Beaten Barely

Chelsea 1 - 0 BORO

BORO put in a battling second half performance to leave title chasers Chelsea feeling very uneasy at home, but couldn't quite deliver the goods; leaving an early Ricardo Carvalho goal to dominate the scoreline.

Chelsea, as expected, went about the opening exchanges with utter dominance as BORO barely got out of their own penalty area and it wasn't long before they snatched the opener. Ricardo Carvalho leaped above Pogatetz and the towering David Wheater to convert Wayne Bridge's sixth minute free-kick past the scrambling Mark Schwarzer.

Drogba looked good for the home side and made it his duty to cause problems for the BORO back line, testing Schwarzer early on and getting in amongst the chances with some good passing moves.

BORO hearts were in mouths just minutes after the early goal as Drogba darted away form Stewart Downing at the front post, but his effort only found the side netting from a Kalou corner.

However, for all their early dominance, the title chasers seemed to sit back a little and allowed BORO into the game. Though, lacking any real class, the visiting side failed to string together many decent moves and a well saved Downing effort was just about all BORO could create by way of chances on goal.

The first half fired to an end as Chelsea mounted a late charge when Michael Essien sliced through the BORO from midfield and found Kalou, whose effort was blocked. Kalou then came close again as he headed an effort agonisingly over the bar, but it was to be that the two sides entered the break at 1-0.

A little of their first half form was carried into the second half, but Chelsea looked more uneasy than earlier in the game as BORO started to play the ball around better than they had in the first half.

George Boateng looked on good form again, but lesser quality performances from Lee Cattermole and, unusually, Stewart Downing meant that BORO's midfield lacked the punch that it needed to get through the Chelsea line-up.

Downing made some clever runs along the left but occasionally found himself straying to the right and didn't look up to his usual crossing standard. Making some weak deliveries and less than impressive free-kicks meant that the front two of Tuncay and Aliadiere were mostly starved of deliveries from the wing.

Michael Ballack was replaced by Shaun Wright-Phillips after 65 minutes and he should have had an immediate effect on the game as he saw two efforts squandered; first shooting wide and then over after a last ditch challenge from David Wheater.

Gareth Southgate then decided to sub Tuncay, who had picked up an earlier head injury and was heavily bandaged. He made way for Afonso Alves who immediately set about trying to open his BORO account, and he came just about as close to scoring as he will ever get without actually putting the ball in the net.

Alves hunted down a long ball that an on-rushing Cudicini thought was his, the Brazilian beat the keeper to the ball at around 30 yards from goal before rounding the keeper and striking towards and empty net. The ball seemed destined for the goal, but frustratingly and agonisingly struck the inside of the post and bounced back out into play.

BORO's bad luck then started to show as they failed to score from a string of chances, the best of which came from one free-kick. Downing's free kick was in any other form a corner, as it was positioned just a couple of yards from the left hand corner flag, he delivered the ball in and found David Wheater rising above the pack. His headed effort found Alves who, from 5 yards out, smashed a header against the bar, the ball then fell back to the head of Wheater who, in turn, headed against the bar and Aliadiere lashed the resulting rebound well wide.

A telling account of BORO's desperate need to convert the chances they create, as they could have walked away from this game having embarrassed the home side. Especially with the second half chances that they created.

With Manchester United at The Riverside and a trip to Spurs coming up for the BORO, given today's chances Gareth Southgate could well be ruing an opportunity lost as BORO could have easily taken three points on a day that also saw North East rivals Newcastle move above BORO in the table with an astounding 4-1 away victory over Spurs.


Attendance: 39,993
BORO Blog BORO Man of the Match: George Boateng (Though a little off his usual form, Stewart Downing was a close second)

Pictures courtesy of BBC Sport (news.bbc.co.uk/sport)

Cup Humiliation

BORO 0 - 2 Cardiff City
FA Cup Quarter Final

BORO, today, crashed out of the FA Cup at home to Cardiff City with by far their most humiliating performance of the season.

With Chelsea and Manchester United seeing cup defeat yesterday, this was BORO's best chance to make it to the final, Portsmouth being the only other Premiership side remaining in the competition after beating Man United.

However, despite a capacity home crowd to spur them on, BORO knew that Cardiff weren't going to be a walk over, or at least they should have known.

The opening minutes of the game belonged to BORO as they fired out of the starting blocks and put City under early pressure. But a darting City attack, just nine minutes into the match, cut open the BORO defence as they hopelessly appealed for a hand-ball against Stephen McPhail. Whittingham then weaved his way to the edge of the box before curling a right footed shot past the rooted Mark Schwarzer off the post an into the net.

The entire BORO team just seemed to die after conceding the goal and any game plan that Southgate might have had went completely down the toilet when BORO's play was reduced, once again, to long aimless down-field 'hoofs', which Tuncay was unable to latch onto, time after time. Afonso Alves barely broke into a jog and looked frustratingly lethargic, whilst BORO failed to utilize their wingers Downing and O'Neil.

Cardiff showed no real class but seemed to make every BORO player extremely nervous in possession. Stewart Downing made some promising moves along the left but couldn't find anyone with his crosses as even the BORO forwards were reluctant to push forward into the box.

Then, on 22 minutes, Fabio Rochemback launched into a reckless challenge on former BORO striker Jimmy Floyd Hasselbaink. BORO fell asleep as Whittingham's free-kick sailed through to Roger Johnson who flew into a diving header that, once again, smashed past Mark Schwarzer into the net.

BORO had few chances to get a goal back, but Alves came close when he cut in from the left and lashed a powerful driven shot at goal, Peter Enckelman made a good save and had little else to do for the remainder of the game.

Alves was replaced by Mido at half-time, after the team were booed off at the end of the first half. However the introduction of Mido did little to instill confidence in the BORO faithful after what they had witnessed in the first half.

Many of the home crowd thought that BORO had grabbed a goal back when Stewart Downing's curled free-kick seemed to loop past Enckelman, but the ball went narrowly wide and it just appeared it wasn't going to be BORO's day.

BORO completely lost the plot, much to the frustration of the BORO fans. They seemed to just launch aimless long balls down-field or find themselves back tracking from attacking positions. Many BORO fans were so enraged by BORO's abysmal performance that they decided they'd had enough with nearly 20 minutes still remaining.

Cardiff held on to the end and recorded the third giant killing of the weekend, after Barnsley astonishingly knocked out Chelsea and Portsmouth clinched onto a 1-0 victory over Manchester United.

Gareth Southgate offered a refreshingly frank assessment of BORO's performance, "Today, we got what we deserved. It's what happens on the day and we didn't deliver."

Attendance: 32, 896 (full house)
BORO Blog BORO Man of the Match: Stewart Downing

Quotes & pictures courtesy of Sky Sports (www.skysports.com/football) & BBC Sport (news.bbc.co.uk/sport)

Brownlee's Back!!

BORO fan's favourite voice of the BORO, Alastair Brownlee, is set for a quick return to the commentary box after just one season away.


Brownlee had collaborated with BORO legend Bernie Slaven on Century FM to deliver over ten years of International award winning commentary on every BORO moment. However fans were crushed to hear that the club had, this season, agreed an exclusive commentary deal with BBC Radio Tees, bringing about the end of Ali and Bernie's commentary partnership.

But now Radio Tees have announced that Ali will be back on the airwaves next season as he rejoins the station he started his radio career with, known as Radio Cleveland in those days.

Paul Addison has announced that he will stand down as commentator for BBC Tees and he knew, straight away, who he wanted to take his place, "Once I'd made the decision to leave the commentary box, there really was only one person to take up the mic. Ali will be a real asset to the team and I can't wait to hear him and Gary reunited on air".

Quotes & picture courtesy of MFC official website (www.mfc.co.uk)

Sell Out

BORO club officials have predicted a 'sell out' for the FA Cup quarter-final clash against Cardiff at The Riverside.

BORO face Cardiff in the 2pm Sunday game at The Riverside, after narrowly edging through against Sheffield United last week and, despite the game being televised live on BBC Match of the Day, BORO ticket office officials have seen unprecedented demand for tickets to the game and have predicted a sell out of tickets.

The MFC Official Website have reported that Monday saw over 6, 600 tickets sold via online and telephone ticket office and queues could be seen at The Riverside ticket office every day since tickets went on sale, last Friday.

The game marks the home-coming of former BORO star Jimmy Floyd Hasselbaink, who netted 34 goals in just two years with BORO coinciding with the club's two season stint in the UEFA Cup, which saw the club make a series of unbelievable come-backs (featuring some important goals from Jimmy) on their road to the final in Eindhoven. The capacity home crowd will undoubtedly give "The Hitman" a great reception, but hopefully it wont spur him on to score!

Images courtesy of Google (images.google.com)

Defeat Again

BORO 0 - 1 Reading

BORO ended a week in which they qualified for the FA Cup quarter-finals and secured in-form defender David Wheater on a new contract, with a shattering home defeat to Premiership free-fallers Reading.

It took an injury time goal from James Harper to seal BORO's fate, as a tired home side battled on after playing 120 minutes in the mid-week FA Cup fifth round home tie against Sheffield United.

The opening exchanges appeared to belong to Reading as they launched several attacks, but without prize as their strike force proved to be, as in recent weeks, a cause for concern. Several chances went begging as first Shane Long's header flew over the bar, before Stephen Hunt's effort skewed high over the BORO goal.

However, the tables turned in the latter exchanges of the half as BORO mounted a charge, Stewart Downing being BORO's best player going forward, proving to be a constant threat along BORO's left hand-side.

Kevin Doyle saw his goal disallowed as referee Rob Howard ruled that Andre Bikey had fouled Mark Schwarzer in the build up.

Afonso Alves continued to impress, in glimpses, as he showed the home crowd how good he can be for BORO; his free-kick forcing a good save from Marcus Hahnemann.

Emanuel Pogatetz, was almost flawless throughout as he deputised for the injured Robert Huth, working well with David Wheater, who signed a new contract with his home-town club in midweek. However, neither could prevent Stephen Hunt's late cross from finding James Harper who calmly slotted the ball home past Mark Schwarzer.

Attendance: 23, 273
BORO Blog BORO Man of the Match: Stewart Downing


Also this week, BORO allowed defender Chris Riggott to join Stoke City on loan until the end of the season and youngster Jason Kennedy has moved down the road to Darlington on loan. David Wheater followed in the footsteps of Stewart Downing by committing his future to the BORO with a new three and a half year deal, citing the clubs ambition, the support of the manager and Stewart Downing's decision to stay as the main factors in reaching his decision.

Pictures courtesy of BBC Sport (news.bbc.co.uk/sport) & Google (images.google.co.uk)