BORO Beat Latics

BORO 1 - 0 Wigan Athletic

BORO held their nerve in a scrappy second half to clinch a vital three points after a first half that saw Jeremie Aliadiere score his first Riverside goal, and a great finish it was!

BORO got off to a rocky start as Wigan looked to make an instant impact, but some confident defending from Robert Huth and an 'out to impress' Luke Young saw that the early threat was dealt with.

BORO then began to tear up the 'Titus Bramble lead' Wigan deffence as first Downing then Tuncay found themselves in great positions, Downing narrowly missing and Tuncay seeing his superb run and strike tipped just wide by Chris Kirkland.

Tuncay, back in the side after missing the weekend game with Mansfield, then went on to waist a host of chances that any other Premier League team would have buried, leaving Gareth Southgate feeling more anxious to get the Alves deal wrapped in time for his side's visit to North East rivals Newcastle on Sunday.

But BORO's perseverance payed off, a superb lobbed pass in the 19th minute found Aliadiere darting into the Wigan box. He took the ball down and lashed a great left foot effort between Chris Kirkland and the near post to record his first goal at The Riverside, in front of the on-looking Afonso Alves who was in the stands for the game.

Then, moments later, Tuncay could have scored the second. But, with a split second to react after Downing's skewed effort, he could only direct the ball inches wide.

Tuncay then fell victim to what appeared to be a hamstring injury and had to be replaced by Mido, who received a round of applause from the home crowd. However, with the departure of Tuncay, so did the game loose all flow and rhythm and the remainder of the first half boiled down to a desperate scrap with both sides simply 'hoofing' the ball aimlessly down field.

The Second half was simply awful from BORO's point of view, time after time the ball was seen to be just aimlessly hoofed down field and all the spark from the first half was well and truly gone and with the game constantly being stopped for stupid free-kick decisions, there was definitely no flow in the game. I swear, football will soon be becoming a non-contact sport if referee Rob Styles has his way.

Sitting far too deep to ever look threatening to the Wigan goal, BORO just had to dig themselves in and scrap away to hang on to the one goal lead.

Jason Koumas was introduced early in the second half, for Wigan, and lashed a fierce shot at Mark Schwarzer who tipped the ball over the bar with a fantastic fingertip save.

Then Emile Heskey might have grabbed the equaliser late on, if not for a strong handed diving save from Schwarzer to keep the ball out of his net.

With Fabio Capello in the stands for the game, each of the England hopefuls could be seen putting in a good performance, but none more so than Gary O'Neil who, spurred by the crowds frustrations, ran himself into the ground; chasing every ball and closing down the Wigan defenders right to the final whistle.

Agonisingly, BORO saw Downing victimised by an untidy tackle and the England winger worryingly limped off just six minutes from time.

The BORO performance was far from impressive, but the result is what was important and Afonso Alves must have been licking his lips at the number of chances that BORO had created.

Attendance: 22,963
BORO Blog BORO Man of the Match: Gary O'Neil

Photos courtesy of MFC official website (www.mfc.co.uk), SkySports (www.skysports.com/football) & BBC Sport (news.bbc.co.uk/sport)