uptheboro

Gaston Ramirez? Mmm you never can tell with Boro. Nothing would surprise me. The only ones i could think of who we have supposedly been linked with are Austin and Vokes and of course Gibson going in the other direction to Southampton. Vokes of course is now at Burnley but i can't see it being him as he played in the Europa league the other night and i don't see him dropping down to the championship.

I'm not usually one for posting rumours but i did hear that we were in talks this evening with someone and if it comes off it would be a massive deal but i couldn't make out who they were talking about. But thinking about the people i was out with this must have links either past or present to Bournemouth or Southampton.

7m fair? I don't think it is. Ipswich want 9m for Waghorn, we paid 7m for Fletcher, 16m for Britt, Leicester want 90m for Maguire. The going rate for a good Championship goalscorer has got to be 10m minimum. I think £7m is fair if you base it on the situation. It seems that he is not our first choice striker and as far as the club is concerned he is more likely to start on the bench. So if you are not going to play him and you can recover what you paid for him then fair enough.

In some ways i will be disappointed that Bamford is leaving, even more so that it is to Leeds, but if the fee of £7m is correct then i suppose that is pretty fair as i think we only paid around £6m. What does concern me is that we are supposedly considering paying £10m for Ojo. Just my opinion of course but like last season with Britt, Fletcher and co, we seem prepared to pay way over the odds for players who have done nothing to warrant that kind of price tag.

Anyone seen Ben Gibsons tweet this evening. Are people reading too much into it. My first thought before i read the replies was that it looks like he is leaving.

In some ways i am kind of glad i couldn't get a ticket for tonight because i would have been fuming at that performance and probably got myself arrested. It was almost as if they learned nothing from the first game and went with the same predictable tactics. So much possession but not a clue what to do with it. Should the keeper have been sent off. Absolutely. The ball was goal bound and i am sure under those circumstances it only matters whether the referee thinks it was deliberate or not, which of course it was. Would it have made a difference, yes of course it would. They would have been do

Well firstly, i don't think we bottled it. We simply weren't good enough to break down their defence and on the few occasions we had a chance, we didn't take it. Before the game i was very pessimistic about our chances of beating them. Having watched todays game though i'm actually a bit more positive about getting a result at Villa Park. Yes they were very well organised but for me it was their physical presence that won it for them. But that was partly our own fault. It looked to me that we played too narrow and too often went straight down the middle which in my opinion was how they had set

Well i just got back home and a 5 hour drive is always better following a win. Haven't a clue what formation that was today but we had a much better shape than we have had all season imo. I thought it was a decent performance especially from Bamford who i thought seemed to take on the role Braithwaite had been playing in recent weeks and did it very well. Braithwaite himself looked far more effective a little wider out on the left. I do think that Ipswich were very poor although you could argue that we made them look that way. We just need to find that level of consistency to turn in performan

Just stopped off on my way back home and had to vent my anger and frustration here. First half i dont think either side were that great and at half time i thought we had every chance of getting the three points. i thought we just had to be a bit more adventurous and put a bit more pressure on them and the points would be in the bag. My god how wrong was I. Dismal Dismal Dismal performance second half. What annoyed me most was when we were gifted the chance to get back into the game, you would have expected us to throw the KITCHEN SINK at them. The only thing we threw was a effing DISHCLOTH!!!

Before the game i posted that this game would tell us where we stand at the moment and i thought it would be a real pointer as for the rest of the season. I thought it would be a close game, possibly even a draw but always hoping for a win. What i wasn't expecting was a 3-0 drubbing and from what i have seen and heard there were some individual performances that would not look out of place in the Conference. Not sure where we go from here really. Before today i was still confident of automatic promotion and even if we had picked up a point whilst playing well my confidence wouldn't have taken

I think this is our biggest game to date. Reason being i think this will show us where we are really at. If i was to take off my Boro hat and scarf and be a neutral, i would have this game down for a draw. Derby played pretty well the other against QPR and i think they will come to ours fancying their chances of getting a result. Im hoping we will win today because although i think Villa will beat Ipswich, i would not be surprised if the others above us drop points, even Wolves!. so it may turn out to be a great opportunity to close the gap a little. UTB

From what i hear Howson is having a good game.

A pretty good night financially for me. I just hope we can take advantage of this tomorrow UTB

What worries me is ive lost count of the number of times we have come up against teams with a similar record and got our ***s kicked. What i will say is that if Birmingham play to the same level as they did at the weekend then we will have to put in our best performance of the season to beat them.

Well i quite fancy Sheffield Utd and Bristol City to drop points tomorrow night so i think this is a big chance to close the gap a little on those two. Unfortunately by all accounts Birmingham played better than they have in a long time at the weekend so we certainly have to improve on our dismal effort at Leeds. From what ive seen of Birmingham, their main problem lies in central midfield. They tend to depend on getting the ball out wide but leave huge gaps in central midfield where you need binoculars to see anyone in a blue shirt. I hate to use that old cliche but i do think this is a must

I decided to wait until i had calmed down before posting. For me this was a very poor performance way below our previous 3 games. I know George Friend has come in for a lot of flak but i dont think he was our worst player on the pitch. Roberts didnt play well and got caught ball watching for the opening goal. I also thought Ben Gibson had his worst game i can remember for a while. Our midfield was ineffective and I still have a big problem with Braithwaite playing where he is. At times he almost seems to be challenging Britt for that central striker role rather than being the creator and too o

Obviously hoping we can carry on where we left off and win this, but if i was unbiased i would say it is a tough one to call. I wouldn't be too disappointed if we came away with a point simply because the football gods don't tend to shine on us too much at Elland Road and we have often been on the end of some pretty rotten luck either with some dodgy referee or if anyone can remember the Kevin Poole incident and there are probably more too. Anyway a big fingers crossed for me. UTB

Haven't had a chance to read through all the posts but i get the feeling there are mixed views on the game. Pre match i posted my thoughts on here that i thought Sunderland had been playing a lot better than their results suggested. I thought it would be a difficult game and there wouldn't be a lot in it and i was hoping we might nick the 3 points but was far from confident. Well having watched the game i actually though we played fairly well and overall i was more impressed by this display than those against Reading and Hull. Ayala got my man of the match though i was impressed by all of the

Should be a pretty good game for the neutral. Both teams pass the ball well and i watched a re run of Wolves game against Norwich and they certainly looked like a side who could win the championship. Overall though they too have thrown in the odd poor performance so i don't think they are certainties for promotion just yet nor for this game as Fulham have played better away from home including winning at QPR which was something Wolves and Sheffield United failed to do. Fulham will be without Kamara after his sending off against Bristol City the other night and with Wolves likely to be at full

Have we clicked? Well i think this game will tell us a lot more. I really expect this to be tougher than the Reading and Hull games. Reason being i think Sunderland have actually played a lot better recently than their results may suggest in fact i think Grayson was a bit hard done by to get the sack. In my opinion the reason for their lack of points is similar to our own problems in that they have made a lot of individual errors which have been punished so often. If they cut them out then they will probably do okay as going forward they do pose quite a threat. I think the reason for our recen

Has the win changed your view or are you still convinced we are doomed? I have never thought we are doomed. I think if Monk settles on just one or two different formations and sticks with them then i still think we have every chance of promotion. I thought we would win at Reading and although i didn't get to the game, people who i work with and analyse games reckon that although we weren't great, that level of performance could be all that is required to be thereabouts come the final few games of the season. Question is can we play consistently to that level or better. Do we change the

I will be disappointed if we don't win here. Without Hernandez they seem to be relying heavily on Jarrod Bowen who tends to drift out wide on the right. In fact the main danger seems to come from the right side with Ola Aina who is an attacking full back. I'm not sure if Grosicki will be playing. He was substituted at half time against Forest and the reason their manager gave was he is suffering from fatigue and that is the reason for his recent disappointing displays. They played Fraizer Campbell up front last weekend but according to the Hull media, he is very unfit at the moment and struggl

Unfortunately couldn't get to the game yesterday as it's kids time for me, Halloween and fireworks stuff. Shame as i thought we would win that one. Anyway just watched the highlights and thought we did okay the not going to get too carried away as Reading are no great shakes, but we got the result and that's what matters. The Hull game is a tricky one to work out. One things for sure they play high up the pitch with a lot of width but i noticed in their game against Forest they leave themselves very short at the back at times. Interesting that Grosicki was substituted at half time. Apparently

That’s my thoughts in a nut shell too. True, but we have to get used to it, enjoy every win and every last minute equaliser, bemoan every loss and bad decision. Laugh, cry, shout....that’s football and we are lucky enough to follow a reasonable team. We have no god given right to be at the top of the league. Clubs like Derby, Forrest, Portsmouth, Leedd, Charlton, Bolton and Birmingham City Have all enjoyed top flight football, they all seem realistic about their plight, sure they’d love a great cup run or a season where everything clicks and they go on a good run and are in with a sho

For what it's worth here is my view. I will be astounded if we don't get a result of some sort here. Reading have struggled to get results so far and i think their downfall is similar to our own in that they have tried so many different styles of play so far this season that they are unable to get any kind of consistency (Just my opinion of course). Against Sheffield United they were extremely flattered by the scoreline and had the Blades finishing been better, they could have been on the end of a hammering. Most of their attacking play comes down the left flank so whoever is in at right back