Was that we could see there's a structure to the team Hockaday sent out & a game plan.
We played a 4-3-1-2 which became 5-3-2 when the pressure was on us (with Rudy dropping deep).
There's still a long way to go - which midfielders will cement a place in the team (Cook in for Murphy, please!), how do we get the ball in to Billy quicker, who'll be our first choice defenders, to name a few, but there were some great individual displays from the likes of Warnock, Pearce (keep roughing them up!), Doukara (before he went off) & Silvestri and remember - we had 3 players making their league debut.
All very encouraging and, if Cellino adds a couple of players and keeps the ship steady, I think top half of the table could easily materialise as our objective this season.
Tomorrow night will be another big test, but the players look up for the challenge so feeling confident - 2-1 win for me.
MOT!!
My biggest plus from Boro
posted on 18/8/14
My biggest plus from Boro = nil in the result
posted on 18/8/14
yeah no shots on target is a bonus too. must give the lads confidence.
got lucky IMO with the Adomah goal but you need a bit of that.
posted on 18/8/14
I thought Murphy played really well.
We were more like 4-1-4-1 With Austin sometimes dropping even deeper to 5 at the back.
Agreed with the rest though
posted on 18/8/14
Austin to be fair to him cleaned up a lot, was there to hook clearances away, but my god he needs to speed his brain up once hes won the ball and just give it simple to a teammate!
fantastic winning it but its pointless if you give it straight back.
Most annoying part of it is that he does the hard part so well!
posted on 18/8/14
We definately got lucky with the disallowed goal but i felt we also had a couple of half decent penalty claims. I think the one on byram in the second half would have been given but the ref was trying to balance out his error.
posted on 18/8/14
If Tonge is running through quicksand, what do murphy and bianchi run through? Must be the slowest midfield in football. Rudi covers some yards when he hits his stride, but so do oil tankers. Luckily we have the pacey mowatt to come back.....!!
posted on 18/8/14
Milky, so true he takes an age to get there but once Rudy is at max speed us be hard pressed to find a faster top speed midfielder.
posted on 18/8/14
We definately got lucky with the disallowed goal but i felt we also had a couple of half decent penalty claims. I think the one on byram in the second half would have been given but the ref was trying to balance out his error.
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A common claim that is made, but a claim that has no substance in regards to balancing out errors. Match officials only care about their post-match assessment, it's what helps them hold their position or progress in football. If they balance out a mistake by making another wrong one against the other team, the assessor marks it as 2 errors. No official in his right mind would even consider balancing out an error. Also, an official cannot always be sure an error was made until after the match.
posted on 18/8/14
I see what youre saying pro. It's not like Byrams penalty claim was clear cut, you could make a case for or against it. So the ref not awarding it wouldn't be regarded as an error i suppose.
posted on 18/8/14
The Byram one was one that some would give some wouldn't, I think most wouldn't give it though.