Gloom deepens as Mowbray’s WBA win at the Riverside
By Shaun • Sep 28th, 2008 • Category: Match NewsTony Mowbray brought his West Brom team to Middlesbrough and, as Boro wasted chance after chance, they took the 3 points with a 1-0 victory.
The result ended our unbeaten home record and means that Southgate, manager of the month for August, has lost every game in September.
Middlesbrough had the chances to win this game but a combination of bad luck, last ditch defending and poor finishing cost Boro the game. They struck the crossbar with goalkeeper Scott Carson well beaten and had two goal-line attempts cleared off the line by James Morrison, a product of Middlesbrough’s highly-rated Academy.
Afonso Alves, desperate for a goal to kick start his faltering start to the campaign, smashed an effort against the woodwork after a good link up with Mido. David Wheater and Gary O’Neil also had great chances but, despite fierce late pressure, there was no way through as Scott Carson held firm in the WBA goal.
The only goal of the game came on 53 minutes. Ross Turnbull, who made a couple of outstanding saves earlier in the game, couldn’t deal with a corner from former Boro midfielder Jonathan Greening - punching the ball into the path of Ishmael Miller who squared for Jonas Olsson who poked home from close range.
Miller had late opportunities to put the game beond doubt as Boro threw everything into finding an equaliser but he couldn’t convert.
The early optimism that surrounded the club after our good start to the season has now well and truly gone and Gareth Southgate faces a strong test to pick the team up and begin grinding out results.
Player Ratings
Ross Turnbull - 8 - Made a couple of excellent saves including a world class stop where he tipped a goal bound header onto the post. Will be disappointed with the goal as his poor punch led to a weak shot beating him on the line.
Justin Hoyte - 6 - I thought Hoyte did ok today, looked as if he was carrying a knock late in the game though.
Andrew Taylor - 5 - I thought Taylor had one of his poorer games today. Linked up well with Downing on a few occasions but struggled to get into the game at times.
Robert Huth - 7 - Pretty solid performance, dealt with Bednar well. Made some great tackles.
David Wheater - 6 - Struggling for form at the minute and looked off the pace again today.
Stewart Downing - 5 - Really struggling for confidence, missed a good opportunity to score and was wasteful with a few long range efforts.
Jeremie Aliadiere - 4 - Made no impact going forward and provided no defensive cover for Hoyte. If he is not contributing to our attacking play he is a passenger in the side.
Gary O’Neil - 6 - Worked his socks of for the cause, did ok but created very little.
Mohamed Shawky - 6 - Did the defensive work well but needs a playmaker alongside him. Makes very little attacking contribution.
Mido - 8 - Missed a couple of chances but worked very hard and won a lot of aerial balls.
Afonso Alves - 6 - Desperate for a goal but needs to get more involved, needed to be closer to Mido today to take advantage of the Mido flick ons.
Didier Digard - 6 - Llooked bright and worked hard but didn’t offer a lot going forward.
Adam Johnson - 7 - Made a positive impact and gave the WBA defenders something to worry about, I think he needs to be in the team.
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Shaun is A Boro fan and owner of BoroMania.com. Born and brought up in the North East. Favourite players are Juninho, Slaven and David Wheater.
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Gutted with the result, the only positive is we are creating enough chances to win games we just need to start finishing them off.
Alves wasn’t too bad today, hit nearly broke the bar with one chance, had a couple cleared off the line and on a better day could have had a coule of goals. At least he is getting into the goal scoring positions.
Mido played very well put at times him and Alves were making the same runs and getting in each other’s way. I didn’t the “Ravanelliesqu” rant at Turnbull when the goal went in though, no need for it.
Turnbull was poor for the goal, i’m sure he’d be the first to admit he should’ve dealt with it better, but other than that he was excellent again. Some stunning saves and for me the goalkeeping situation is the least of our worries at the moment.
Finally I thought Hoyte had his best display in a Boro shirt and I think he’ll come good, he just needs some time in the side to get up to speed and form.
Awful result, not a bad performance but not good enough. Southgate has a lot of work to do.
Bloody depressed about this result like but we should’ve have won this one comfortably with the chances we made.
On the goalkeeping note it was interesting to see Schwarzer drop a couple of clangers yesterday, no keeper is perfect and I think Turnbull will be a cracking keeper.
ive said it before and ill say it again; we miss tuncay and he has more of an impact on our performance than any other player. lets hope hes back soon.