This weekend sees Middlesbrough come to Carrow Road in the third game of the season, while Southampton are the visitors to NR1 next Tuesday in the Carabao Cup. Now under Rob Edwards, Boro have started their league campaign with wins against Swansea City and Millwall either side of a shock 4-0 defeat at home to Doncaster in the Carabao Cup. "(Their start) doesn't surprise me, there's elements of consistency to their team, not a huge turnover. We'll make sure we're prepared and planned for what we expect them to do. We'll take some of the positives from the opening three games, we'll look at our fundamentals and make sure that we deliver those." Manning also held special mention for the club's travelling support over the past week with packed away ends at both Vicarage Road and Fratton Park watching City come out on top on both occasions. He now wants to multiply that at Carrow Road for the upcoming games. "We're delighted to get back here. I have to say I thought the travelling fans last weekend were electric, now we can times that by 10 with over 20,000 here. We'll show that fighting spirit and togetherness. "We want everybody pulling in the same direction. You could see the appreciation from the players and the staff afterwards, we all felt the last 10 minutes. When the board went up and seeing it, probably muttering a few expletives. "The reality is we're going to have good times and bad times, we won't make excuses, we'll be open and honest. We'll keep pushing in the right direction and it's much more powerful when we're all doing it together." Liam Manning also confirmed that Marcelino Núñez will be out for a number of weeks after sustaining an ankle injury in the win at Portsmouth. The Chilean midfielder picked up the injury in the first half at Fratton Park and returned after the break, but lasted just five minutes into the second half. "There's a bit of swelling, he tried to continue but was unable to. We've had a look at it and it'll be a matter of weeks not months. Watching back the video, it was a bit of a nasty one. It's disappointing, I thought he was excellent in the first half against Portsmouth and on Tuesday at Watford as well," Manning said. The City boss did provide some good news on the impending returns of Kenny McLean, Lucien Mahovo and Gabriel Forsyth. McLean underwent surgery during pre-season while Mahovo and Forsyth have been absent since last season.
Well done Bure. This will be another tough one, especially with the weakened midfield, but it'll also give us a clearer idea of how we'll get on this season. OTBC!
First game for me this season - looking forward to being back at Carrow Road. Enjoy the match everyone from wherever you are in the world. COYY
Fortunately the success or otherwise of this squad won't be judged by the age of the players in a match day squad.
