Just as we were about to switch off Boro's life support machine, the team lurched back to consciousness. It wasn't pretty, and no-one is sure how long it will last but there were undeniable signs of life.
After months of heartbreaking indifference Boro started to fight.
Southgate stuck to his guns and fielded an attacking team in a diamond formation. In a move that many fans wanted to see, Tuncay was played 'in the hole' where he has been so effective for Turkey. As we were going all out attack it was a move which paid off and the pure joy when he scored was fantastic - unless you happen to be the steward he pushed out of the way in order to celebrate with the crowd!
The problem is his defensive ability is practically zero and against better opposition our out-of-form back four would have been bombarded.
Tuncay's sort-of-midfield partner was defender Matthew Bates who scored his first ever goal for Boro and was almost as happy as Tony McMahon who provided the assist and celebrated the goal as if he had scored it himself.
In the absence of the injured Pogatetz, Downing took the captain's armband. The armband was all he took. For whatever reason Downing never acknowledges that being a captain should change his game. Instead Aliadiere, who has been off form recently kept everyone calm (not an easy job with a furious Andrew Taylor) and tried to organise the team. He tried a lot of things, most of which did not come off but the hug Southgate gave him when he came off suggested he appreciated the effort. When moved up front Ali provided more of a threat but it was Marlon King who secured the vital points for Boro.
King also put in the work, although, as with Aliadiere, more of it was miss than hit. It didn't matter though because when we really needed a goal, he was the man who delivered.
Alves hit the bar but was more mobile and closer to the target than previously. Perhaps those elusive goals will come at the last gasp?
I'm not sure why Adam Johnson who is only in 'light training' and was struggling to jog and winced his way through a warm up was brought on at all but thankfully it did him no harm.
I would rather not focus on the defence who, McMahon aside, were woeful but Huth played better after getting a whack on the head which required a giant bandage.
Just when we (the fans) have accepted defeat, the team have finally noticed that they are metaphorically dangling over the edge of a cliff together and the ropes are fraying. Arguing about whose fault the situation is will not save them. The only option is to work together and maybe, just maybe they can pull each other back up.
Hopefully our boys have enough. Unlike some fans I do not think the ability is lacking. The current Boro team is not the worst team we have had, despite recent performances, they are however the team which have consistently under-performed. How ironic that we finally have consistency in our team.
Now we have got to beat Fulham. Fulham are a little bit like Boro used to be in that they can cause an upset and tend to kick into higher gear when faced with a better class of opposition. Obviously nobody will be calling Boro 'class opposition' any time soon and that could work in our favour.
We are not kidding ourselves, Hull was one win which does not stack up against so many losses but at least we finally managed to attack for the full ninety minutes. And lo and behold we produced three goals. If we beat Fulham then we still have to beat Arsenal... If we don't beat Fulham, well, Arsenal will not really be a consideration.
First published on www.newsoftheworld.co.uk/sport/fanzone - Apr 09
No comments:
Post a Comment