lucky break against Aldershot.

Harsh though it seems to play so well for long periods and come away with nothing to show for it, Penetration > Possession every time. Complaints about the late goals and non-postponement of the Leicester game, justified though they may be, have disguised a multitude of sins that creep into Boro’s present style at the worst of times, such as poor finishing, laziness and bad defending.

But the problem isn't Mogga. He's merely found himself carrying on the symptoms of Boro managers past. In 1996/97, when the opposition realised Juninho was the centre of our attacks, they denied him the room to prosper and put our shaky defence under pressure. The facade was exposed. Even in 1997/98, we suffered a double slump at the turn of the New Year, picking up just one point from six in January and one away point from fifteen in March and April. Had Sunderland not choked against Ipswich, the season would have ended very differently. In 1998/99, once opposition sides cut off the Dean Gordon supply line, we entered an alarming slump in form and only bounced back when Hamilton Ricard found his touch in front of goal again. And so on, and so on.

In other words, every team has flaws, and when we see them, they're very revealing about the management of the side. You just don't notice it when everything works.

The problem isn't necessarily that we're not good enough, but that we're repeating the same mistakes over and over again, hoping that our methods will "work" long enough to conceal things. You can only "get away with it" for so long before things catch up with you. Being dedicated is one thing; being penetrative is another.

Maybe Kieron Dyer might be the man to provide the penetration we need? Against his old club, no less?

* * * * *

As a postscript: I got some stick on Twitter last night for attempting to apply a fair and balanced view of Kevin Thomson's Boro career. I'm not denying that the money we are saving from no longer having to pay his wages is a good thing, but at the same time, I do regret that one of Strachan’s "marquee" signings, who could have become a key player under Mogga (he was, after all, Mogga's chosen captain at Hibs) never got the chance to truly establish himself in the manner Bailey, McDonald and to a lesser extent McManus did. It's impossible for me not to imagine what might have been but for all those injuries.

In short, feel a little regret that it didn't work out for him, but feel happy that both him and we can move on.

Goodbye and good luck, Thommo. Read more...

The Battle Of Hastings: A Walk In The Park? Well, Sort Of...

It's FA Cup time again.

And I have to admit, I was getting more than the odd uncomfortable shade of Hednesford Town or Burton Albion - oh God, Burton Albion - and those other narrow escapes or embarrassing cup defeats that you regularly and annoyingly associate with this club of ours. Our numerous injuries didn't help - one glance at the team sheet and I was already thinking "Who's Jordan Jones? Who's Bryn Morris?" - nor did the nature of the cup tie.

Here's a thought; if you are the Goliath facing the David in a cup-tie, you can't win. If the Riverside got so much publicity back in January 1997 (apart from anything relating to feuding, temperamental foreigners and a certain three points), it was because plucky Hednesford Town had come to visit. The neutrals would have loved to see a Hednesford win, or a replay at least; embarrassingly, the latter very nearly happened before Fjortoft and Ravanelli bailed us out.

The same, of course, was true when we played Burton Albion at their place in 2011, and suffered a horrifying but all-too-familiar late collapse. Did the national pundits single out that, or Burton's "heroic spirit" and "never-say-die attitude"?

Similar platitudes relating to the magic of the cup where wheeled out before The Battle Of Hastings (it's an overused headline by now, but you know I couldn't resist using it too) today. Every Boro miss or mishap, I feared, would pander to the FA Cup's romantic ideals, flattering the neutral's compassion for the underdogs.

Luckily, I had nothing to worry about. Well, almost nothing.

Merouane Zemmama, who like Ledesma (and a certain Fabio Rochemback) is exhilirating and frustrating in equal measure, had one of his good days. His first ever brace for the club (even if one was deflected) helped set up what was an eventually comfortable win. Of course, the scoreline is slightly deceptive, and nothing to build dreams on; Ish Miller's feeble penalty, a handful of other first half misses and another great save from Jason Steele led one not to rule out a sucker punch of Burton proportions in the second half. This is Boro, after all.

Thankfully, nothing of the sort happened. Barely two minutes after the restart, Andy Halliday tucked away his first goal in what seemed like ages (since the 3-3 draw with Ipswich in April 2011, to be exact; that's nearly two years, then), and we could afford to relax. Or so we thought. Minutes later, Lee Carey forced Steele to tip his 20-yard chip onto the post before a header from the resulting corner was blocked. Then came Zemmama's second... and surely that was that? Not quite. There was still time for Hastings' Bradley Goldberg to score what was probably the goal of the game; academic though it was, it typified the battling spirit of a side who had given their all on the day but had fallen short. The applause from the Boro fans following the goal was both admirable and well-deserved.

Flattering though the final score of 4-1 may have been, there were plenty of positives to take from the game. Of note, to me, were Kevin Thomson managing at least two crucial blocks and an assist, and Ish Miller continuing to put himself about even after he missed that penalty, his eventual reward being the fourth goal. There's been a lot of unnecessary stick directed at both players; one has shown that when fit, however rare that is, he is a capable presence in midfield. The other, despite not being your typical prolific goalscorer, has contributed a lot to our promotion campaign. If Curtis Main is our Hernandez, Ish Miller is our Danny Welbeck.

Other positives? The return of Haroun, the continuing excellent form of Steele (which, paradoxically, may not be good news for us during this transfer window) and the debuts of both Jones and Morris! I'm especially pleased for Jones, a Northern Irish lad like myself... Dave Parnaby has described him as the next big thing too.

Let's now take these positives into the Watford match...

* * * * *

As an aside, 1,068 Hastings fans turned up at the match; imagine how spooky it would have been had two of those fans stayed at home! Read more...

Class Tells - But Let's Accentuate The Positive

"You've got to accentuate the positive, eliminate the negative, and latch onto the affirmative. Don't mess with Mr. In-Between!"

-- Johnny Mercer

So, Martin O'Neill has outfoxed us in the cup again, just like he did fifteen years ago. Only this time, there is no reason for us to feel devastated. In fact, fans are proud of the team tonight. And why shouldn't they be?

Yes, man for man, Sunderland were technically superior to us, so you could argue that it was only a matter of time before class told, even as we played out of our skins. Yes, they were swifter and sharper. Yes, they were less sloppy with their passing. And yes, when we left a couple of gaps open for them, they had players - on this occasion, Colback and Sessegnon - waiting to exploit them ruthlessly. It's enough to leave you wondering how different things might have been if we'd had a full team available.

Or if we'd wrapped up the game when we had the chance, at the Stadium Of Light.

But then, if we'd done so, we wouldn't now be hailing one of the most gallant cup performances from any Boro side in recent times. And I think that was very much due to the communal nature of the display, which saw eight academy graduates - plus a teenager signed on a free from Darlington - take to the field during the course of the evening. The all round strength, spirit and understanding among these players helped them all to play above themselves. In particular, Jason Steele's confidence, the sight of Joe Bennett running with the ball like he used to, Curtis Main's grafting and Adam Reach's crossing can only leave one optimistic.

Better still, our attack may not now be as much as a problem area as I feared it would be. Marvin Emnes is looking like his old self again, despite his lack of fitness, and Main was unlucky not to score. But, most significantly, Lukas Jutkiewicz finally got on the score sheet in a Boro shirt - and it was well worth waiting for. What a well taken goal it was - and it was scored live on national TV, in front of a big Riverside crowd, at a time when I wondered how we would possibly get back into the game. This could be an unprecedented boost for both The Juke's own confidence and the whole team's. (Indeed, I'm not ashamed to admit I over-celebrated a little when the goal went in. But didn't you?)

See, it pays to "accentuate the positive". Now, how about another listen to that song? Read more...

Insomnia, Injuries, Irishmen, and the Idiosyncracy of Boro

"Idiosyncracy (Noun) 1. A behaviour or way of thinking that is characteristic of a person.

2. A language or behaviour that is particular to an individual or group."

Those of you who read my tweets during the Crystal Palace match on Saturday afternoon - and no doubt, many of you did - will remember that they were absolutely laced with bitterness. Probably unnecessarily so. But it was certainly how I felt at the time.

It was bad enough that we lost even more key players - Barry Robson, Faris Haroun, Scott McDonald and Marvin Emnes - to the treatment table last week. It was bad enough that we conceded yet another sickening late goal. But to top it all off with something that I felt was more like a cure for insomnia really was the cheap frosting on a half-baked cake. I wasn't the only one who thought that way, either - I got a reply saying that pretty much every single one of our home games since November had followed a similar pattern. And yes, I know we haven't won a single match since Nicky Bailey (must I keep mentioning his name?) limped out of action, but it runs deeper than that. The September "spark", in which Marvin really was Marvellous and we won seven out of nine games in all competitions (with the only draws coming due to the usual late concessions!), has long gone.

It's easy to point the finger at Bailey, but if you think about it, we won just a quarter of our matches stretching from the Carling Cup elimination at Crystal Palace to the West Ham surrender at the end of November. On reflection, such a surrender was probably best for us - we bounced back with four wins and a should-have-been before the end of 2011, and have pretty much coasted on those results ever since. "Coasted" in that despite our recent relegation form, we're somehow still in the play-off places.

It's easy to say that injuries to key players have once again exposed our glory pretense - like they've done so many times over the years - and I'm just not taking it very well. And it's not necessarily Mogga's fault, either. It seems that no matter what manager we've had during the Riverside era - Bryan Robson, Steve McClaren, Gareth Southgate or Tony Mowbray -  we can never fulfil our promise. That is the idiosyncracy of Boro.

No doubt most of you will wish that I could be more optimistic. But all too often, I've had my fingers burnt through hoping that the lads will show that little bit extra mentality and concentration needed to fulfil the Boro promise. One thing I'll give Gordon Strachan credit for is that at least he virtually eliminated the idiosyncracy - it's just a pity he did away with almost everything else we liked about Boro at the same time! (Although we'll always be grateful for Robson, Bailey, McDonald and McManus.)

There are other ways of changing Boro for the better. News from the club and fellow fans tell me we have no money for players. So where were we able to find £1.5 million to spend on Jutkiewicz? Now, don't get me wrong - I like the guy, he's gradually finding his way into the team. But there's another way to bolster the squad that doesn't require quite as much money. And that would be...

Going Irish.

Kevin Doyle joined Reading for £78,000 back in 2005. An injury to Dave Kitson gave him his chance in 2005/06, and he grasped it with both hands, becoming the club's Player Of The Season as they got promoted to the Premiership. Everton's Seamus Coleman, signed for £150,000, was nominated for the PFA Player Of The Year Award in 2011. Derry-born Shane Duffy is just starting to make his name at the same club. 6 ft 3 in David Meyler, signed by Sunderland for just £250,000, is slowly finding his way into the first team again, thanks to Martin O'Neill.

But nothing has vindicated the "going Irish" policy better recently than the remarkable rise of James McClean. He was signed by Sunderland for a mere £350,000 back in 2008, as "one for the future", but he never played under Steve Bruce. Since Martin O'Neill gave him his chance he has gone on to become some kind of an "assist king", setting up goals for the likes of Seb Larsson, Stephane Sessegnon, and - most painfully - Frazier Campbell. (It's Robbo's inability to spot McClean lurking over his shoulder that explains why we're playing again tonight.) He has goalscoring instincts, too, that remind me of a slightly more gifted James Morrison - the kind of player we let go for a ridiculously cheap sum and never really replaced.

So that's the advice for the future. But what can we do about the here and now? Well, of course I was looking forward to tonight's replay after the Stadium Of Light game, but back then, I didn't anticipate the significant injuries.

All the more reason to have a go tonight, though. For after all, what have we got to lose? And we have a young, promising striker of our own ready to prove a point. Perhaps, as Mogga says, Curtis Main can become our James McClean. (Heck, they even rhyme.)

My gut instinct tells me, though, that Mogga may bench him and play Thomson, Smallwood and the returning Arca in the middle, with McMahon and Bennett either side of them. It would probably be best to move Hoyte to left-back, uncomfortable though he is there, and play Bates/Hines as an emergency right back, allowing McManus/Hines/Bates and Williams to play in the centre. That leaves the Juke on his own up front in a 4-5-1, with the option of reverting to a 4-4-2 if Main is brought on.

Of course, I'm still hopeful that Robbo and Emnes can make it, but I'm not counting on it...

Onto tonight then. And kudos to the 25,000+ of you who will be there! Read more...

Heroes And Villains

So was that good for you?

It certainly was for me. We didn't quite Mackem Weep after all, and we had no Andy Halliday to work with (It just so happened he was cup-tied!) but we certainly made 'em work, and very hard at that. Nobody in defence and midfield (well, almost nobody) seriously put a foot wrong as we battled and scrapped our way to a hard earned replay. And with a squad as injury and confidence ravaged as ours, this was no mean feat.

Matthew Bates was clearly up for this one. His forward forays of last season were almost nowhere to be seen, but in every other way he seemed back to his best, showing excellent positional sense and a real willingness to battle for the cause. The same can be said of Tony McMahon, who arguably had an even better game. One of his second half tackles was worthy of Bobby Moore.

The confidence of the right hand side of defence spread to the left, with Seb Hines and an out-of-position Justin Hoyte playing better than they had any right to. (As an aside: I'll never understand the logic of playing Hoyte on the left, whether Bennett is in bad form or not. Where's Andy Taylor when you need him?) Then there was Danny Coyne, looking like the inspiration he was when we first signed him - calm under pressure, good at shot stopping and comfortable with crosses. Alas, his calf problem flared up again, leaving us with a bit of a 'keeper crisis once more. In fairness to Connor Ripley, he did okay barring a couple of uncertain kicks. But he's still too young to shoulder the responsibility of being the first-choice (something Manchester United should have realised with David De Gea). I wouldn't be surprised if Mogga goes hunting for the next Carl Ikeme or Paul Smith in the next few days.

Heroes abound in midfield too, with Rolls Rhys putting in a good shift and Haroun having possibly his best game yet for us. At this point, I would normally have been ready to wax lyrical about Barry Robson...half way through the match, I was praising his commitment, his intelligence on the pitch, his evergreen nature (he's 34 this year, but doesn't look it!) and, of course, his goal. What a goal. I'd hinted before the match that it was exactly what we needed, an early strike to stop the clear favourites for the tie getting into their stride, and so it did. Inspired by the extra knowledge that we've never lost when Robson has scored (thank you, Peter Drury), not to mention the unfortunate absence of Lee Cattermole in Sunderland's midfield (now they know what it's like to play without a key anchorman), we seemed set to nick a victory, despite a few disappointing misses.

But then... oh dear. Robson transformed from hero to villain in a matter of minutes when his loose pass was picked up by James McClean. To be fair to Robbo, he didn't spot McClean breathing down his neck, but I reckon he should have. For the minute the Derry man got the ball, I knew we were doomed. I saw the unforgivable gap between two of our defenders, waiting to be exploited... and that's exactly what McClean did, laying it on a plate for Frazier Campbell to score a shockingly easy equaliser.

Thankfully, Robbo was only the villain for that brief moment - like most of the team, he picked himself up and got on with the game.* Others, like poor Marvin Emnes, were not so fortunate. The once indispensible Dutchman and former golden boy of Boro has suddenly become the whipping boy of Teesside, and not without reason, alas. As hard as he worked, his final ball and finishing were wretched - and it was his poor pass that led to the Sunderland breakaway for the Campbell goal. Campbell, of course, had replaced Connor Wickham, who I'd identified as a possible weak link in the Sunderland team. (Indeed he was - but for his poor positional sense, Craig Gardner's illegal "goal" could easily have stood.)

It was this game that convinced me to stop using Nicky Bailey's absence as an excuse for our poor form. It was this game that renewed confidence in our defence and midfield. (They've clearly seen my alternative badge.) But it was also this game that made me realise that our real problem area was up front. At one point "The Juke" looked more like "The Joke" with a horrific miss summing up a difficult first half for our new front man. To his credit, though, he kept plugging away and became an important presence up front. Though like Emnes, he needs to work on that final ball. Think how much more we would achieve if only we were more clinical with our chances.

Still, a lucrative replay awaits. And an even more lucrative home tie against Arsenal does too, if we win it. I know cup runs can be double edged swords, but imagine how much good this run could do for our confidence and momentum, if we're able to prolong it.

Now on to Wednesday and the King Power stadium...

* * * * *

*I've since heard from Anthony Vickers that Robbo "threw his Man Of The Match champagne in the bin in protest and in self-disgust"... legendary!! Read more...

No More Excuses - Let's Mackem Weep!

On Wednesday, Colin Young of the Daily Mail popped up with a sentimental piece about how Julio Arca's slightly unfortunate sending off had forced him to miss a game he'd been looking forward to for weeks. It's not often I truly sympathise with our own tippy-tappy Argentine Land Crab, but this article genuinely made me feel sorry for him. Then came Thursday and Harry Pearson's typically smart column on our now traditional post Christmas slump, before Friday offered Tony Mowbray's thoughts on what I'd already known for a while - how the loss of Nicky Bailey had affected both the balance and confidence of the entire squad.

Maybe promotion and cup success, a la 1997/98, is just not meant to be, you know? Injuries and a thin squad have bitten us just like in 1996/97, 1998/99, 2004/05... countless seasons, actually. But just when it seemed like I was on the verge of joining the Boro Pity Party again, I remembered something that I had written last May:

"Key players – including Redcar Rock David Wheater – forced to leave because of low funds, the same low funds that seriously limited Mogga’s activity in the transfer market. The low attendances at the Riverside getting no higher. Discovering new star men, like Bates, Bailey, Lita, Emnes and McDonald, and then losing them to injury or suspension not long after they really find their form. The concession of very late goals in matches Boro played well enough to win, like Doncaster away, Leeds away, Preston at home and Forest at home.

But Mogga did not let any of this get him or the team down. Rather than dwell on what could have been excuses for relegation if we were to go down, his team kept plugging away. And slowly but surely, the tide began to turn. Before long we were becoming the muggers instead of the mugged."

These are the words that I hope the team have kept in mind before today. To be honest, I've gotten sick of typing the words Nicky and Bailey again and again in my blog. We hammered Cardiff - automatic-promotion chasing Cardiff! - at their place towards the end of last season without Bailey or Matthew Bates in the squad. This game, and a certain other game from more than a decade ago, have given me renewed hope for today's match.

I've no doubt that the majority of pundits and armchair fans were forecasting a massive or easy win for Cardiff last season, or for Liverpool against us in the League Cup in 1998. After all, we had nothing to play for; Cardiff had automatic promotion at stake. Liverpool were near the top of the Premiership; our promotion campaign in the second tier was faltering (just like it is today) and we'd been outclassed by Arsenal just days before.

Yet I'll always remember how surprised I was to hear the Cardiff result, and how impressed I was by our performance against Liverpool. True, we deservedly lost 2-1 on the night, but the whole team, especially the defence, excelled. We really took the game to them in the first half an hour too, at times passing them off the park during that period. It all culminated in Craig Hignett's superb defence splitting pass for Paul Merson's unforgettable goal.

I'm not expecting similar miracles today. After all, Sunderland have picked up 16 points from their last eight games in the league. Martin O'Neill is performing his own kind of revolution up there, transforming the Black Cats into a well-organised side who last week offered "a masterclass in clinical finishing", according to Ron Clarke of The Sunday Times. That's enough to make any Boro fan wonder what might have been if O'Neill, and not Southgate, had taken the Boro job following Steve McClaren's departure. (If what I heard at the time was true, would it really have been too much of a stretch to allow him to bring his own backroom staff?) 

Today's game brings local appeal on both sides of the Irish Sea. O'Neill and Sunderland winger James McClean are both Derry men, like me. (Well, sort of - O'Neill was born in Kilrea, in County Londonderry) It'll also be a case of old friends reunited - Bates and Lee Cattermole, both members of our FA Youth Cup winning side in 2004. I've always been in two minds about Catts - he repeatedly got into trouble in the town while he was with us, so a move was probably best. But seeing what the two Steves, McClaren and Bruce, have gotten out of him, let alone O'Neill, makes me rue the fact that he could never really fulfil his potential with us. I partly put it down to Southgate's misuse of him (mostly on the bench, or on the right) and failure to keep him on a leash. Although I guess it was such a terrier-like attitude that brought him to everyone's attention during those dark days in the middle of 2005/06. And no one will forget his season-transforming tears during that Villa game. It's such commitment to the cause that really epitomises the new Sunderland.

Do we have a chance against them? Remarkably, yes we do. Being the underdogs in both the Cardiff and Liverpool games helped us immensely, and I've a sneaking feeling it might do so again today. The key, for me, will be to try and mug them rather than letting them mug us, as has happened so often in the past. The late sickeners for Liam Miller (2007), Daryl Murphy (2008) and Michael Chopra (2008 again), to name but a few, still leave a very bad taste in the mouth, especially after we dominated two of those three games.

What we need is someone to pull a rabbit out of the hat, like Emerson did in 1997. Hence, in my opinion, the starting line-up today should be a 4-3-2-1:

Steele/Coyne; McMahon, Bates, McManus, Bennett; Robson, Williams, Haroun; Halliday, Emnes; Jutkiewicz.

What better time for Rolls Rhys to show that he can haul us back into games again, like he did against Leicester last year? What chance Andy Halliday - don't laugh - to do another Ipswich? Both him and Marvellous Marvin (okay, I know he's out of form, but what other choice do we have?) can provide a creative outlet either side of the Juke, who really will be desperate to prove a point today. And, if things go wrong, we can always call on the services of Scott McDonald or Malaury Martin. Every player in this starting XI, barring the 'keepers, has shown themselves to be capable of scoring an important goal. That's what could make today so interesting.

The downsides, of course, are numerous. Neither Joe Bennett nor Marvin Emnes are playing anywhere near like we know they can play. The balance of the team, as Mogga said, has been upset. We haven't been really tested against top class opposition for a long time. It's quite possible we could suffer even more crucial injuries today, which we really don't need. (Who could forget 2007, when the Black Cats hacked Mido, Tuncay and Arca out of action in the same match?) And with Reading's win yesterday knocking us down into 5th in the league, it's likely our minds might be on other things.

But we've got nothing to lose whatsoever. And I'm really looking forward to it.

Let's Mackem weep! Read more...

Steel Or No Steel?

Before the Shrewsbury and Burnley matches, I was contemplating the absence of Barry Robson and Nicky Bailey and asking myself, "Who'll play?"

Today, the question is: "What now?"

What now, indeed. A fortunate cup win over the spirited Shrews preceded a 2-0 choker against Burnley at the Riverside, which saw the Clarets do to us exactly what we had done to them back in September. Back then, of course, we were on a crest of a wave, wrapping up our fifth successive Championship away win. Marvin Emnes was in peak form, both Robson and Bailey were playing (with the latter scoring) and we had a confident Carl Ikeme between the sticks. Now, Ikeme's long gone, Jason Steele is sidelined with injury, and Emnes is looking a little like the lightweight we feared he was during Southgate's final year in charge.

Have we learnt anything from these last two games? Apart from that poor Connor Ripley seems to get a touch of Massimo Taibi Syndrome every time he goes in goal? And the fact that Tarmo Kink should never don a Boro shirt again, ever? As it turns out, we've merely been reminded of an old chestnut - Boro's lack of a Plan B in attack, especially at the Riverside.

Almost every time, an early goal, or two early goals, conceded at home has torn our game plan to shreds, and on nearly every occasion, we've crumbled. Countless times under Mogga, we've shown that we can recover from a single-goal deficit. But from 2-0 down? You need to go all the way back to April 2006 and the Spirit Of Steaua for that. (And no, the Leicester game last season doesn't count - on a day when both Southampton and West Ham capitalised ruthlessly on our misfortunes, we really needed to win.)

Simon Bird (no, not Will from The Inbetweeners) of The Mirror has, albeit reluctantly, joined in the negativity that engulfs Boro at present, predicting that we won't go up this season at all. It's too early to agree with him, of course, but it's hard to ignore the gloom. Marvellous Marvin is misfiring, and without Bailey's accurate long balls and break up-play, Robson's crosses or a fully fit Scott McDonald to help him, how is he to prosper again?

Before Saturday I would have thought Lukas Jutkiewicz - or Lukey Juke, because I still can't pronounce his name - might be the answer. But he will need time to settle into the pattern of our play. And while he will certainly add both height and presence to our attack, is he technically good enough to inspire a Championship promotion charge? Mogga certainly thinks so - but this will be the young striker's toughest test yet.

More importantly, who will service him? Robson will be back for the next game, sure, but there are plenty of alternatives within the team that either we haven't yet considered, or, as in the case of Justin Hoyte and Joe Bennett, really aren't performing up to scratch. Hoyte has really blown hot and cold this season - a bit like Scott McDonald - while Bennett's looking a shadow of the player he was in early 2011. Perhaps he's suffering from second season syndrome, a la David Wheater.

There's also Tony McMahon, but he hasn't offered quite as much in attack as I thought he would this season. Kevin Thomson (when he's fit), Richie Smallwood and Julio Arca have shown themselves to be capable of passing the ball well, but being forced to play as first-choice anchormen at the moment isn't helping their cause. One must wonder, too, if Arca's still got the legs to be both an anchor and a creative force, even at this level. As for Faris Haroun and Malaury Martin, they remain enigmatic.

I don't think I've mentioned a single winger amongst these players. It's starting to make me long for the days when we were heavy with options in that position, such as Downing, Johnson, Taylor. (Maybe we might have a use for Kink after all, if his statistic of 46 goals in 15 games for "Real Tallinn" is to be believed). But then I thought of Andy Halliday, due back from a loan spell at Walsall this month. He - in addition to Robson, Bailey, McManus and McDonald, of course - is proof that Gordon Strachan had a good eye for a player, even if he couldn't get the best out of them. My thought is - why not give him another chance? Memories of his super show at Ipswich last season, where he scored a goal and set up two more, still live long in the memory.

And speaking of giving players another chance - how about Stephen McManus? It would surely make more sense, to me, for Big Mick to return to the centre of defence in place of Rhys Williams. This, in turn, would allow Rolls Rhys to play in front of the back four, behind a three-man midfield - and would offer us an additional creative outlet at the same time.

There's more options in this team than we think. Mogga just needs to figure out the right way of using them...

* * * * *

Now, a few other things worth mentioning. First of all, well done to Chris Coleman for landing the job of Wales manager. I think the job that he did at Fulham was greatly undervalued, and to sack him when the club was effectively safe from the drop, in April 2007, was sheer madness. Worse still, Mohamed Al Fayed had Coleman's replacement lined up immediately, a move that eventually proved detrimental to both Fulham and Northern Ireland. (Ironically, Boro would suffer similarly two years later when they sacked Coleman's friend, Gareth Southgate, and appointed Strachan, but that's for my next blog post.)

A special mention too to all of you who helped save our near neighbours Darlington from extinction! £5,760.35 alone was raised by Boro fans before the Burnley game, money that helped meet the £50,000 total required by the Darlington Rescue Fund to secure the club's future until the end of January.

You can read the full story here. Let's hope that this is more than just a stay of execution for former Boro man Craig Liddle and his players. Be sure to follow the campaign to save the club on Twitter, at SaveDarlo.

Finally, one more special mention - for Si's Insights' first follower, cancer survivor and Deal Or No Deal jackpot winner Tegen Roberts. The manner in which she has battled back from Hodgkin's lymphoma is an inspiration to everyone.

I hope that a similarly steely determination can spread throughout the Boro squad during what's left of this league campaign.

So: Twenty league games remain. Two automatic promotion places are there to be won. What are the lads made of - steel or no steel? Read more...