Middlesbrough FC

H Watford  v  Bournemouth H Birmingham  v  Luton. H Huddersfield  v  Barnsley. H Hull   v  Derby. A Middlesbrough  v  Fulham. (No Boro Scorer) H Millwall  v  Stoke. H N.Forest  v  Reading. H P.N.E.  v  Blackburn.. H W.B.A  v  Charlton. D Shrewsbury  v  Sunderland

Pears - Fine debut.. Good to see him vocal and commanding. Kicks could be better Howson - Defends "ok" .. Clueless with the ball .. like he has very small feet and cannot turn the ball when he dribbles.. A good deal of running, but sadly a lot of running with his head under his arm. Fry - He is reacting and thinking too slow atm .. Needs to step up! Ayala - Awful missed sitter.. He would score more often than miss if he had 10 like that.. Good defending and nice to see him work aaard! Shotton - One big mistake.. Solid through out the game .. Actually played some nice balls forward. Johnson - super crossing several times .. could beat his man a few times too .. close to being my man of the match. Wing - Man of the match for me .. He broke through their first line in midfield several times and played some good direct forward passes .. Worked aaard too. His best game this season so far.  Mc'Nair - solid but no pulling up trees .. Great set pieces though. Saville .. Did his fair share of running .. not sure what he brings... Tav - finds himself in good positions often, but gets marked too easy, instead of going direct.. Ineffective today but reads the game well untill he gets the ball .. Fletcher .. Good positioning and incredibly poor miss .. No words for that ..  Britt .. Should have had a penna .. Still frustrating .. No grin today (Ain't that right, Will)  Coulson .. He has some drive, which will come in handy, when he gets back to full form. This kid will score and assist a few times, if he gets some minutes! Clayton N/A Over all .. The last two games should have given us 4 points .. But .. The variance will even out during the season .. We have played acceptable for the last two games ..   Against WBA we were sucker punched .. And today the ref and Fletcher .. and maybe Ayala cost us 2 points.  We will come good... and we will get something from the Fulham game as well! 

And then all the pennas we should have had too .. At least 3 during the 13 games ..  A fine mid table placing should be it .. But missed sitters, bad refereing and bad luck has us close to relegation .. But it will turn around .. Anyone blaming Woddy for the results of the last two games is insane ..  This is on the players (and the ref) ...   

I am asking him to lift it, there was no pace on the ball, it was begging for a simple lift over the keeper, even slightly off balance it's a simple finish and far better than letting the ball drop and trying to hit it through two players. Once he let it drop, the chance had gone.

The foul stopped him from being able to get a clean finish on it though, it pulled him off balance for just one extra step which allowed the defender in to close down. Unless you're asking him to genuinely lift a waist high ball that he's running onto with a defender close to him - which is a harder skill than you are describing it as.