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Boro V Wigan Athletic 2-0 (Hugill (2) )


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Apologies one and all for the delay in posting the thread, I had hoped that Wilson would return with his gif enhanced match day threads, as it was his turn and the thought of going on another winning sequence might have tempted him to return to the forum...………..sadly not, so you are stuck with me.

 

Saturday 10th November

Venue The Riverside Stadium, Middlesbrough

Kick Off 1500hrs (3pm)

 

The Boro V The Latics.

 

Intro

 

Well here we go what we have all been waiting for the arrival of the last game before another International break in which we shall either loathe, be pleased with or simply can not be fussed depending on the result of this game for the next fortnight. I am hands up now totally fed up with these breaks and can not give a hoot on the chance to see Wayne Rooney strut his stuff against the good old USA for five minutes or so.

 

No need to go over how there is such a mixed feeling about being a Boro supporter at the moment but as a Latic fan there does seem to be a real feeling of being involved in another relegation fight due to their 16th position in the league.

 

Wigan's current form over 6 games is DLWLLL (last loss at home to Leeds (who else)) They have been unlucky with the fact they have played top position Championship teams and face another before the break. They have scored 5 goals in this period.

 

Our current form is WLWDDD scoring 5 goals (including own goal) in this period,

 

What will/should Tony do?

 

With Ayala finishing his one match ban being available will he drop the very impressive Batth to make way for him?

 

Will he or should he drop Tavernier, Wing back to not being even on the bench?

 

Will he realise that we need goals to win the game?

 

What will or should be his starting 11 and formation.

 

Will he or should he allow the team to express themselves in a more direct way and go for an early goal?

 

Injury news

 

Shotton, McQueen long term absentees  

 

Other games of interest

 

Norwich V Millwall

Derby V Aston Villa

Forest V Stoke

QPR V Brentford

Sheffield United V Sheffield Wednesday (result will be known due to Friday kick off)

WBA V Leeds United (evening kick off)

 

 

A view from Downsouth

 

Never ever did I think that this game would become as important as it has become and I honestly feel that as far as home games are concerned this is THE MOST IMPORTANT GAME OF THE SEASON....……..so far!!!

 

We desperately need a home win and need to stop the rot of not scoring at home. The own goal against Derby gave me no comfort whatsoever because a Boro player has not scored at home in four league games and in my opinion we will, game by game, slip away from other teams in and around us. We are fortunate that we are only 2 points from the top and we all recognise that we are in a position to push on IF we start winning games again.

 

The other games of interest mentioned depending on results will allow us to keep pace with the top of the table teams if we win but I do see Norwich and Leeds pulling away from the pack slightly anyway so we do need to hold onto their coat tails.

 

And finally is this a "must win/must not lose" game?

 

Come on England! (cough) I love International breaks...…………………..NOT!

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Good OP DS. It is a pity that Wilson wasn't around to start the thread as he did have some excellent opening posts earlier in the season.

It is hard to work out what TP will do as regards the starting eleven this week. He is not a man for making many changes in the league and as Batth was exceptional against Stoke I can see Ayala losing out for this one.

I can see this game as the beginning of a good run for us and reckon we will be seeing the DS special TMIGOTS so far logo embellished on the match day thread for quite some time yet.

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Can't say I blame Wilson. This forum seems to have become SO negative, and anti-Pulis. We're 4th in the league, and only two points off the top!!

 

(I guess I don't find our current football as negative as some in the past - but we've discussed that before).

 

Hopefully we'll win 2-0 on Saturday, and put in a good team performance.

 

However, if we lose, we'll still only be 5 points off the top at worst.

 

(Be careful what you wish for though. Loads of Ipswich fans wanted shot of Mick McCarthy, but Ipswich don't seem to be doing so well having got rid of him)!

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We need a win. Don't really care who plays or how we get it.

 

The last few games have been far from disastrous but they haven't been much fun either - a comfortable (even if uninspiring) victory will be a much-needed lift and a reminder that this team can score and pick up points at home. The Bolton win feels like a long time ago.

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This is a must win game as we need to keep there or thereabouts for the hoped for January signings to be of any use

 

We were decent enough against Stoke , with signs that Hugill might just make it but he desperately needs a goal. Lets hope he bags his first on saturday. I am going for a rather optimistic 3-1 win with Hugill , Flint and Howson (probably get about 10,000-1 at bookies on those 3 scoring mind) getting our goals

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Bloody hell comparing us with Mccarthy/Ipswich situation is a push.

 

I expect we'll lineup the same as normal with 1 possibly 2 attacking players and the rest focused on defence. We'll either sneak a goal or will finish 0-0 and it'll be horrendously boring either way.

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This is a must win game as we need to keep there or thereabouts for the hoped for January signings to be of any use

 

We were decent enough against Stoke , with signs that Hugill might just make it but he desperately needs a goal. Lets hope he bags his first on saturday. I am going for a rather optimistic 3-1 win with Hugill , Flint and Howson (probably get about 10,000-1 at bookies on those 3 scoring mind) getting our goals

 

Skybet, 3-1 and Flint FGS is 115/1, daft quid on!!

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Tired of the interruptions the internationals are causing and why is Wane getting a run out anyway. Send out the young ones not has been. Not fussed, nope, don’t know what it is but I just don’t have the nervous edge when BORO play. Fact while traveling I’m not trying to tune in or search the score. Dull, I think is the best way to describe the club. I guess being up top I should be excited but I’m not. I stopped watching the games because I thought I was being overly critical of our skill, style and movement I was shouting at the TV. Not good in bars around the world. Draw, draw, draw and lets be honest lucky in most of them. I was back in the UK last week and I got the feeling quite a few feel the same way I do. I think we will win but I also belive they have to win to be contenders and before they drive more fans away...

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Tired of the interruptions the internationals are causing and why is Wane getting a run out anyway. Send out the young ones not has been. Not fussed, nope, don’t know what it is but I just don’t have the nervous edge when BORO play. Fact while traveling I’m not trying to tune in or search the score. Dull, I think is the best way to describe the club. I guess being up top I should be excited but I’m not. I stopped watching the games because I thought I was being overly critical of our skill, style and movement I was shouting at the TV.  Not good in bars around the world. Draw, draw, draw and  lets be honest lucky in most of them. I was back in the UK last week and I got the feeling quite a few feel the same way I do. I think we will win but I also belive they have to win to be contenders and before they drive more fans away...

 

I wouldn't say we were lucky to draw the game against Rotherham and against Stoke we were well worth a point and could have had three if it wasn't for Hugill's miss when he was through on goal (Iv'e only seen the highlights and followed on here though). Derby was lucky though considering we could have been dead and buried inside the first 20 mins.

 

I agree that we need to be better than we have been in the last 1,5 months or so. We saw in august-september what kind of level we were capable of playing and we need to get back to that. I'm not sure Pulis is capable of that though as his kind of tactics is more like the one we employ now. The safety first approach need to be abandoned in certain games - like the one coming up. It's fine (to a degree) away at Stoke and against other promotion candidates where the first goal is so important. But Wigan at home has to be a game where we take the initiative and look for goals.

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How much of the good start do you put down to the pre season training camp in Austria?

 

In the early games I noticed we played at a high tempo and really pressed teams in numbers. The West Brom game was a good example where we seemed to shut them down by pressing them in twos and threes and our fitness levels looked fantastic.

 

After the first international break those intensity levels seemed to drop. I don't know whether our fitness levels have dropped and/or other teams have caught us up a bit. Once the season starts we obviously can't be running up hills every day and the fitness levels probably plateau at a similar level to other teams.

 

Now we seem to have reverted back to a cautious, ponderous style and our lack of quality stands out a mile. Yes we are in a good position in the league but our form since the first international break is more mid-table than automatic promotion.

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How much of the good start do you put down to the pre season training camp in Austria?

 

In the early games I noticed we played at a high tempo and really  pressed teams in numbers. The West Brom game was a good example where we seemed to shut them down by pressing them in twos and threes and our fitness levels looked fantastic.

 

After the first international break those intensity levels seemed to drop. I don't know whether our fitness levels have dropped and/or other teams have caught us up a bit. Once the season starts we obviously can't be running up hills every day and  the fitness levels probably plateau at a similar level to other teams.

 

Hard to tell, but there could be an element of truth in that we did press a lot. However fitness should be the easiest thing to uphold during an international break - except for those going with their national teams. I do think however that it affected us playing with semi fit players like Besic and Saville when before we used fully fit players like Wing and Tav. Besic is getting back to some of the form we saw last season but it has taken a while and Saville was injured, if I recall correctly, earlier in the season.

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I feel drawn to go through the draws we have had and see, if they were lucky or unlucky

 

Millwall: Lucky, but we pressed hard to get lucky. (No pun)

 

Leeds: Deserved draw away, where we could have nicked the 3 points.

 

Swansea: Unlucky, cause we had a few chances to win it. Saville hitting the crossbar, comes to mind.

 

Hull: Unlucky. That damn tricky bast*** from Hull earned a penna in the dying minutes and we could/should have scored a second before that.

 

Rotherham: Unlucky - The weakest away team came to defend and we should have scored. Martin's clear cut chance Braitwasted

 

Derby: Lucky as fack

 

Stoke: Deserved draw and both teams could have nicked it, but we should have scored via Jordan Huge ill local lad fanboy clumsiness...

 

Maybe we should call it effective/ineffective instead of lucky/unlucky...

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