Boro Verdict

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Well, what to say? A curious match in many ways, with the two penalty decisions proving pivotal.

We started abysmally - slow and lethargic, as though we just weren't up for it - just like we did numerous times last season, particularly after an international break - and in a derby match fer chisakes. Whereas they flew out of the blocks, scored an early goal through our now ritual defensive laxity on crosses (something I'm getting really fed up of having to say), and for 10-15 minutes we were chasing shadows, and frankly they were all over us.

They were pressing forward for a second goal when we broke, someone fed Bellamy who raced 30 yds at speed, drew his man in, and fed Robert. The frog sprinted through, dummied to go past the keeper who brought him down, and from where we were at the other end of the ground, it was a clear penalty and Schwarzer had to walk. On the HT replay it was much less clear-cut. Robert pushed the ball past the keeper and fell over him. Robert may have been playing for the pen, but there didn't seem to be too much intent from the keeper. Anyway, AS slots it away - just - and we're back in it.

Then a ball was deflected off one of our players into our PA: Given looked as though he could get it, seemed to think about the possibility of a back-pass being Given and hesitated momentarily: Ince pushes it away from Given and the goal, and in truth there wasn't any real danger: however, Given goes down behind Ince as Ince goes after the ball, and while I didn't think there was any contact, Ince goes down - penalty, and does Shay go off? Thankfully no, and of course Greening muffs the kick. HT - 1-1. Phew!!

From the replay, there does appear to be some minimal contact between Given's hand and Ince's ankle, but to me he went down very easily. Neverthless, Given could easily have been sent off.

We totally dominated the 2nd half, playing keep ball for long periods, and the Smoggies drifted home, being taunted mercilessly by the Toon Army, to the point where there weren't too many left at the end of the game.

Dabz latched on to a dream of a cross from Robert that curled between the keeper and his defenders to put us ahead. Robert then took advantage of Vickers miscontrolling the ball and went on to show his class, rounding the keeper to score from a tight angle. Big Al finished off the show by burying a cross - again from Robert I think - from the edge of the PA. As the ball came to Shearer somehow you just knew where it was going to finish. Not surprisingly, he wasn't particularly sharp; however, he battled gamely, it usually usually took two defenders to mark him, and as the song goes "..... same old Shearer, always scoring!"

Although AS and Robert will get the headlines tomorrow, for me the MOTM was Craig Bellamy. He apparently returned from international duty absolutely knackered according to BR, and there were some doubts about whether he would play. In the event, he was terrific - here there and everywhere. Time and time again the man in possession would look up to find only static team-mates - except for CB, always looking for the ball, always moving into space, always creating problems for defenders. I thought the little fella was fantastic today.

Some new songs and some 'retreads' got an airing today - "Laurent, Laurent Robert - everyone knows his name". "We've got Laurent, Laurent, Laurent Robert on the wing, on the wing....". However the French pronunciation needs a little work! My personal favourite was one that may well have been originally proposed on here - "Oh Shola Amee-oh-bee, oh Shola Amee-oh-bee, oh Shola Amee-oh-bee, knees bend, arms stretch, rah-rah-rah!".

A great day out for the BBS On Tour, a fantastic result, but in truth we were just a mite fortunate.

-- Anonymous, September 08, 2001

Answers

Clarky - it was Robert who hit (yet another) long pass to Bellamy. Two in two games which resulted in a gaol. That guy is a gem.

I was a bit closer to the Inceident and to meit was certainly a penalty. And by the look on Shay's face, he knoew it. Indeed, he looked as if he thought he'd be making it a pair of go@lies in the bath but fortunately, Poll only waved a yellow. At the resulting penalty, Greening looked sh!t-scared as he turned to take it - possibly fazed by Poll's insistence in walking up to the ball on the spot and inspecting it's position on the GP satellite thing. ANyway, I'd reckon that if any ten of us had replaced Shay at that time, at least 8 would have saved it - yes, it was that bad.

You really have to feel sorry for the Smoogies - OK, OK, perhaps that's just taking things a bit far. But they really did show their "appreciation" for the performance not by booing (they hardly made a noise all day) but by simply walking oot. I guess Geordies have a different view on £22 attendance money! Personally, I don;t want to see them relegated. 6 points at the Riverside in two seasons is simply too good to turn down ;-)

-- Anonymous, September 08, 2001


How Acuna, better then Speed in that position? Is there no need for Bassedas in the squad?

-- Anonymous, September 09, 2001

Great day out. We arrived at the Smog Stadium (which isn't nearly as impressive as it should be for a new ground) and arrived just in time to see wor lads arriving. Shearer predictably got booed by the hordes of Smogs who were watching while YBR got quite a cheer. Interesting. Anyway, I'd have to agree - we were crap in the first half: sluggish, flat and looking incapable of scoring. The other thing is that we need to do something about set pieces and defending them - we were just about holding them off, then we go and concede a bloody stupid goal from a set piece. In the first half, Dabs was getting a lot of abuse for always playing too far forward but I didn't really think he did anything wrong. Nobby was shocking in the first half, too. In the second, however, they couldn't really cope with our pace and, in particular, with Bellamy and Robert, who "terrorised" them. Boro fell apart - we were, at one point, doing the old "Ole, Ole, ole" thing because we were stringing together so many passes. In sum, it's good to see us coming back from one nil down yet again, and it's good to see Shearer back (the man's class) and Lolo is a joy. However, we won't always get the rub of the green the way we did yesterday and few teams are as crap as Boro became. Clapping as ever was led by Centre Partin' (who had a canny game) but Lolo came back and chucked his shirt into the crowd (he was obviously touched by the adulation he's getting).

-- Anonymous, September 09, 2001

Acuna did OK overall - although I thought he struggled to make a real impact during the first 20-30 minutes when we were under real pressure. However, he is a whole-hearted player who gives 100%, and he never gives up.
I do like him as a squad player, but personally still feel GS offers us just a little bit more.

-- Anonymous, September 09, 2001

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