A crowd of almost 28,000 turned out on Boxing Day to watch Boro beat Hull and were rewarded with a late winner in the form of Barry Robson’s unstoppable individual effort.
I hate that phrase in sports reporting and have used it simply to make a point – ‘effort’ has the same connotations as ‘attempt’ – it’s not an ‘effort’ if it works!!
But I digress, and contained hostility towards my journalistic brethren is both out of character and not very festive.
So back to the point at hand, or rather the three points we picked up on Boxing Day.
I could moan about the passing (wayward at best) the quality of football on display (below-par is being kind) or the refereeing (laughable at times) But frankly I’m too busy bouncing up and down and dancing with joy!
Craig Hignett had already jinxed the match by saying “I’m expecting a cracking game and a 3-2 win” or words to that effect and as the time ticked away, I was already mentally writing a match report bursting with phrases like ‘stuffed full of anti-climaxes’ and then Barry Robson popped up with three minutes of normal time to go and blew everything out of the water.
I had thought half of Mowbray’s double substitution was a little negative – Thomson for Ogbeche looked like we were settling for a draw and in my opinion trying to draw 0-0 is an excellent way to take nothing from a game.
However other than a Rhys Williams’ header we hadn’t looked like scoring and Zemmama, on for the flagging Arca, gave us an instant surge of energy and lifted the team. We still gave the ball away and looked vulnerable to the Tiger’s counter attack but we seemed to have a bit more purpose, which eventually culminated in Robson’s stunning shot.
The game was not a Christmas cracker, it wasn’t a Boxing Day bonanza or a festive treat, but Robson’s 35 yard screamer was pure poetry.
There’s still Peterborough to go on Saturday but as things stand we are joint second (third on goal difference) as we head into the 2012 with 44 points and 11 games to go, Happy New Year indeed!
