Middlesborough at home match thread

[Jose]

What a crazy game. Thought we managed things in stoppage time better than we did in the last ten of normal time. Need to keep the ball better when trying to see things out.
 

Let’s not forget that Boro are a good team. Cracking result. 

[Fordy62]

Just now, cotswoldred2 said:

Gone early again.

Did things change? I left at 40 minutes and it wasn’t great until TGH scored. 

[Bristolisredd]

Pearson loses that game 

[Major Isewater]

21 minutes ago, The Nest Egg said:

God, I can barely watch

Ok but just call me Major. 

[Marina's Rolls Royce]

Excellent to see a new young coach making the most of his squad and winning at home . Makes a refreshing change.

[cotswoldred2]

1 hour ago, W-S-M Seagull said:

This atmosphere reminds me of the LJ days when we were on one of our bad runs.

Chin up I know it must be hard.

[cidercity1987]

Losing a two goal lead, very City like

To then win the game, incredibly unlike City. Pearson threatened it against Stoke but I don't remember that happening for years? 

Fair play Manning

[ExiledAjax]

Elements of the sublime, the ridiculous and the entirely mediocre were all on show today. We're a spectacular example of a textbook Championship team and we've just won a textbook Championship football match.

[Robin101]

Well done City. Can’t imagine we’ve won too many times having given away a 2 goal lead?

[richyy66]

4 minutes ago, Bristolisredd said:

Pearson loses that game 

Really..

[Redrascal2]

Well done Liam and the team. Great to see a home win and three goals.

[Marina's Rolls Royce]

17 minutes ago, David Brent said:

Well done Liam and all of his players on 3 big points. 

See- wasn't so hard for you.....

[Open End Numb Legs]

7 minutes ago, Bristolisredd said:

Pearson loses that game 

This is not the time!

[Wanderingred]

I don’t think we should underestimate just how big of a result that was psychologically. Life after Pearson there may be!

[1team]

My only observation is that the keystone cops defending reappeared which had been eradicated by the previous management. Can't say I enjoyed the watch, particularly  first half, but loved the result. 

[Fuber]

12 minutes ago, Bristolisredd said:

Pearson loses that game 

We'll never know. So it's not much of a point to make.

 

[fanjita]

What a signing Rob Dickie is turning out to be,,another excellent performance today 

[Marina's Rolls Royce]

[BCFC Rich]

Summary of the game from comments on Boro forum.

Gotta get more possesion.

Bristol having too much possession for my liking. Not threatening hugely but we're letting them dictate the game.

Holy *** that was some strike! Just a shame it was Bristol.  It was coming though - we were letting them control the game too much.

I know the defending is poor and is probably related but we have to concede the highest % of worldies right? I swear every team just bangs in worldies Vs us ever week almost.

could easily have beena  red card that. So clumsy

Fry a very luck boy there!

Pen to Bristol  its falling apart

Bang average BC team are battering up.

FFS Fry. absolutely awful couple of mins from him. Madness

Bummer. 2-0

Clumsy Fry! What was he thinking?

Decent penalty - Dieng needed to guess right to stop that.

 

Shambolic from Jones initially. Repeatedly poor from Fry. Thrown it away.

Suppose we also need to bear i mind Bristol are benefitting from a new manager bounce...but even so we have been way below par and honestly IMO the scoreline doesn't flatter City at all.

No changes, unbelievable from Carrick unless we witness a complete turnaround.

I get the whole all our defenders are *** cos we conceded thing but didn't we just keep 5 clean sheets in our past 7 league games? 

Hahaha what an og

Hahahahahahahahahaha

Wtf was that?!?!

 

YES! Exactly the start Boro needed! We're a second half team... 

 

Was that Crooks with the shot off the bar?

Then Owen Goal comes to Boro's aid with a hilarious defensive header that loops gently over their keeper.

2-2 croooksy!

 

What a come back! Great stuff from crooks for both goals. Guess we woke up

Now what a disappointment this will be if we do not go on and win this blooming game or lose it. Never have we been in a better position to win a game

Getting sloppy again we are not taking it to them or causing problems Carrick needs to make changes

Bloody hell! Another set piece not defended. 

Unbelievable.

We made no effort to take the lead after equalising and have paid the penalty

Bristol City really are a poor side. If we lose this game we cannot have any complaints. 

Our attitude since equalising has been criminal what a time to take it to BC and yet zip all!

Oh well... Onwards and upwards. Utb

 

Well, we can't complain about the result. Boro haven't deserved to get anything from this. Also, if not for Dieng the scoreline could have looked a lot worse. Boro were far too casual first half. Looking for all the world like England under Southgate in "game management mode". Defensively awful - no complaints about going 2-0 down. 10 or 15 minutes of hope in the second half as Boro got themselves back into the game, but we quickly went flat again after that and failed to exert any meaningful pressure or control on the game. We failed to cut out Bristol's attacks and paid the price by conceding a third. Most annoyingly Boro didn't really try to apply any serious pressure until the last 5-10 minutes, but even then our play was sloppy and disjointed.

[Jose]

Players coming back from injury is massive. Looking at the subs we made at Cardiff to the ones made today makes all the difference. 
 

Another big away following Wednesday. Should be a good day. 

[George Rs]

18 minutes ago, Bristolisredd said:

Pearson loses that game 

 

To be fair, no he didn’t. 

[22A]

18 minutes ago, cidercity1987 said:

Losing a two goal lead, very City like

To then win the game, incredibly unlike City. Pearson threatened it against Stoke but I don't remember that happening for years? 

Fair play Manning

I was thinking about this earlier. 3rd  Dec 2002 (21 years ago!) v Notts Co. Have there been any similar City games in between?

[BCFC Rich]

27 minutes ago, Ian M said:

Anis grew in confidence the longer he was on today. Hopefully Manning is the man to get him firing as he has the raw ingredients to be a superstar for us.

Agreed, glimpses of what we want to see from him and of confidence coming back. I have to say there were a couple of times I was shouting at him to stay in the corner!! But as it all worked out anyway -  I'm glad he took the players on as it should hopefully help him find some form, although if we had conceded last minute I would have been annoyed that he hadn't shown better game management. 

[EstoniaTallinnRed]

Well as usual go 2 up and then concede to quick goals, still the boy's showed great spirit in keeping them out after going ahead again with a great goal from Sykes, he could so easily have put the ball into the side netting. With the 7 minutes added, it was touch and go, but the boy's did it. Well done.

[Jose]

2 minutes ago, George Rs said:

 

To be fair, no he didn’t. 

Took me a minute then. Thought Cornick did well to get MOM in such short space of time . 
 

Very good again when he came on.

[MC RISK77]

Well done Liam And team- great start 

[Chairman Mao]

Odd game. Midfield was absent for the first 25 minutes. We created a few chances and scored two very good goals. Middlesbrough were pretty dissapointing aside from both the restarts. One thing, should it have been a red? In real time I didn't think so but glancing at the replay at half time it seemed worse than I thought. 

[mozo]

What do you say about a game like that?!!

Firstly, Boro are clearly a decent team and have the potential to reach the playoffs, so a win is a great result.

I'll get the negatives out the way... I've got issues with Bell at the moment, and Pring and Tanner looked tentative amd reluctant to push up. But Vyner was the big problem. It's not just the calamitous own goal, it was also a couple of sloppy errors early on that put us under pressure, and I thought he really fortunate to get away with a studs up sliding tackle in our area which just missed the attacker but could easily have been a pen and / or a red. It's no good being steady for the majority of the game if you're prone to mishaps. 

I was delighted that we were able to regain the initiative in the first half, culminating in Boro making their own mistakes at the back, and likewise in the second half, we were pegged back in no time, but still wrestled control of the game again, and prior to that great finish from Sykes, City had regained the edge.

It was dire game for half an hour, but the last hour was great entertainment, and I think we've just got to enjoy the 3 points.

[GrahamC]

25 minutes ago, fanjita said:

What a signing Rob Dickie is turning out to be,,another excellent performance today 

Really good, he’s excellent in the air & very decent on the ground.

In a great run of form.

[BCFC Rich]

A deserved win overall. I get what people are saying about the football, It wasn't entertaining, but we controlled possession first half and took our chance well + they could (maybe should) have been down to 10 men too. Awful first 10/15mins in the second half, but then we settled back in and defended really well. 

In short, I thought we were good, not that exciting, but solid except that 10/15 min phase. Some people said we were nervous defensively after that - but I don't think we were, we were pretty organised and solid, particularly on crosses and corners. Don't get me wrong I was nervous watching, but that's different from the players being nervous.