I heard the quote for this post from BBC Tees' own Ali Brownlee, and I'm quite disappointed that it looks like I won't getting to use that.
To be fair I would rather us be winning games. The two most recent games have been examples of games which are showing a side of a team we haven't seen for a long time. A team who can grind out a win.
Reading was a perfect chance to do that. The Royal's sat in 19th place when we faced them at the Madejski. It wasn't an interesting 0-0, which was why I didn't do a report on it!
(That was a joke, I have had mock exams so have only been posting tweets.)
But chances like the one that fell to Adomah, which he headed at Federici in the Reading net, epitomises what I'm trying to say and we didn't grind out that win. Chances fell to Bamford and Kike in that game, but none were converted.
And a week later, against Huddersfield the same feeling was there. It was the first game at the Riverside since Boxing Day and the players would have been eager to impress, especially with the good performances towards the end of last calendar year.
But the first half was rather lackluster with guilt-edge chances falling to people like Bamford, who headed wide from 6 yards with a vast majority of the goal to aim for.
As we headed into the second, the same could be applied, with Kike scuffing a left footed shot from inside the box. I know at the moment there is quite a lot of hostility towards Kike from some fans, and a few of them sat close to me. I get what people say, that 'if you pay free n'alf million for the lad he should be able to put a ball in the back of the net.' Firstly, it was £2.7 million (3.5 million euros) and he hasn't hit the ground running, per say with 6 goals in 26 games. But he has almost become a victim of his own success. A goal on his debut has lead many fans to say that he should be dropped. If we remember, Jelle Vossen didn't score in his first 13 games or so. We should, therefore, not slate him as he is 25 and only just arrived in the country.
If you look at those 'up there' with us,
http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/championship/table
Bournemouth have Wilson, who has done well coming up from League 1, but they still have Pitman and Kermogant who are scoring for them, and they all, literally, speak the same language, not like Kike who's had to learn another language and maybe hasn't fully settled yet. Derby and Ipswich have has their strikers (Martin, McGoldrick and Murphy) for more than one season. And, again, they all speak English.
You can see that Kike's problems are all to do with his confidence. You could see in the Cardiff game how desperate he was to keep hold of the ball after chesting it down, as he was afraid of boos and heckles. So, keep singing his name. Just not so often or it might seem facetious, like we are mocking him.
But anyway, back to the Huddersfield game, and it took until the 61st minute for Boro to score their first league goal since Leadbitter's penalty sealed the 3-0 win over Forest. Tomlin had fired a well struck shot over the bar a few moments earlier, and Huddersfield should have learned their lesson as he strode forward again and lashed the ball into Alex Smithies' net.
I remember recalling that these were the first shots in the game that had been hit with any venom, we had been over-passing and this looked to be an instruction from AK, to actually try shooting.
Credit Huddersfield, however, as they looked good on the attack with the pace of Wells, who would strike the woodwork in the closing stages of the game. Ex-Boro man Jacob Butterfield's ferocious strike caused Dimi to produce a great save, which nearly forced him off injured.
He played on, and saw his opposite number come up for a corner in the 90th minute. Smithies was unmarked in the box, but the corner couldn't find him and Boro got it clear for another corner. Huddersfield, bewilderingly, decided to take this corner shot. They presumably wanted a better angle on the cross, but instead gave Tomlin a very good angle to score in an open net, as Leadbitter intercepted the corner and Tomlin ran forward.
Some said that 'Tomlin didn't see the 'keeper off his line.' I refuse. He can't not have seen the 'keeper run up for the corner. He just didn't want to lash it from the halfway line and miss an open goal.
This was a game that I felt we hadn't taken our chances in the first hour, and one that we may have drawn, or even lost.
The same feeling present in the Cardiff game, although it was a lot more cold.
More missed from Kike brought many to their feet, as did a strange decision to award a throw in to Cardiff, when Bamford had played the ball ,quite clearly, off Cardiff's fullback, Brayford. The linesman was obviously aware of his error as he gave another decision the wrong way, but in Boro's favour when it should've been a Cardiff throw in. Leadbitter had some choice words for the linesman, whether they were congratulatory, or derogatory I don't know.
Headed opportunities came the way of Ayala and Friend, but none were taken. Even when Ayala went for the spectacular shoulder, after misjudging one.
This result, however, didn't look as in the balance as Huddersfield did. Cardiff just lumped the ball up to Alex Revell and then his replacement Jones and it seemed a matter of time before Boro would score.
And it was. The lively Reach, who looked fresh after not playing the weekends game against Huddersfield, provided a low cross for Bamford. He looked to have squirmed his chance as he hit it into the arms of the sliding midfielder, Peter Whittingham, but he buried the second chance.
Tomlin doubled the scoreline on 80 minutes and has really pushed for a place against Manchester City on Saturday, with his 3rd goal in as many days.
The Cardiff attacks didn't look to cause much bother in the Boro back line, who were gunning for a 6th consecutive clean sheet, with Gunnarsson firing over. A defensive lapse from newly introduced Albert Adomah, however, gifted youngster Joe Ralls with the ball, which he whipped into Jones' head and he dispatched, with Gibson and Friend struggling to compete with him.
Even though Gibbo said it 'felt like a loss' because the defense had conceded for the first time in over 650 minutes, it was a victory. One that sent us into 2nd place, just one point from Bournemouth who had lost at Leeds, surprisingly.
Leeds' favour was quickly followed up 24 hours later by Brighton who beat Ipswich, who are now behind us on goal difference. Derby can still go top when they play Blackburn. Now we have to hope that Steeley can show his true Boro roots by keeping a clean sheet. (OR Eastwood plays yet another blinder.) And also Brighton don't cash in that favour on the last day of the season, when we play them at the Riverside.
Attentions can now turn to Man City on Saturday. The optimists will be hoping for another 8-1, and the pessimists will be thinking they will avenge it, by hammering us. I just hope that none of them have tickets, because although I have said some rather pessimistic things, you can't go there thinking that we will get knocked out. Look at Sheffield Wednesday, they pushed Manchester City to bring on Silva and Nasri before they could seal out the game. And, even though they beat us, I'd like to think we were better than Sheffield Wednesday.
And if we perform like we did against Liverpool, but may be tighter at the back, with Dimi in goal and may be the experienced head of Woody marshaling the back 4, we might be able to cause an upset!
Oh one final thing, I have just said that Woody might come into the back four with him being on the bench for the match against Cardiff, but I'd expect the back 7 to be unchanged (that being Dimi, Kalas, Ayala, Gibson, Friend, Clayton, Leadbitter) with maybe a return for Vossen and Adomah, to add a bit of pace to the team, as if Demichelis is playing centre back, I feel we can 'get at them'
So, as we march on City's city, I'll say again; up the Boro; in Aitor we trust and, of course, there is only one Steve Gibson.
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