Can Boro Start A Revival At Ot?
It is a big ask indeed but after sliding down to within a hair’s breath of the bottom three Boro need big results and big displays. Only an injury time equaliser from Man City’s Robinho saved Boro from going into the New Year in the bottom three, now we need to start making our own luck.
Time was Boro had an amazingly good record at Old Trafford. Who will ever forget that time in the match when the scoreboard read Man U 0-3 Mbro? Certainly not Binns window. But we ....
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Can Christmas Come Early For Boro?
Middlesbrough v Fulham
Middlesbrough travel to London for the first time this season hoping for an early Christmas present from Fulham at Craven Cottage. A repeat of last season’s fluky win would do just fine. It was Mido’s debut and if the Egyptian should feature tomorrow Mark Schwarzer will be hoping to make a better fist or catch from a shot scuffed or not. For that’s how Mido marked his first start last year with a scuffed goal. A big contribution from the ....
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Can We Spank The Arse?
If Boro are to bounce back from that controversial defeat at Hull they will have to do it the hard way tomorrow at the Riverside v Arsenal. The whole first choice defence is injured or suspended meaning manager Gareth Southgate will have to cobble something together to keep the Arsenal attack away from Ross Turnbull’s goal.
Remember it is an early kick off tomorrow, 12.45pm and what with Christmas shopping and loads of roadworks on the A66 and elsewhere you are ....
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Can Boro Make It Hell For Hull?
Boro away at Hull City – 3pm k.o.
It’s the biggest away day since Wigan as Boro fans travel right across old Yorkshire to try to tame the Tigers. It will be an emotional reunion with three old boys. Former skipper George Boateng has been a vital cog in the successful Hull engine room. Many will question whether we released the Boat a season too early but today we must try and contain the Indestructible one but only after he has earned a deserved ovation from ....
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Bring The Geordies Back Down
Boro v Newcastle
The atmosphere is building, as we creep ever closer to the big north east head to head. We had a “typical” set back last week against Bolton. Newcastle enjoyed a battling draw away at Chelsea. Time to knock them back down to earth. Come on Boro. It’s about time we came out on top again.
There is a rare week of calm and stability up in geordieland. On the back of a very respectable run of results Joe Kinnear has been rewarded with an ....
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Boro Can Stop Wanderers
Boro go head to head with Bolton Wanderers this afternoon, 3pm kick off.
There is a cold wind whistling around Middlesbrough today and hopefully it will bring no comfort to Bolton Wanderers. Boro have put together a fine run since the Chelsea defeat. We’ll say no more about that but ever since what David Wheater describes in today's Fly Me fanzine as ‘our Cardiff result’ we have remained unbeaten and sent the likes of billionaires Man City and top four targeting ....
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Boro Hope To Make Toffees Come Unstuck
Boro will start with the same side tomorrow and hope for the same winning result as last week against Aston Villa. Oh and remember it is now an early 1.30pm kick off and not the 4pm kick off originally fixtured.
We have bounced back so well following the 0-5 humbling from Chelsea and since looked a match for anyone below the top four in the division. If we can continue that run at Goodison Park it will be a brilliant recovery.
With the Premier League so incredibly ....
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Boro Must Take Villa Past Their Limit
Aston Villa v Boro Preview
Boro aim to continue the mini revival at Aston Villa on Sunday. It is 8th plays 5th (at time of writing) and we will need to be at very best to upset that applecart. Will all of Villa’s recent football and travelling catch up with them? We must make sure they are given no soft option and test their fitness from the first to last minute. We must keep it going and topple the Midlands top club.
Martin O’Neill’s Aston Villa has looked ....
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Must Beat The Hammers
Boro v West Ham 3pm
Back to normal kick off times and let’s celebrate with a win against struggling West Ham.
It’s been a memorable week for Boro, a last ditch goal by Blackburn snatched away 2 points at a rain lashed Ewood Park. That point was followed by our own last minute goal clinching a 2-0 win over billionaires Man City in midweek. A win today would seal a brilliant comeback from that humiliation by Chelsea. It will also propel us further up into the ....
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Alves Can Shoot Down Samba City
It’s the first home game since the Chelsea humiliation and wouldn’t you know it the other billionaires are in town, Man City. No doubt seeking to avenge their own little embarrassment, 8-1 defeat at the end of last season.
It could be the tale of two Brazilians, in Alves and Robinho. Robinho was on fire at the weekend, clocking his first hat trick. We must watch him like hawks tonight and not get razzle dazzled by his fancy footwork.
Let’s hope our own ....
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Boro Must Show Heart V Rovers
Three matches in the next 8 days and Boro need a massive reaction to the 5-0 drubbing by Chelsea and it must happen fast. It’s probably just as well today’s game is away. It gives us a chance to throw down some new foundations before facing the music in front of our own support on Wednesday. Let’s get back to basics today and battle out a point. Or three.
Last time out in Lancashire we nicked all three points at the JJB. That last gasp goal from Aliadiere had ....
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Come On Boro - Beat Chelsea
A massive game tomorrow. Boro come against Chelsea 12.45pm kick off so make sure you set off early. Can Boro build on that last ditch win at Wigan and bounce Chelsea back down south again?
Well, we’ve beaten them before and not just once of course. But we’ll all recall they completed the double over us last season and now seem to have an even steelier resolve under Big Phil Scolari. But will injuries play a part?
Chelsea will have John Terry back but will ....
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We Can Win At Wigan
Boro need to halt the slide at in-form Wigan this weekend. The Latics who have just seen off Multi billionaires Man City will be confident of extending Boro’s four match losing run to five.
Confidence that’s the name of the game at the moment. David Wheater reckons we haven’t lost any.
“Well I still think we are confident. We are still creating chances and sooner or later they are going to start going in.”
We just need to put the ball in the back of the net. ....
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No Happy Returns For Mogga
There will be lots of returns to Middlesbrough this afternoon but hopefully the happy ones will all be about Boro returning to winning home ways at the Riverside.
The man himself, Tony Mowbray is back in town leading his West Brom side studded with former Boro players in the ranks. It has been a major shock that the runaway leaders of the Championship have struggled most of the promoted three to adapt to Premier life. But we certainly don’t want to see a team as open at the back ....
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Dream Makers Middlesbrough?
Man Utd v Boro Carling Cup
Boro enter self-styled Theatre of Dreams tonight hoping to cast aside recent nightmares and instead live out some cup fantasies of our own.
It will be a pretty much full strength side Gareth Southgate takes to Man U. Hoping to rebuild confidence and show as at Anfield that we can make a real fist of things away as well as at home.
Our super impressive destruction of Yeovil seems a long time ago now and left behind with it many of ....
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Can Boro Shoot Down Black Cats?
It’s north east derby day for Boro at Sunderland tomorrow, though doubtless there will be protests that it is no such thing from up the A19. In an earlier than planned kick off thanks to the intervention of the police Middlesbrough must try and make it an afternoon of woe for Roy Keane’s men.
Time to banish all those nightmares of last season’s last gasp giveaway and get back to winning ways at what was always a happy hunting ground for Boro. Remember ....
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Can Boro Shake Up Pompey?
Go back to last season and old ‘arry’s Portsmouth were setting the Premier alight on their travels but firing blanks at home. Once Gary O’Neil had set up Tuncay to score Portsmouth’s confidence ebbed away. Fast forward to this season and once again we see a Pompey side that have not scored in six months on the south coast. Could the Boro goal threat mean high anxiety for Portsmouth?
It seems like an age since we had any Premier football. It has been a profitable ....
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Stoke Test
Boro have started the season like a train, unfortunately we were derailed in the last few minutes at Anfield but there is the feeling around Teesside today we face the acid test. In previous seasons we have raised our game against the cream and failed horribly playing those we were expected to win. Can we show a ruthless streak against Stoke today and demonstrate that this Southgate side has its sites set on the top half of the table?
Stewart Downing talked of Boro’s new ....
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Can Boro Stars Shine In Cup?
Boro take on Yeovil Town in the Carling Cup 2nd round tonight at the Riverside 8pm kick off. We make history with our first ever competitive meeting with the side from the south west. It will be a first opportunity for fans to see our three new signings start a game in a Boro shirt. Marvellous Marvin Emnes, Didier Digard and Justin Hoyte will all line up against the League One side. Digard and Emnes dazzled in pre season can they sparkle again in the cup?
It will be a long trip ....
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Boro Believe They Can Overcome
It is very rare that I travel to Anfield in anything more than hope rather than belief. But belief is the very thing that Boro boss Gareth Southgate is hoping that the Boro players will carry with them to Liverpool.
"The spirit was terrific during and after the Spurs game because the players realised they could achieve everything we had told them all summer," Gareth told the Gazette.
You cannot argue with that. There was a real buzz about the Riverside last week and we travel ....
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Boro Will Be Too Hot For Spurs
Boro v Spurs
After a summer of building excitement the big kick off is upon us. Gareth Southgate’s brave new world of the young, the quick and the hungry is on collision course with top four pretenders Tottenham. Something has to give. Could it be Spurs?
Both sides have been going great guns in pre season. Alright Spurs have hammered the better opposition. Roma are on a level way above Sparta Rotterdam. That doesn’t matter really; it is all about building fitness ....
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Fairytale Final Flourish!
8-1! Bloody wonderful. Boro said goodbye to the 2007-8 season in style, rampant and utterly unstoppable we finally managed to score three goals in a match, and then we banged five more in just for fun.
Alves became a hat-trick hero, Johnson scored his first goal at the Riverside and Downing showed his class all over the pitch and topped off another fine display with a great penalty, and a contender for goal of the season.
Aliadiere brought his final tally to five and Rocky ....
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That’s All Folks!
Sunday is Boro’s last match of the season; it is also more than likely a couple of players’ last match for Boro. It may be that the Man City game is simply something we have to sit through till the end of season lap of honour when we can judge just who is saying goodbye, who is waving too enthusiastically, in short who is the next Viduka.
But let’s hope not, Boro are safe for another season but that is no reason not to end the season on a high, preferably with a win. ....
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Relegation Rumble At The Riverside.
Cardiff was catastrophic, Reading was ridiculous and Sunderland was shambolic, but there have been good times this season, both at home and away from the Riverside (it’s hard to remember them sometimes, I know) and tomorrow will sort the men from the boys, the loyal supporters from the fair weather fans and the professionals from the prima donnas.
Two games left, two points needed to secure Premiership football next season.
Predictably I want two wins, but two of ....
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There Is More Than One Way To Skin A (black) Cat...
A short trip to the Stadium of Light awaits us tomorrow, and we had better be up for it. The black cats are not just our neighbours geographically; they are also our nearest rivals in the league. The Tees Wear derby is always a massive game for us, there is North East pride to consider, and let’s not forget we are not mathematically safe just yet…
In fact we are level with our opponents (and Wigan) on points and sit in 14th place to Sunderland’s 15th.
The ....
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