Middlesbrough v Nottingham Forest 2-0 (Yates (og), Sporar)

[CanadianBoro 233]

Forest fans seem to think they really missed Spence. I think its a no brainer to recall him. It will weaken them alot not to have him and if we are going to make a real push for promotion we need the depth.

[Redcar Rioja 5,976]

I thought Crooks blew a bit hot and cold today, he had me in raptures of delight one minute and screaming at him the next. Same with Tav, looked more a team player and done the necessary but also looked very mediocre in parts. Those for me were the poorest players for Boro today (that Lumley "clearance" aside) yet I'd still award them a 7/10 which tells its own story. MOM for me was either Jones or McNair but hard to pick out one outstanding performance with so many good ones.

This is a team with a capital "T" that is getting better game by game and not just a bit better either. I reckon that SG will be more comfortable in trusting Scott and Wilder with spending in January than he has for some years. Week by week Wilder is looking more and more the perfect fit for the Club and importantly the Players have bought into it too. How often in the past have a big Boro crowd turned up and Boro didn't, today was anything but Typical. 

[Dan_Boro_Till_I_Die 1,181]

Proper football, i want us to see us win but i want to enjoy it and be entertained. Wilder is delivering so far ❤️. 

 

Thank you Steve Gibson for getting him in. 

[sanddancer 1,967]

What impressed me was Chris Wilder reaction to the goal, truly uplifting . His reaction showed what it meant to him and he was not afraid to show it in public. 

[GrimsbyBoro 1,968]

44 minutes ago, ManBearPig said:

Best I’ve seen us play for a looooong time. Dead happy with every aspect  my only niggle is we are still not ruthless or clinical when we need to be. 

I think that finding a ruthlessness will be the difference between going up or not. Forest were really in the game all match even at two up they had chances. 

If we had put our early chances away it gives us a opportunity to game manage. Players could have had a rest on the field and/or been subbed off early with Blackpool in mind.

It will come however I suspect not with our current strikers. I don’t think any of our front guys will be here next season.

[boro-unger 3,870]

Excellent result against a revitalised Forest team. 

 

We were all over them in the first half. Snuffing out every Forest attack with ease and putting pressure on them at the back. Mcnair and Fry were outstanding. Swept everything up. 

The own goal was hilarious. I'd turned away as the keeper was passing out, as obviously nothing interesting was going to happen, looked back to see the ball just trickling in the net 😀. We should have scored a couple of goals of our own in the first half. But that seems to be the story of our season...

Second half Forest put us under more pressure. We held on well and luckily killed the game off with Sporars goal.

 

Tav had a game to forget. Gave the ball away a few times in dangerous areas with sloppy passes.

5th in the table now though (I'm going to ignore no of games played for now). Merry flipping Christmas! Amazing what a decent manager can do. 

[TLF10 4,496]

Loved seeing Wilder run over and embrace Leo after 2nd goal.

Anyone know reason behind the celebration? Not saying there had to be one but seemed like something Leo had maybe done in training came off or maybe he convinced Wildee to keep Sporar on and take Onel off?

[Leesider 1,076]

Magnificent performance The team is improving in leaps & bounds. The amount of 50-50s won and  possession regained was incredible. No doubt we need more up front but delighted Sporar has  got 2 n 2.Hard to pick a MOTM but i thought Howson was outstanding.

[Uwe 3,545]

The sky sports commentators said we were a yard quicker on the ball and off the ball which is always nice to hear. But the impressive thing is that we didn’t blow ourselves out after 60-70 mins and make silly mistakes

[sanddancer 1,967]

Blackpool, Sheffield, Reading with Sheffield the tougher. I needed to edit I got the fixtures mixed up. I think we will have a decent crowd at Blackpool and fancy a win which will lead us on to Sheffield a stern test to see how far we have come. 

Edited December 26, 2021 by sanddancer

[Brunners 7,982]

3 minutes ago, sanddancer said:

Sheffield, Reading then Blackpool with the former, going by form, the tougher. Beat Sheffield then Reading and Blackpool better expect an invasion of BORO fans that will make Scottish week look like a teddy bears picnic. 

We play Blackpool next though?

[sanddancer 1,967]

I had realised and edited the posting. 

[Changing Times 12,347]

Another win against a team who are, now were, ahead of us.  I think also a win against the team with the best form in the league since Cooper was appointed?

Our best 5 game run of form since.....Woodgate was manager, that spell over Christmas we had while he was here.  An arbitrary number of games admittedly but I found it interesting nonetheless.

 

 

[Downsouth 6,327]

You would imagine that Spence is feeling quite conflicted right now.

If he was at the game surely he would have realised that we are a very different team to the Warnock team he was part of.

If he does come back I hope CW puts an arm across his shoulder and assures him that he is wanted and needed

[pikerman 1,121]

23 minutes ago, Uwe said:

The sky sports commentators said we were a yard quicker on the ball and off the ball which is always nice to hear. But the impressive thing is that we didn’t blow ourselves out after 60-70 mins and make silly mistakes

I think the biggest difference has been the scrapping of Warnocks very strange man marking system which took so much out of the players they were knackered well before ninety minutes