Boro Mania

Middlesbrough rescued a point at the Riverside courtesy of a fluke goal from new signing Willo Flood. Missing a plethora of first team players boro began brightly enough but Leroy Lita wasted a number of early chances, though some credit must go to Swans keeper De Vries for keeping the first one out.

Lately the pattern of Boro's play seems to be starting brightly only to be caught out time and again after the half time break. This game was no exception and immediately following the re-start Swansea mounted a penetrating break forward, the ball was whipped into the centre by Joe Allen and Spanish forward Gorka Pintado was first to the ball, he swivelled and cracked the ball into the net off the under side of the bar.

Boro tried to respond but for all the hard work it looked as if this one was petering out for another poor home result. Then came the slice of good fortune that Gordon Strachan has said we were due when Willo Flood overhit a cross that sailed over the Swansea goalkeeper and into the net.

So a poor afternoon at a cold, half-empty, Riverside Stadium but at least we salvaged a point from a game that looked to be drifting away from us. I think it is clear for all to see that Gordon Strachan's rebuilding process is not going to be a quick one, with the January transfer window about to slam firmly shut it would seem as if his aim for the remainder of this season is to steady the ship, bring in some experience and look for a top half finish. Any thoughts of promotion must be firmly put to the backs of our minds, disappointingly as we see Newcastle continue to run away with the league, and hope of some money and ambition being in abundance come the close season.

The Adam Johnson situation is still yet to be resolved and, despite a downturn in his form recently, Johnson is a key player for Boro (as this post illustrates). Time is running out for Boro to strike a deal with Wolves, Sunderland, Everton and Chelsea all being linked with him recently. If he remains at the club after January then Boro are either going to have get a contract deal struck up or hope that the tribunal sets a fair compensation fee when he walks out.