Mountain Problems For Fragile Boro

SEND for a NASA numbercruncher! With form, fixtures and the upward trajectory of teams nearby and below, Boro’s already slender play-off prospects now exist only in the rarified realm of theoretical mathematical modelling.
Tony Mowbray admitted his side now had “a mountain to climb” after Wolves. It was a fourth successive defeat to poor teams frantically clawing their way out of the relegation zone. Expect Boro to run out wearing crampons on Tuesday against a revived Peterborough who have just completed a double against Cardiff.

Budget Day: Boro Accounts For 2012

IT’S BUDGET Day and everyone is talking austerity, spending cuts and the toxic legacy of a millstone deficits. In tune with the zeitgeist Boro’s 2012 accounts are out. And it doesn’t make pretty reading.

Brittle Boro Strike Brum Note

BUGGER! Brummie Bull Ring botherers bully brittle Boro in scrappy slapstick swearmageddon soft-centred show lacking heart, energy and teeth. Grrrrrrrrr.
Three defeats in a row to bottom eight sides of limited ability but far more functional form. Three lack-lustre and low-tempo and low-thrills shows from a side lacking confidence and any sign of a spark. Grrrrrr.

Loyalists, Have A Drink On Boro

THERE would be a real feelgood buzz if we were talking about a Riverside reshuffle and season ticket prices from the comfort of the play-off zone.
But we shouldn’t let recent results jaundice the bigger picture: Boro have listened on prices, on the crying need for affordable family packages and the lack of atmosphere.
And not just listened but also taken real concrete steps to address some of the most pressing problems with the most radical reconfiguration and pricing package since the Riverside was opened.
The new season ticket price details were released in the Evening Gazette today along with confirmation of some tweaking of the ground designed to galvanise a flagging matchday atmosphere. And Gibbo is getting the beers in!

Boro Season At A Standstill

JUST when you thought it couldn’t get any worse…
After a dismal day at Bristol – another drab defeat – the Gazettemobile got caught in a massive traffic jam on the M1 just south of Sheffield. Stuck for two hours. In snow!
Just like the season, everything had ground to a standstill.

Huddersfield: A Mist Opportunity

ANOTHER mist opportunity. Boro somehow fumbled their way into the lead in a game shrouded with mutual vagueness – and then promptly lost their way again in a frustrating but now familiar failure.
Having groped into a winning position they contrived to blunder down a blind alley again, snatching defeat from the jaws of victory.

Sammy Sizzler Puts Revival On Menu

GIVE the parmo a miss tonight: Humble pie is on the menu. For the legions of defeatists who verbalised their own crisis of faith rather than see the reality of the league table as they pronounced the season over. And a sheepish serving too for the pre-emptive lynchmob who gathered to denounce useless Geordie reject Sammy Ameobi before they had even seem him play. And save a slice for those who wrote off Kieron Dyer as a zimmer-framed waster too.
The Toon-tainted twosome got the goals that fired Boro to what could be a galvanising victory over table-topping Cardiff. And they both played well. Ameobi – who’s arrival caused a lot of chuntering because he knocked Adam Reach down the pecking order – had a superb debut. Not only did he score a cracking goal after a neat Sammy shimmy stepover shuffle in the box but he several times ripped Cardiff open with some mesmerising footwork. Once, after drag-backing and dancing away through a bewildered posse twice, impressed Dyer ran over to shake his hand.
He could be the spark of lock-picking magic that could kick-start the season. Game on. We have 11 games to go, we are one point off the play-offs with a couple of the teams above us stuttering – yes, Leicester, I’m looking at you – and there’s everything still to play for.
Boro were superb in the first half; solid at the back – Big Mick was superb – and quick on the break, using both flanks well to stretch play and getting to the by-line and putting the ball in the box qjuickly. A goal up and with Cardiff forced to come out their early season prowess on the break returned. They had the league leaders rattled early, were ruthless in pressing home their advantage and could easily have had another goal to wrap the game up.
Obviiously this is Boro so it was never going to be simple. Cardiiff piled on the pressure in the second half and there was a frantic finale as they threw every forward and started to play rush goalie. It was enthralling, nail-biting stuff. My heart rate has only just returned to normal. But dogged Boro held on.
Job done. Three precious points. A good display – and after the decent fist against Chelsea in midweek, a perfromance that suggests Boro are back on an upwards curve – even if seven points in five games is hardly spectacular.
Well it is March. Time to push on. Yes, Boro have to make it count and do it over the next 11 games and yes, there’s a still a long way to go yet – but at least you can enjoy your Saturday night and watch the Football League Show for the first time this year.
More later…