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Can anyone who was at the match give a quick review please. I get the impression that Ali and Maddo over egg the tensity in the final 10 mins

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Three more points in the bag even with the same issues we've been facing facing for weeks now. I am tired of saying that we need to kill games off.

 

That said these lads have amazing physical and mental toughness under gaffas like Mogga we would have with nothing tonight but we have we are second and an extra game out of the way

 

Let's hope forest do us a favour tomorrow

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andrewparkes is taking no prisoners on facebook, it makes for hilarious reading. Some real simpletons on there.

 

It's funny how many people say beforehand 'would take a scrappy 1-0', and then become the same people who say 'we need to score more than one'!

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Just back from the game. Garbage quality, garbage ref, great three points though. Bolton came with a game plan but one moment of horrible defending cost them. Boro struggled to get out of second gear, lots of fouls, lots of tackles which didn't allow many sustained posesion for either side. Friend and Fredericksburg notably below par and gave away the ball. Kalas and gibbo did well all game. Clayton and leadbitter were tenacious and solid without creating much. Adomah had another good game and had the beating of his man every time. Reach and tomlin never really got into the game. Bamford was wasteful. The solidity through the spine of the team won us the points today.

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Karanka says: "Three days ago against Leeds we played one of our best games and lost then against Bolton we played one of our worst games and won."

 

"It was one of our worst games since I have been here - but we won and the important thing is we've got three more points."

 

Full interview: http://www.mfc.co.uk/news/article/2014/boro-aitor-karanka-riverside-stadium-sky-bet-championship-2293955.aspx

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Well that was frustrating! Bolton were poor and there for the taking and we really had to go and make it hard on ourselves. In the first half I thought we played reasonably well but just didn't take our chances. Bamford could have scored a hat trick in that half alone. One he blazed over after a neat cut back from Reach. Another he somehow managed to lift it over the bar from about 2 yards out, admittedly under pressure but with the open goal gaping it looked like a bad miss, and the third was a neat shot that the keeper saved.

 

In the second half he then had the chance to score again on his favoured left foot after some good work from Friend. It's not often his shots miss the target in such a situation but he managed to strike the ball well but wide.

 

After that we huffed and puffed for a bit without really creating chances and then made our substitions. Kike for Bamford was an obvious one but Foreshaw for Reach seemed strange. I've become accustomed to attacking changes and to see us switch Tomlin to the left wing and put Foreshaw in the advanced midfield role felt strange. After that we were disjointed and sloppy with far too many players leaving it to someone else. Nobody seemed to know who should take responsibility and we invited the pressure from Bolton by constantly thumping the ball up to Kike who was winning none of the headers. The ball came back at us time and time again and we hardly ever got the ball under control. We panicked, played into their hands and lost control and I'd have liked to have seen us play out from the keeper to feet instead of the long ball to Kike. That's not Kike's fault that he didn't win anything because both Bolton centre backs spent the whole evening with their arms wrapped around both Bamford and then Kike when he came on. The ref allowed pretty much all of it until we did the same thing once and he suddenly developed better eyesight!

 

Now just before those final 10 minutes of agony, Tomlin had charged past some players, knocked the ball past another who took him out. It was a blatant yellow card, or at least it should have been but the ref had already booked that player earlier and bottled it. Thankfully a typical Boro v ref moment did not result in that player scoring an equalizer! I also felt that both Wheater and their other centre back could have been booked more than once for persistent fouling and constantly trying to choke the life out of Bamford and Kike.

 

As a team though we've got to get out of this habit of being frustrated with the ref because quite frequently I'm watching some of our players (especially Leadbitter) mouthing off at the ref over decisions. Alongside our now anti-referee, hostile crowd I think from a refs perspective they come to the Riverside with a slight negative feeling towards us. You can argue all you want about being professional but I think it's human nature to be biased even if you think you aren't. Kike got booked for what looked like absolutely nothing, with their player just flinging himself to the ground, while they were permitted full on wrestling moves as part of their game plan.

 

In the end we persevered, made some last ditch tackles and got to the full time whistle to a massive sigh of relief.

 

Listening to the radio afterwards and I recall somebody saying we need to pick our front 2 and stick with them. I'm beginning to think that is probably the right thing to do as these strikers need a run to get going.

 

I also think we need more work on the training ground as far too often we'd see passes that were easy, simple options result in losing the ball because the other player wasn't expecting it, wasn't on the ball or was given too much to do. Also something else that happens a lot at the moment is that players go to run, stop and then the ball gets played into the space they looked like they were going into but didn't. Cheaply losing possession is not what we've come to expect.

 

This is most definitely our poor spell, our dip in form. Let's hope we can get through it picking up enough points to keep us in the mix and then find some proper form in the games that count!

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Well that was yet another nail biter. Just for once I'd like to finish a second half without tearing my hair out. I need a stress ball for the games. :D

 

I think we each match we play, the pressure is ramped up. The end is now in sight, a few months away and our future is very much in our own hands. Which is why I'm not surprised that when I tuned into the radio, as I walked back from the game, Boro fans were getting their knickers in a twist. Someone called it a disgrace, think they must have skipped the Strachen years if they thought that was bad lol!

 

We really weren't that bad. It was okay in the first half, some really nice touches and movement. Bamford had an off day and was really unlucky that some of those chances didn't result in a goal. Adomah was fantastic, covered every blade of grass twenty times over and no one deserve a goal more. Yes the second half wasn't great but I think that's because of the formation change. When Reach came off (don't get me wrong, he didn't play well) we became very one sided and lost momentum. Muzzy can't be ready or he didn't want to risk him against Bolton's tenacious play and have him get hurt but I really wished he'd had a little run out at the end.

 

Three points is all the matters. It was gritty and down right unpretty at times but we battled and showed character. Today was all about the win and on that front? Mission accomplished.

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Its almost like they do this for laughs. Play well against Leeds and get nothing, yet go through the motions against Notlob and end up with 3 points. Bizarre. Either we are crap, the rest of the league is crap, or the Championship is some bizarre reality TV show.

 

Still not scoring regular enough for my liking and it will end up costing us. Thank god for the amazing defence because that GD is not getting eaten up by the teams around us. Its incredible that its only -5 against Derby.

 

Also what the feck is happening to Norwich? I had them down as promotion top-2 at the start of the season and they could well sneak in ahead of us! Given the gap between 8th and 9th is 10 points, you really can see just how fragmented this league is. It would take an almighty feck up to finish outside of the playoffs but we really need to start scoring again.

 

edit: Whilst I'm on here. Gonna make a bold prediction. Bournemouth to finish outside of the playoffs. Gonna crash and burn out of the promotion race now.

 

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Tonight's belter from facebook:

 

Mark Whether

A wins a win yes I agree but we can't keep winning 1 nil it will end up being 1-1 Deerrr

 

Any ideas how that happens?

 

Wait i know this one!

 

Sometimes the other team try to score as well and if they succeed they get a.. i believe i'm correct in saying, goal?

 

So we would each have one of the goal thingies

 

But then there would be no winner... 

 

I'm confused... 

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Awful performance and I couldn't care less as the 3 points were all that mattered tonight. We gifted possession away in dangerous areas and were lucky that Bolton were shockingly bad. The referee had no control of the game and let Wheater and Dervite grab hold of any Boro player anywhere near their goal, Bamford and the Kike were always going to struggle with that. Heskey totally dominated our team in the air and made our defenders look amateurs getting beat to headers. Kalas, Fredericks and Clayton were all very lucky not to cost us a goal today. We dug in well at the end under heavy pressure when it looked certain to be another late equaliser like against Blackburn. Dimi, Leadbitter and Adomah were the only players to come out with any sort of credit tonight.

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I have to be honest i wasn't worried in the whole game. Heskey caused us a few minor worries and the wingers for bolton had some serious pace but we just got the job done.

 

Having scan read some of the comments, I can tell you we really weren't as bad as some are making out

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