2014: A Year Of Progress

IT HAS been a productive year of professionally planned progress for Aitor Karanka’s Boro.

They have improved in every department, the club is more coherent on and off the pitch and the table looks healthy and full of possibility.  There is a sense of focus, purpose and vision about the club “from the chairman to the tea lady”.

There is a relentless, upbeat energy about the team, a positive spirit that bubbles through the entire squad and a swagger on the pitch.  And that air of confidence and optimism has spilled over into the crowd with rejuvenated supporters gradually turning up the volume and the numbers by the week. What a difference a year makes.

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Blackburn: Car Trouble

SORRY – no blog up tonight from the end-to-end Ewoodwork rattling sub-zero stalemate at Baltic Blackburn but I’ve just got back.

We finished late (early deadline on Sunday so we did loads in the press room and didn’tget away until an hour later than ususal) then got to our official club designated pitch black unsecured scrubland car park to find the GazetteMobiles had been smashed up:  rear and front passenger side windows bricked (Phil had both offside windows put through but had the luxury of a rear window). Which is nice.

Rocking Riverside Can Spark Special Season

BORO delivered in style in front of a Bumper Boxing Day crowd at a Riverside bursting at the seams with potential.

The one sided 3-0 crushing of Forest was an important win and an impressive performance on a day that could be a milestone on Boro’s long road to redemption.

If Boro now go on to make a second half surge and secure precious promotion, the defeat of Forest will become a famous badge of honour day like the game at Hartlepool of the Sex Pistols playing the Sex Pistols, a watershed moment when so many Riverside returnees will look back proudly and say: “I was there. That’s the day I started to believe again.”

Nostradamus 4 Boro 0

CHRISTMAS…  a time to settle down on the sofa and revisit some old favourites, to take another chance to savour the classics with your Santa hat  on and a glass of something strong in your hand.  Or as we call the: repeats. So here’s a quick dip in the Yuletide archives. Here’s a close textual analysis of the original Quantrains that proves Nostradamus was a Boro fan! Enjoy….

PLUS! Now with added Steve Agnew thoughts…

Panic Saturday: Aitor Angry At Christmas Gift

ANGRY Aitor Karanka simmered as he described Boro’s annual Portman Road ploughing as a “an alarm to wake us all up.”

And I think he meant an eardrum busting  industrial klaxon rather than that pathetic peep-peep-peep bedside thing that you can lazily lean over and hit the “snooze” button and turn over for a few more minutes under the duvet.

Karanka was furious. On a day the media had dubbed “Panic Saturday” his team had certainly caught the mood of the moment in the 2-0 defeat at Ipswich.

                                              Steaming: Embarrassed Aitor coming to the boil 

Boro Ram Raid On “The Best Team In The League”

BORO have just easily dismantled “the best team in the division.” Easily. Dismantled. The table-toppers and promotion favourites were picked apart in a televised demolition of Derby that will have plenty thinking that tag has just changed hands.

Patrick Bamford will take most of the headlines, and rightly so.  He has scored against the side he played for on loan last year;  he has now scored seven goals in eight games; he is on-loan from Chelsea so he has a handy tag for the nationals.

Bamford scored (and celebrated like a Forest fan) and won a penalty in another superb show in a game that he admitted had given him butterflies and a restless night before and so yes, give him the headlines. He deserves all the attention he gets after a magic month in which he has staked his claim to be a first team fixture and consistently showed us every part of the strikers’ skills set.

                          Bamford: can’t sleep for Butterflies, stings like a bee

Mythed Sitters? “Shot Shy” Tag Is Well Wide

“Shot shy Boro just don’t score enough goals to get promoted!”

That’s the latest line being peddled by the cynics – sorry, “realists” – as Aitor Karanka’  side take up residence in the pack. Or at least, it was until the five-star display at the Den when a potent performance and a goal romp dented that thinly constructed criticism.

                         Boro celebrate massaging the scoring stats at Millwall

Jelle Serves Up Goal Treat

TASTY Jelle showed this team are not to be trifled with as Boro served up a treat at Millwall.  Vossen has had to wait 12 games to get off the mark but got his just desserts with a delicious first on his way to a mouthwatering 23 minute -hat-trick before Bamford and Kike put cherries on the top. In a fantastic first half bubbling Boro created a flurry of chances: they could have had hundreds and thousands. Almost.

There were a string of clear cut chances, a couple of good saves, a strong penalty claim and one that bounced in off the post only to be clawed back into play by the keeper. It was party time for Boro who really could have scored seven or  eight. Nine?   In an awesome first 45 minutes that looked not only possible but likely.