[Archived] Brill Middlesbrough Preview by m1st :)

[USABlue]

I haven't been to games either but listening. When defenders are clearing balls that should be keepers it reeks of a lack of confidence in the keeper. That will be unsettling for the whole back line. We need a keeper on on loan.

[Stuart]

We need a keeper on on loan.

Big time!

Don't think we will get one though. In fact I could see Robbo going out on loan.

[Al]

Problem is, when you've made your mind up about a player, you begin to focus only on their mistakes to validate your opinion.

As to your motivation, I really cannot say. I'm just calling it how I see it.

So asking for a balanced viewpoint is 'getting carried away' now? I love BRFCS logic at times.

Sorry but I just don't see how you can voice an opinion on a player you have not watched. Just seems illogical to me.

[LDRover]

I'm sure that 90% of rovers fans will admit that Kean is very much a weak link in the team.

No agendas there, it's pretty much accepted.

[roversfan99]

Tom is correct, Kean is looking very poor and if you was at the game, you would have no confidence in him at the moment.

I felt Williamson and Lowe were very good, I had forgot how good Williamson was, King was much better centrally, and I thought Taylor was bright and sharp when he came on and put in 1 or 2 good balls.

Cairney needs moving centrally but who do you drop? Judge was sharp enough, Rhodes needs to do more when he doesn't score, and Kilgallon looks a bit clumsy.

[FGS5635]

Cairney needs moving centrally but who do you drop?

That's the ironic thing about today really. The game was crying out for cairney to go central and quite possibly lowe to be taken off today. Bowyer doesn't do either and lowe bags the worldie winner.

[Amo]

Sorry but I just don't see how you can voice an opinion on a player you have not watched. Just seems illogical to me.

Because I'm f**king awesome, Spock. That's why.

[Gav]

You're making an arse of yourself, I'd give up Toppers if I was you.

[Mike E]

Toppers, take it from me: Tom isn't being harsh. Kean has regularly made mistakes this season. Dropping simple balls, fumbling and flapping at crosses, palming the ball where it looks a REALLY easy catch etc. His kicking.....ugh. The only thing going for him atmo is reflex saves in the box, but such is his lack of confidence he's even backing off for the defenders to clear shots instead.

I LIKE him as a keeper tbh, but he needs dropping before his confidence is shattered and he ends up playing at the Anchor Ground.

[ratters]

Just back from the match and quite pleased. They worried me for first 20 mins as they appeared up for it more than us. All those slating Bowyer for his tactical limits should look at how he switched King and Judge round inthe first half and what a difference it made to the game. King was excellent today and certainly made the difference when he moved up front. I have mentioned before that I feel this could be his best position as he is powerful and very quick. Well done Bowyer, much better than the Charlton game.

Kean - horror moment in first half but ok after that.

Kane - still worries me

Dann - ok

Killy - worries me

Spurr - ok while on the pitch

Cairney - good, must try and keep him

Judge - very good dead ball player

Lowe - good

Williamson - not convinced at all

King - MOM, terrorised their defence and ran his heart out, well done that lad!!

Rhodes - unlucky not to score and worked hard

Subs

Taylor - very lightweight

Marshall - Usual performance

Morris - ok

We need Dunny, Rochina and Evans back ASAP.

Williamson? Must have watched a different game. Was best player on the pitch today.

[Tom]

Agree on Williamson he shows real composure and uses the ball well, he looks fully fit now as well but the worry is for how long

[Proudtobeblue&white]

I was impressed with the Polish keeper, 1m seemed ok, but then a bit of common left us when DL's turned up. Still we are leaps ahead of last year, so cautious optimism?

[JWUpper]

First home game for about a month due to work commitments, but thought we did ok and just about warranted the 3 points.

Think Cairney was wasted on the wing and couldn't really affect play that much, the only couple of times he properly did were from central positions, but think Bowyer wants his quality in the starting 11 and is compromising on his position until we have players back from injury.

Thought Lowe and Williamson both had good games and in the 2nd half Williamson stood out with not just his blocks and tackles, but also some if his late forays forward. Lowe deserves heaps of praise as he did well defensively, scored an absolute blinder to win the game, then did well to cover at centre back after the Kilgallon injury.

I thought we looked a lot more composed going forward with king playing off Rhodes and Cairney in centre mid with Taylor and Marshall out wide.

It was the first time I've properly watched Marshall in the flesh and I wasn't massively impressed, but he had a couple of decent touches and that was about it.

I'd be tempted to play king off Rhodes again next match unless Dunn is fully fit, but it depends on the rest of the personnel available as we were definitely lacking on the wings today.

Depending on the injuries to Spurr and Kilgallon the defence could look totally different too, but we know what we're getting with Hanley. I'm still unconvinced with Kane at full back as he seems decent going forward but seems rather weak at times defensively, and think he got caught out a few times today and against a better opposition we could have paid for it.

Same with Morris (granted he's a midfielder), but you'd think Henley would be before him in the pecking order for a full back slot after previous performances, and can only assume he's not 100% match fit.

Have to agree about the ref, 2 shocking decisions for the penalty that should of been, and the Woodgate elbow. Could the FA take action against him? (Not that they would as it happened against us, but would be reassuring to know there's the potential for it)

All in all we got the job done and got the 3 points although neither team played spectacular football. Hopefully over the next couple of months we'll get Dunn and Rochina back (and fully fit) to compete for the number 10 role which would hopefully improve the link up play between Rhodes and the rest of the midfield, and ultimately increase our points haul. Until then I think it's very much a case of using what we've got and trying to get a decent run together.

But all that being said, a win is a win and I'm happy the team did the job and I left Ewood with a smile on my face!

[rovers11]

Great win today with what was, in the end, a makeshift team with Morris at lb and Lowe at CB.

Boro are not an easy team to keep a clean sheet against, think they are the fifth highest scorers, so a clean sheet was impressive. Sounds as though we just about deserved the win today. Felt it would be a tough game today with them having a change of manager.

4 points off the play offs and if we can stay in and around there until December then we may be able to make a real push for promotion with the likes of Evans, rochina and Dunn back.

To put into context how impressive that win was today, we had 4 of our 5 attackers unavailable (Dunn, rochina,best and Campbell), probably our best central midfielder (Evans), arguably our best defender (Hanley) and our best gk (Robinson).

[G Somerset Rover]

Delighted with that. I was very worried pre-match about Boro's firepower so credit to the team for the clean sheet. We still desperately need to get Dunn (I thought he was supposedly back?!) or Rochina into the side as we're badly lacking creativity. If we can keep within touching distance of the play-offs by Christmas when we have some big players coming back then you never know. It's all we can pray for judging by our latest accounts anyway!

[watford-rover]

430 miles, £130 in petrol, £50 on tickets and 7 1/4 hours in the car were totally worth it! Started off shakey in the 451 but after 20 mins when we went 442 I think it made the world of difference! Was a finger biting last 10 mins but well done rovers. Also Lowe what a way to open his scoring account, scoring a screamer for his first like mokoena did.

It made the drive home happier

[Proudtobeblue&white]

Let's not get carried away.....we are very much an up and down team. V impressed with Leicester today. And lots of other teams doing the business (Blackpool) We need a good run, so one win needs work, Brighton away is a tricky game.

[Tom]

I know he's unpolished but I rate Kei Kamara, that lad has a real leap on him and would be a good foil for Rhodes IMO

Edit - thought he was only on loan there but he isn't

[G Somerset Rover]

Let's not get carried away.....we are very much an up and down team. V impressed with Leicester today. And lots of other teams doing the business (Blackpool) We need a good run, so one win needs work, Brighton away is a tricky game.

To be fair, I don't think there's a lot in this league - Leicester and QPR asides. Our noisy neighbours IMO won't be able to sustain their form. We can compete with any of 'em apart from the first two I mentioned, simply because we're all as inconsistent as one another. All ifs and buts I know, but getting Rochina, Dunn, Evans and even Robbo fit would give us half a chance at the play-offs.

You're right though, Brighton away will be a good test. Too often we've gone to places like that and rolled over to have our belly's tickled.

[Amo]

You're making an arse of yourself, I'd give up Toppers if I was you.

As a man speaking from experience, I appreciate the heads-up.

Toppers, take it from me: Tom isn't being harsh. Kean has regularly made mistakes this season. Dropping simple balls, fumbling and flapping at crosses, palming the ball where it looks a REALLY easy catch etc. His kicking.....ugh. The only thing going for him atmo is reflex saves in the box, but such is his lack of confidence he's even backing off for the defenders to clear shots instead.

I LIKE him as a keeper tbh, but he needs dropping before his confidence is shattered and he ends up playing at the Anchor Ground.

Getting dropped for Simon Eastwood would probably kill what's left of his confidence. The guy's a lower league, third-choice goalie at best. That's the problem with people calling for Kean to be dropped, they forget we don't have a top-class replacement waiting in the wings. Oh, but don't worry, Robbo will be back soon. A guy who's been out for about a year with a broken back and another who's a decent shot-stopper but a bit of a flapper. I think a little patience and perseverance is needed with young Jake.

[Commondore]

Out of interest why did the manager decide to sign Songo'o after a 7 year trial if we refuse to use him when we are out of centre backs?

Hope killgallon isn't too badly hurt as he played well, ironically it seemed he got hurt and had to go off after being kicked by woodgate who should himself have been walking off after that

It's very rare to replace a central defender straight up (or midfielder, for that matter) with someone from the bench in the middle of a game, it's probably the worst position to play without any proper warm up against players who've been on the field for 60 minutes.

[Gav]

As a man speaking from experience, I appreciate the heads-up.

.

No problem I've got your back, from one arse to another.

Just for the record I'm with you on Kean, the lad needs time and hopefully will get it.

[47er]

Out of interest why did the manager decide to sign Songo'o after a 7 year trial if we refuse to use him when we are out of centre backs?

Hope killgallon isn't too badly hurt as he played well, ironically it seemed he got hurt and had to go off after being kicked by woodgate who should himself have been walking off after that

Perhaps after 7 years Songo'o is past it!

[DE.]

Kean is not ready to be in the position he is in, however in fairness to him it is not his fault. The blame lies at the feet of either the owners or the manager for failing to pick up any competition for Jake in the number 1 spot. Kean isn't good enough but sadly he's all we've got. He will be one of the main reasons we hang around mid-table as opposed to any kind of playoff position, though.

[DavidMailsTightPerm]

Williamson? Must have watched a different game. Was best player on the pitch today.

It is interesting the difference in opinion on Williamson - my personal view is that he showed good composure on the ball at times, but I feel he lacks pace and strength at times. At the moment - imo - he is a reasonable stop-gap for Evans. It is a real shame - as the Evans, Lowe, Cairney, King midfield was showing real promise before Evans got injured.