Approximately four months too late, Gareth Southgate and his team of merry defensive coaches decided that we needed to put out an attacking line-up.
Alves, Tuncay and Aliadiere were all up front with Gary O'Neil, Matthew Bates and Stewart Downing across the middle. Pogatetz, Huth, Wheater and Hoyte made up the defence, with Brad Jones in goal.
Yes Boro had to attack but unfortunately our new line-up only highlighted our defensive frailties.
Barely had the ref blown the whistle and Boro were one nil down. Aliadiere failed to stop the cross and Kevin Davies got the better of Pogi to find the net for the twelfth time this season.
As ever, Gary O'Neil worked hard and was rewarded when, in a brief flash of something resembling fooball, Boro worked together and created a goal to level the score.
Misses from Tuncay and Alves meant business as usual was resumed and a myriad of defensive errors allowed Bolton to not only regain their lead but completely decimate Boro. It finished 4-1.
Robert Huth was once again at fault for at least one of the goals by simply doing absolutely nothing to stop it. Huth's most telling contribution to the game was probably his blatant foul on Matt Taylor who forced a save from Jones with the resulting free kick.
Pogi left the pitch injured and was replaced by Andrew Taylor and Downing limped to the sidelines but recovered.
Southgate was booed, again, for substituting Aliadiere, again, and replacement Emnes failed to stretch the Bolton defence in the same way as the Frenchman.
The full extent of Boro's problems were illuminated like one of Huth's X-rays. The fans already knew that this particular Boro team can't score for toffee but almost worse is that a Southgate led squad cannot defend.
There would be very little comfort in a team going down because they are incapable of attacking but given that we spend so much of our time defending in numbers, it is truly appalling that we are so poor at the basics of defence.
In his post match interview, Southgate said that his players had to learn 'how to be footballers'. Sadly this is not an exaggeration. The players who should be developing are getting worse, players who are internationals look barely capable of playing at Championship level and none of them look like they want to be here.
I don't blame them for that but they have to start taking responsibility for their own performances, starting with Steve Gibson and Gareth Southgate and trickling all the way down to the fringe players.
Even Boro's reserves, impressive substitutes in times past, are struggling at the bottom of the league.
It has all gone wrong and whilst most of the team will be handed an escape route with a move to another club, it is the fans who are suffering. Every player, the coaches, the scouts, the manager and the chairman need to acknowledge that and take responsibility.
First published on www.newsoftheworld.co.uk/sport/fanzone - Apr 09
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