Apparently we have been elevated to Premiership referee for this one. About time you would think except he is being punished for a VAR cockup[. Don't expect too much then. They were doing exceptionally well till their last game when the wheels came off and they lost. However this one won't be an easy ride. I still maintain we can hold our own against any of the clubs in this league so I am going to plump for another win. Whenever I think of Middlesbrough it reminds me of a cup match weekend many moons ago. I was serving at Northwood in Middlesex at the time and one of my Office colleagues was a Northman who supported them. We were drawn to play them at home in the FA cup and were in a lower league than them. This chap travelled down to Plymouth that weekend with me on the train and spent the whole journey telling me how Argyle were a nice club but stood no chance. He travelled back with me on the Sunday with me telling him how unlucky they were to lose 1 - 0. Think the year was 1972. Hoping for at least the same. COYG
Darren England is the Refs name....been demoted after the Var cock-up at the Spurs v Liverpool game recently....the goal that was not saga.
It’s interesting that since that cock-up, the refs have been taking advice from airline pilots. The 1997 Tenerife air crash, in which 583 people died, was caused by ATC instructions being misinterpreted by pilots. After that, strict use of standard phrases with specific meanings was introduced. If only refs has thought of that obvious requirement before VAR started.
Will we see Freddie Issaka on the bench? I think we will. He's probably more of a wide player than a CF but his pace and skill could give defenders a lot to think about with 70 minute old legs. The club website doesn't list him in the first team squad but I think he's registered as such.
He is registered with two others , as the under 18 tomorrow are away at swindon, as a good friends son plays in that team as he is at the academy . he is a striker but he is not on the bench as far as im aware
There is a mention in the Herald talking about the two strikers injuries that say both Tyreik Wright and Freddie Issaka are included in the squad for this one. Whether Schuey actually said that I don't know but it is reported that he did.
I am totally pee'd off today. I have a stinking cold or similar and the weather made me not go to the game. If they would only sort out the Barn Park entrance to the park and not make me have to trek for miles around the houses then I would have gone. As it is the chances of getting soaked on the trek and having to sit around in very wet clothes was too much to chance. Sat at home watching my computer tick over with stats for a few minutes and then get stuck and not record anything is no consolation. I log off and log on and find we are one down. Same keeps happening and when I sort it out for the upteenth time we are level. Then a few minutes later we are two one up. Instead of being over the proverbial moon I just can't get into this. I am happy with the score so far mind. Should I have put this on the grumpy thread.
Pull yourself together Sensible. Yours are the comments I look for first. I need you to get better. So. My impressions are we could have won this and could have lost it too. Considering we were without Hardie and Bundu, it’s not a bad result but weird stuff happened. First, let’s deal with the ref. I know what you want me to say but I won’t. He was the best ref I’ve seen this season (although that’s not saying a lot) and got most things right. Most things. So to the penalty. Middlesbrough are a decent footballing side. Their skills aren’t much superior to ours but their “professionalism” is a league above. I’m as far away from that penalty as you can be but I’m looking straight between their guy’s legs, if you pardon the expression. You know how how an aeroplane’s wheels look after takeoff? Swinging up into the wings? That’s how his legs looked. Retracted with perfect symmetry. It’s a dive. I haven’t seen ttw replays but his legs folded up like a precision mechanism. Dive all day long. Then to the ebb and flow of the game. It was very much even-stephens in the first half but right from the start of the second, we seemed to drop back and be content to defend a 2-1 lead. Now to the most amateur observer, that wasn’t going to work against a side like Middlesbrough. We’d taken them on at their own game in the first and done OK. We went 3-1 down and then seemed like to say **** it and put our foot back on the gas to get a draw. Why did we lose the impetus in the first place? And then regain it? As to individuals, Cooper looked more like himself, Gibson looked like the Dam Buster he’s named after. Kessler-Hayden and Miller were outstanding as were Azaz (what a goal that was), Cundle has more energy than EDF and Whittaker is just pure silk. You can say this was a good point and it certainly was a good game for the neutral viewer. I’m not a neutral viewer though and this is another nearly but not quite.
I've seen the goals and ours were much classier than their's but it isn't much of a consolation. I appologise for not attending to my duty notdistant although I might not have made the trek home if I did go. I did stick with my computer and it did start to work properly (more their website being crap than my machine I think). Was not happy when it went to 2 - 3 though. Was at the point of giving up when Whittaker struck once more. We do seem to be naive though which is endearing in some ways where we don't cheat much or go in for the darker arts but it doesn't get you anywhere in this life does it. They need to adapt their street wise side and not be embarrassed to do it.
Sorry you aren’t feeling well. Hope you’ll be back in your seat soon. To be fair, one of ours went down artistically in their box in the second half, this time unsuccessfully. Kesler-Hayden I think. We do it but do it badly! The other thing that differentiated us from them is size. Coburn is a big unit, rather in the Cosgrove mould. He’s effective as a traditional No 9. Maybe I’m naive but I get a thrill when Bundu comes on. He’s not a traditional No 9. He’s fast and powerful with a decent touch. Bundu’s more the sort of player I like to watch. He’s shown with a that free kick that he can strike the ball beautifully. We’ll se how it turns out. We had Cundle in midfield. Bursting with energy and enthusiasm but likely to blow away in a strong wind. They had Crooks, barrel chested, muscular, good on the ball and likely to demolish sections of the ground if he over-ran the touch line. Don’t get me wrong. Middlesbrough play good football. In fact they may be the best all-round side we’ve had at Home Park this season. In that light, perhaps an entertaining 3-3 draw when we’re missing Hardie and Bundu isn’t a bad result. I commented on those that did well. I’d just add that we really do need to sign Azaz on a permanent deal. You could leave his stupendous goal out and he was still MotM. He started the season slowly after a muddled pre-season at Villa but boy, is he back on it now. I don’t want to over dramatize it but I thought the two who won’t be so pleased with their own performances were Dan Scarr and Jordan Houghton. Both have been OK (or better) and there’s no need for panic. I’ve been really impressed with how Dan Scarr has made the step up. He’s the sort you want to succeed and he’s handled the Championship really well. He had Coburn to deal with yesterday and perhaps that says more about why we wanted to sign Coburn than it does Scarr.
I left one out didn’t I? Mumba, the enigma. He scored can’t take that away from him. He turned people inside out. He left scorch marks down the left hand side with his pace. But and it’s a big but, his actual productivity is poor. He gets into threatening positions on the edge of the box and turns away. The number of times I find myself mentally screaming “get it into the box” or “get yourself into the box” but 9 times out of 10, it peters out with one touch too many or one pass too many. So talented, such an engaging enthusiastic character but so frustrating. Just go for the jugular.
