I'm sure these words have been voiced by every Boro fan since Saturday's encounter, but HOW IS THAT NOT A FOUL. In fact there were 3 fouls, one on Dimi, one on Gibbo and a handball by Brown! Eeh Marky you've fluffed your lines here mate. May be the blame lies with Mr Sheeran and not Clattenburg, after all he did sing 'Don't' and that may have been Clattenburg's though when asked 'Shall I give a free kick?.'
Protest we may, it was a draw. 1-1. According to Sky Sports 'an even match' and the equaliser came ' when Konstantopoulos did not deal with the ball in to his box late on.' Obviously. But hey, we are still in the playoff places. We have only experienced defeat once in 14 games. But that 5th place spot we occupy looks unappealing when you're looking up at that 2nd spot. Everything would look so much rosier.
But now the 'typical Boro' doubts seem to creep in with people thinking the post Crimbo decline has come early this year. Even before the game, an air of uncertainty hung around, well it was in the East, where I heard one guy say he wishes Danny Graham was starting instead of Vossen. So after I had picked up my jaw from the floor I began thinking that this wasn't something we had experienced for a while, Last year perhaps when people thought Juke should start over Main, but someone we don't have? And Danny Graham? Well I guess you can't account for some.
As the game kicked off, you could see what kind of game it was going to be. It was a Watford game. You can tell it'll be that kind of game from the line-up. With Bamford wide, you know you're going to get him and Adomah will get in and around the Striker, with the fullbacks pushing up. In this formation too, you get 'Tomlinho' pushing deeper and deeper with Leadbitter and Clayton. But on Saturday Clayton was suspended so Deano took his place. And with Whitehead acting as a 3rd centre back at times, it isolates our lead goal scorer, Grant. Grant Leadbitter has definitely benefitted from Clayton as he now has licence to get forward. Now you'd think - surely Whitehead does that too? But the difference in mobility between the two and the positioning. These little differences can majorly affect Leadbitter's style of play, he feels he has to stay back and gets lost in the 3 ahead of him when he goes forward.
Even with MY questions about formation, we started well, keeping the ball and the man I was talking about staying back, Leadbitter, had the best chance from the opening stages. His long range strike stopped by Eastmond, which became a feature of the game. The only time Eastmond was beaten in the half, Jelle found Duffy in his way, otherwise he had an open goal in front of him after collecting the rebound from his previous shot, which followed a goalmouth scramble. These chance, along with Rhodes attempted bicycle kick were the best chances of a slow first half, where Ayala, Omeruo, Deano and Tomlin probably had the most touches of the ball by far.
The second half started rather similarly, but increased in tempo as it wore on. Chances fell to that man again, Vossen who is still looking for his first goal for Boro. Although he must be cursing some back luck after he saw his point blank header tipped over the top by Eastmond. He might have been able to direct it somewhere else, but he thought he had scored with any touch and it was just the heroics from Steeley's replacement who couldn't play due to the terms of his loan.
It took until the 83rd minute for Boro to get the ball in the back of the net. This followed a good little run and shot from Tee Lomlin (see what I did there?) and the corner was headed down by Friend at the back post (with the hint of a foul there, but nothing compared to what was to come) and Bamford hit the ball sweetly into the back of the heel of the Blackburn player which helped the ball on the way into the back of the net. That's it. 9/10 times an goal in the minutes 80-90 win a team the game. But brilliantly, this was the 1 time it doesn't.
In fairness there shouldn't have been an opportunity for Blackburn to draw level. Our attempts to retain the ball in the corner were pretty poor and in retrospect, a pass inside to Kike from Adomah would've been the better option, but at the time it didn't look like it would lead to us losing 2 points. But, helped by a few other things (including a referee with a poor haircut - not that i'm still upset) it did.
The 94th minute came and the ball had gone out for Blackburn's second corner in succession. And I'm sure you know the story now. It ended with Dimi face down in pain and the Blackburn players celebrating like they had just won a point against Liverpool in the Capital One Cup! (Which they didn't do by the way)
This lead to 'Karankatoa' as Anthony Vickers put it. The Spaniard flipped his lid and rushed like the bull from his native country to confront the 4th official. Suggestions of a push have been dismissed by Karanka, but from a fans point of view, I love to see that.
I mean, no I don't like that he may be missing on the touchline for a number of weeks after this. But seeing someone with so much passion for the club is so endearing to us fans. Mowbray is a Boro lad through and through but he wasn't likely to 'fight 100%' for the club as he wasn't that kind of manager, player yes, but not manager.
'Apparently' this confrontation ultimately led to Higgy's departure. Yes, news just in from Sky Sources! No, it's probably one of those 'through the grape vine' rumours. But apparently Karanka hasn't been best pleased with Higgy. I can only imagine this is in reference to the fact he has a different way to Karanka, and the fact that he didn't 'back him up' in the questioning of the official and that was the straw that broke the camels back.
Now i'm not for one minute saying that this is the definitive answer, because I don't think I fully believe it, but I just wanted to let you know because it seems like an interesting view on the whole confusing situation.
But we can't let thoughts of the lovely scouser shroud our vision as we head towards Millwall. I'm more than sure that Karanka will send out the lads to attack, because Millwall are 20th and a team we should be wiping the floor with, if we have any hope of gaining promotion.
Ooh this is a long one, by my standards. Well I missed the report on the Wigan draw so I feel I have to make up for it. I just hope that this situation is sorted out soon and that this won't have a damaging affect on our season. After all, before Higgy we were really struggling for goal. But again, that was with Danny Graham spearing our attack so hopefully we won't slump back.
We can be nothing but optimistic now because Karanka has shown no reason for us not to believe him in the past so why start now? Lets look forward to Saturday and more importantly, the 13th where we can hopefully pack the Riverside and put on a show for the cameras, another Norwich would be amazing, Aitor cheers mate!
Up the boro!
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