Boro Mania

When Brad Jones picked up an injury prior to the Liverpool game it presented young Ross Turnbull with an ideal opportunity to stake his claim for the number one spot.

Ross had a very good game against Liverpool and cannot be blamed for either the deflected Jamie Carragher equaliser or the Steven Gerrard winner. The Stoke City game was the first, and only, league game Boro have won with Turnbull between the sticks and again he remains fairly blameless for Justin Hoyte's own goal in that game.

Against Portsmouth I thought Ross Turnbull kept us in the game for large periods, making some excellent saves. He can feel disappointed at Jermaine Defoe's first goal as it beat him at his near post but it was a blemish on an otherwise solid performance. Again, at the Stadium of Light, Ross made some exceptional saves and was rather let down by the players in front of him.

From what I have seen so far this season of Ross Turnbull I have been impressed with his performances, he has made some excellent saves, commanded his box well and caught just about every cross that came into the box.

Tuesday night's game with Manchester United in the Carling Cup saw the return of Brad Jones and though Boro went down to a 3-1 scoreline, Jones made some very good saves and put in one of his best performances in a Middlesbrough shirt. There is still the nagging doubt with me that even though his shot stopping is good he does not deal with crosses into the box as well as he should. This was highlighted for me by the Carlos Tevez chip that Jones went up to catch only to see the ball slip through his fingers towards the goal, Justin Hoyte heading over the bar to spare his blushes.

The question then, is who will Gareth Southgate start against WBA on Saturday? I get the impression that Gareth had decided Brad was his number one and there is definately a chance that now he is fit he will return to the starting line up. In my opinion that would be the wrong decision as Ross Turnbull has done enough to keep his place in the line up. I think it would send out the wrong signal if Turnbull was dropped for Jones as, if Southgate is picking players based on form then he cannot justify dropping Turnbull.

What do you think? Who would you start?