[Archived] reviews for boro' games.

[Yorick]

How we do in the league game is a function of injury recoveries. From what I can see, Boro will have some back and we won't have Bellamy.

Sounded like Dickov was a real problem for the Boro defence and will be badly missed. If Bellamy has broken down again, I'd bring Jansen in- his work rate is more like Dickov's than Bentley.

368380[/snapback]

We need to change things or we'll get beaten. Boro will be smarting and a very different proposition. I'd bring Mokoena in 4-5-1 as Maclaren will set his team up expecting us to play the same as we did on Wed night. With Kuqi as our only viable and fit striker the solution is obvious. Jansen is just a bit part player now and us playing a 4-4-2 formation containing him, Bentley, Pederson, and Tugay will end up being brushed aside too easily. Time to grind the opposition down away from home.

Edited December 22, 2005 by Yorick

[nonaynevernomore]

All I can say is amazing. Rovers fans outsang them for all 90 minutes. The stewards were crap though, resulting in chants of two pound an hour!!!!!!!!!!

the fans went crazy after the goal. did anyone see a 13 year old lad with a fifteen year old lad on the end of the row??that was me!!!!(the 13 year old) and who was it who after the goal grabbed me and hugged me??!!!!amazing night for me as i rarely go to away games!!!!!!!DICKOV!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Anyway ill give match ratings

freidel 8

neill 10 amazing and got chants of lucas neills a football hooligan

todd 8 firm

nelson 8 got better as the game progressed. should of scored

gray 7 sometimes out of position

bentley 7.5 good game but final ball found wanting at times.

savage 8 good game and great engine

tugs 8 passed the ball well

mgp 7.5 some good bvalls for kuqi

dickov 8.5got the goal and was a menace

kuqi 9.5 brilliant in the air and the fans continously chanted his name

emerton 8.5 not much time but appeared more confident especially when fans chanted his name( doenst happen at ewood).left wing today

reid dint have much time to impose himself on the game.

[SuperStella]

Missed loads of chances - but I'd be more concerned if we werent creating the chances in the first place like the Kidd, Harford era.. Kuqi and Dickov were immense last night; with a prolific goalscorer we have no problems. Remember, Bellamy has to come back yet. We bossed it - pressurising them on the edge of their own box, winning every 50/50 ball I can remember and passed it about brilliantly. Boro played like the away side, backs to the walls most of game. They had a few chances but only one shot on goal, and that was the last kick off the game.

[andyrovers]

Had a great night, Rovers played with passion and long may they do so.

Dickov's work rate was second to none. The Admiral went very close to scoring on several occasions. Brilliant

However the heavy handed stewarding put a dampener on things. I spoke to some stewards at half time and asked why are they like that. Of which they abruptly replied that had the best safety record in the country!!!! Tubes

We had the last laugh....

[Nayef]

Arsenal equalised in the last minute of added time of extra time and Doncaster lost on penalties.

CRUEL

368305[/snapback]

That's not harsh. It was down to one downright inexperienced spastic out there.

You're 2-1 up against Arsenal in the 120th minute of a cup tie.

You have the ball in THEIR CORNER FLAG AREA.

Any wise player would have held the ball in the corner flag ticking down the clock.

Doncaster player decides to cross the ball in thereby surrendering possession from which Arsenal swiftly counter and the rest you saw on television...heart-broken fans, children in tears, shocked parents, dismayed chairman, baffled manager, subdued doncaster bench, gleeful sky commentators...

Stupid stupid stupid Doncaster player!!

[modes98]

That's not harsh. It was down to one downright inexperienced spastic out there.

You're 2-1 up against Arsenal in the 120th minute of a cup tie.

You have the ball in THEIR CORNER FLAG AREA.

Any wise player would have held the ball in the corner flag ticking down the clock.

Doncaster player decides to cross the ball in thereby surrendering possession from which Arsenal swiftly counter and the rest you saw on television...heart-broken fans, children in tears, shocked parents, dismayed chairman, baffled manager, subdued doncaster bench, gleeful sky commentators...

Stupid stupid stupid Doncaster player!!

368420[/snapback]

He isn't exactly inexperienced Heffernan. He was trying to get a corner off the Arsenal man, which went horribly wrong and cost his team a place in the semi's.

The main thing i would point to is that one of the defenders could have accidently pushed eboue or taken him down on the wing to stop him running all the way.

From what i heard doncaster were all over arsenal for most of the game and if they hadn't scored so early in ET they may well have gone on to win it. But getting 11 men behind the ball for 20mins against a half decent team isn't easy!

[S15]

Nayef is right.

The donny player is a retard and should be locked away or put down.

[SAS]

what a great night

cant wait for the revenge of my USA flag now

[nolan9]

and who was it who after the goal grabbed me and hugged me??

I think you might find that was me. I somehow found myself right near you as like everybody I went mental.

What a great match, our fans were fantastic and who ever thought of the chant "Shoes up if you love your team" is a legend. We didnt stop singing all night even when we kept missing all the chances and started to think this just might not be our night. We got a bit of luck with Kuqi's (Who was magnificent) shot deflecting into Dickov's path but that was the least we deserved. Well done lads same again on monday

[Presty On Tour]

what a great night

cant wait for the revenge of my USA flag now

368446[/snapback]

i remember that mate, i was there, was well bad what happened to you.

knew we would beat boro lastnight, had that feeling in me bones we would do it!!

can't wait for the semis against manky!! happy days!!!

[philipl]

It's Christmas so there is an easy question in the quizz today folks.

Who wrote this?

It seems to happen so often that teams meet again in the league days after a cup tie! Blackburn won in the sides' Carling Cup match on Wednesday - and deserved their victory.

But I expect a reaction from Middlesbrough and I think they will up the ante and come out on top this time.

Full match preview

Verdict: 2-1

[greggyk]

Boro will still be smarting and will NOT want to play rovers again i suspect.

Boro 1-3 Rovers

Yakkubu (61) Pedersen (32), Tugay (81), Dickov (89)

Att: 25,112

[USABlue]

What's all this about Bellers breaking down again?

[philipl]

Boro local paper has nice things to say about Rovers (except our ability in front of goal).

PS Smart move by Savage to clear Pogatetz- to do otherwise would have given Boro a sense of grievance they could have nursed into the Boxing Day fixture. As it is, they know Pogatetz has been rather fortunate.

Edited December 22, 2005 by philipl

[Bobby G]

I think we all agreed that we would trade our cup win for a league defeat on Monday.

Getting anything out of that game will be a psychological bonus.

Although as others said, Boro will be a different side on Monday.

[Presty On Tour]

I think we all agreed that we would trade our cup win for a league defeat on Monday.

Getting anything out of that game will be a psychological bonus.

Although as others said, Boro will be a different side on Monday.

368494[/snapback]

yeah they will be even worse

we will hopefully take our chances this time and if we do it will be a pasting!!

[Hughesy]

3-0 Rovers

[frosty]

Well done Rovers!!!!!

Bring on United

[Presty On Tour]

now theres a surprise, lawro predicts a 2-1 defeat on boxing day for us

[sleepyjack]

Fantastic night. The atmosphere in the away end was brilliant, though we were surrounded by about fifteen thousand empty seats so I'm not sure any Boro fans noticed. Not sure if I too hugged the person who asked when we scored. I know I hugged a few people, fell down the steps and ran around screaming for a few minutes.

I thought Savage in particular had an excellent game. He obviously gives 100% every game, but last night he seemed less like a madman just chasing the ball. His distribution and movement were great, and he tackled back very well rather than lunging in. Kuqi and Dickov were good too, they really seemed to upset the Boro defence and create some good opportunities, though you could see that they lack that something extra which Bellamy has in the quality of their shots.

All of the defence had a good game, a few shaky moments and Nelsen's missed header (an absolute sitter) aside. Todd came out of the back four to intercept a lot of passes and then passed well rather than just hoofing it away. Gray was caught out of position twice, both seemed to be because Pedersen wasn't pushing forward very much. MGP certainly didn't have the best of games and maybe should be dropped, especially since Emerton looked surprisingly energetic on the left when he came on. Tugay sat back a little too much for my liking, passed backwards too often when counter-attacks were on. He still helped us to keep possession with some good passes under pressure.

Boro were really poor, no movement, second to every 50-50 and very weak in their challenges. Even Bentley wasn't outmuscled by their defenders and he ended up having a decent game, though his crosses weren't the best. I'd be surprised if they start with the same team on Monday and we should expect a much tougher game. Still, I think we can beat them again if we can give a similar performance.

Edited December 22, 2005 by sleepyjack

[LeChuck]

We need to change things or we'll get beaten.  Boro will be smarting and a very different proposition.  I'd bring Mokoena in 4-5-1 as Maclaren will set his team up expecting us to play the same as we did on Wed night.  With Kuqi as our only viable and fit striker the solution is obvious.  Jansen is just a bit part player now and us playing a 4-4-2 formation containing him, Bentley, Pederson, and Tugay will end up being brushed aside too easily.  Time to grind the opposition down away from home.

368399[/snapback]

Urgh, why take a huge step backwards to 4-5-1 when we're going along fine with 4-4-2?

Honestly, it makes no sense.

[RevidgeBlue]

Agreed, once again no matter who the two out of Dickov/Kuqi/or Bellamy are picked up front, we looked far better playing with two out and out strikers rather than with a 4-5-1.

Excellent performance, we dominated the game territorially for 90 minutes, the only worry being we would not capitalise on our superiority. In fact after we had what looked a legitimate strike mysteriously ruled out for offside on the stroke of half time and then Nelsen headed wide of an open goal from 4 yards out in the second half I feared it wasn't going to be our night. Extra time and a defeat on penalties?

Luckily Dickov's late strike (which was a carbon copy of his second v West Ham)restored sanity and a sense of justice to the scoreline. His game seems to have improved immensely in recent weeks as a result as a result of cutting out a lot of the going to ground looking for fouls.

No real negatives on a night like this but Bentley and MGP were completely ineffective. MGP's total loss of form since Old Trafford is mystifying.

Last minute winner, a quarter final win and the red Scum in the semi finals. What a night, this is what the modern day, post Jack, Blackburn Rovers is all about, not singing about some extinct rivalry with our bankrupt neighbours down the road.

Remwember the cricket v football debate in the summer? Just when football seems to be losing it's appeal you get something like this to remind you which is still the real McCoy.

[jim mk2]

Remwember the cricket v football debate in the summer? Just when football seems to be losing it's appeal you get something like this to remind you which is still the real McCoy.   

368559[/snapback]

Not sure about that, I love my footy but last summer's Ashes contest was the most tense, nerve-wracking, ball-scrunching, squeaky-bum arse wrenching sporting contest I have ever witnessed.

I aged 5 years in five weeks, which isn't good at my time of life.

McClaren was livid with his team after last night's non-performance so Middlesbrough are nailed-on to give us a right hammering on Boxing Day.

[Billinge End Blue]

http://middlesbrough.rivals.net/default.as...=2&stid=8399034

Check the link - Fly me to the Moon praises the Rovers following at the Riverside last night (even if Wez let the side down - see ejected thread!)

[nonaynevernomore]

Fantastic night. The atmosphere in the away end was brilliant, though we were surrounded by about fifteen thousand empty seats so I'm not sure any Boro fans noticed. Not sure if I too hugged the person who asked when we scored.

are you fair young(adult) and did you go to the front row of the upper tier? it was an amazing night.