A Mixed Bag for Xmas

Welcome back to The Boro Blog, and a lot has happened since the Derby game.

Lets go chronologically, Boro fans traveled down to Suffolk with high hopes after beating table-topping Derby, but still aware of the danger Ipswich would pose. There was, however, a rather lack luster performance put in by some of the Boro players, which was backed up by AK's refusal to pull any punches in his post match interview, saying he was 'embarrassed' by the 2-0 defeat. Which, in truth, could have been a lot worse from a Teessider's perspective.


He also said that some players weren't up for the fight against Ipswich. Now at the time I was beginning to become concerned. Karanka has said that a lot of times after lacking performances. I was worried he was making up things, which is more a feature of the man still currently in the Newcastle hot seat (but for how much longer is uncertain.)

The next game, however, vs Nottingham Forest would've proven me wrong. (If I had actually wrote this at the time.) The whole town was looking forward to Boxing Day. Which gave me all the more reason to worry. Would it be another performance which failed to deliver in front of the packed Riverside?

No

After a shaky first half where no-one took charge of the game, and which went by without much goal mouth action, the second half was a vast improvement. Even though Forest switched to a 1-up-top. The deadlock was broken 8 minutes into the second half, as Friend's Ayala-esc run, that George only made due to Ayala's absense, was perfectly timed as he headed home from Leadbitter's corner.

From that moment on, we never looked back and the introduction of Jelle Vossen only helped the cause. He was going to come on anyway, but a rash challenge from Kelvin Wilson, which saw the ex-Celtic player given his second yellow of the day, meant Kike was taken off as a precaution.

11 minutes later a good passing move, a dummy from Bamford and a rather fortunate deflection was rounded off with a powerful curling shot from outside the box. This was Jelle Vossen's first goal at the Riverside.

The goal scoring was complete in the 88th minute as Bamford was tripped by Darlow (even though he was going away from the goal, hence why the referee didn't brandish the red card for the second time) and Leadbitter did what Leadbitter does from 12 yards. Score. Low and composed into the bottom right hand corner - where all 3 goals went! Funny, hey! Well perhaps not from a Forest point of view.

The evening was topped off by the return of Rhys Williams from injury. He look a little out of sorts in the centre of midfield, but he dug himself out of a hole on more than one occasion. A chorus of 'Olay's rang out as Boro controlled the final stages and soon enough the game was over.
(Not before the North and South stands vied for Karanka's attention with a round of 'Aitor, give us a wave!' Each.)



So, once again spirits were high as 7,000 Boro fans made their way across the width of the country to Ewood Park. Smoggies made up just under a third of the 22,000 attendance, but not all were in the stands for the 3 o'clock kick off, as issues on the motorway delayed arrival times.

They saw a dominating first half from the boys in red, where yet again Simon Eastwood was in inspired from. The only time we have beaten him in 180 minutes was via a deflection. Vossen saw his good low shot tipped onto the post, whilst Adam Reach's touch let him down as he burst through the Rovers' back line and Kike refused to lay the ball back  to Leadbitter. Greed is becoming a real flaw in Kike's game, a greed not seen in Bamford's or Vossen's play. One would hope that this dispels sooner rather than later.

When the second half came, it was a more open affair. This isn't good for Boro because they need to dominate games or we don't get a result. Our counter-attack seems to be rather weak, which is strange considering the pace in our team. And with a right-back in left-back and a right-midfielder in right-back you felt Blackburn were there for the taking. But then again, there was still Eastwood.

Due to our failures upfront, the defense was put under pressure and we have Leadbitter to thank for his captain's duty on the front post. So, equally, the only time Blackburn have scored past Dimi, was after a certain Chris Brown decided to injure him and a certain Mark Clattenburg decided not to give the foul.

But I'm not still mad about that.



What I am looking forward to in 2015 is a cup run. We have Barnsley on the 3rd and I hope we can get further than we did in the Capital One Cup, even though we had a very spectacular exit,

I also am looking forward to this promotion push. And I hope you are too! So onwards and upwards and I'll see you in 2015.

UTB