Middlesbrough v Owls Matchday Thread

[Holmowl]

 

   MIDDLESBROUGH v SHEFFIELD WEDNESDAY   

   
                  Monday 1st April  -  3pm 

 

Danny took the players away to Center Parcs for a bonding weekend during the international break. The club posted a pic from the archery session.

    

 

 

Football can be very glamorous….but there’s also Middlesbrough.

 

That said, down the years, they’ve had some pretty glamorous players: Fabrizio Ravanelli played for Italy in Euro 96, Juninho played 52 games for Brazil, and Christian Karembeu won a World Cup Final medal.
 

If super-model ex-wife, Adrianna Karembeu, ever decides to move back to one of the cities they lived in during his career, I’m going out on a limb here, but I reckon she’d pick Genoa, Madrid, Athens or Geneva ever-so-slightly ahead of Middlesbrough. Could be wrong.

 

 

In the 90s and naughties, Boro signed several established international stars. By contrast, in the 70s they nurtured several young talents who later went on to become massive international stars. Here’s one from 1975, in his Boro kit, when he played under Jack Charlton. To anyone 50 and above, identifying him is easy, but our younger fans might struggle. You know him very well indeed. You watch him on TV pretty much every week. 

 

 

 

Yep, none other than Graeme Souness. We think of Souness playing for Liverpool, Rangers, Sampdoria and Scotland, but he started his career with six seasons at Boro.

 

If you never saw Souness play, how can I describe his game to you? Tell you what, watch this short vid and look out for the moment of sublime subtle silky skill that perfectly epitomises this international multiple-title-winning legend of the British game and pillar of the footballing media.

 

 

That was Souness. On the outside, a ruthless cold-blooded assassin. On the inside, a ruthless cold-blooded assassin. A truly nasty piece of work. 

 

Mind you, he once came up against someone far more intimidating. To put some context into this clip for our younger fans, Yosser Hughes was a wild, angry unemployed outcast from Thatcher’s Britain, who went around head-butting anyone who crossed him, and asking everyone forlornly “Gizza job. Go on, gizza job”.

 

https://m.facebook.com/upstartfootball/videos/graeme-souness-and-sammy-lee-on-boys-from-the-blackstuff-in-1982/396338524492404/

 

The fresh-faced cherub to the left of Yosser is an 80s Liverpool colleague of Souness called Sammy Lee. Fans around my age will no doubt recall the hours of joy we had serenading Sammy with his charming ballad…

 

He’s fat,

He’s round,

He bounces on the ground,

Sammy Lee, Sammy Lee

 

Good player.

 

And onto 2024….

 

How the flippin’ chuff did we not beat Swansea?
 

Good chance after good chance, but the lads couldn’t hit a barn door with a barn door, a banjo and a cow’s arris rolled into one. They say that so long as you are making chances the goals will follow, but boy oh boy they need to follow quickly. We cannot afford to let that quantity and quality of chances go begging.  It’s understandable in our position that the players are suffering anxiety and hurrying their shots. Danny needs to instill the players with some inner Tony Blair - “Composure, Composure, Composure”.

 

There was some bad luck too. Ugbo’s super no-backlift poke hitting the bar, and every defection nestling into the keeper’s gloves. Yes you make your own luck, but honestly, this season, I think we’ve broken 10 mirrors, walked under 100 ladders and kicked 1000 black cats.

 

The rest of our game was very good. We kept a decent Swansea City away from our goal. On the very few occasions when they did get through young James was superb. We created very good chances, and for 30 minutes we absolutely pounded them. 

 

There were lots of positives, even without Poveda or Windass, and with only 30 minutes of Bannan. Getting Baz fit for 90 minutes, and Ian and/or Josh starting to come on for 20 minutes, can give us that extra boost we so desperately need to get over the dotted line that separates 22nd from 21st, which has been so tantalisingly close recently.

 

An area where I take fresh hope is our set-pieces. In the last few games we’ve started to look really threatening from free-kicks and corners:

 

Goal against Swansea - Vaulks free-kick

 

Near-misses v Swans – Vaulks corners

 

“Goal” at Rotherham – Vaulks free-kick 

 

Meslier’s leg-hair save from Gassama  – Johnson corner

 

Bernard’s missed six-yard header v Leeds – Johnson corner

 

I’m hoping we continue to mix it up from set-pieces - some from Baz, some from Marv and some from the increasingly important and impressive Vaulks. If we revert to Baz taking everything, recent evidence strongly suggests we are missing a trick.
 

There’s been a bit of criticism of Danny for subbing Bailey and Ugbo. Like you, my heart sank when they went off. It sank deeper when replacement Wilks decided to show us all his weaknesses packed into one single 15-minute cameo. 

 

But there’s a reason Danny took them off, and the Boro 2019 away game is helpful to remind us of why he’s so careful not to overuse his key players.
 

I couldn’t find the short highlights, but it’s a Bank Holiday weekend, so grab a coffee, put your feet up and enjoy:
 

The 4-1 annihilation of Boro helped us head into Christmas in 3rd place and in amazing form. Steven Fletcher was on fire, scoring freely and bullying opponents left right and centre. 

 

Understandably, but riskily, Gary Monk flogged Fletcher to death, playing his notoriously fragile and ageing body for 90 minutes game in, game out. After a short illness late December, Monk brought a weakened Fletcher back too soon, which saw him break down after 45 minutes, barely to feature again all season. We slumped from 3rd to finish 16th. 

I’m sure Danny would have loved to play Ugbo and Cads for the full 96 minutes v Swansea, and have the likes of Ugbo, Bannan, Poveda and Windass on the field for every second of our final 7 games. But he won’t. He’ll be careful. He’ll use the data. He’ll apply science and sound common sense. It’s what really good managers do. 

So, can we beat Boro?

 

The bookies don’t think so:

 

Boro 5/6

Owls 10/3

 

Our away form is pretty iffy, but Boro are only 16th in the Home Form Table. Their recent home form is poor:-

 

P6. W1. D3. L2

 

Could really really do with nicking this one against the odds. 

 

And maybe a bit of help from elsewhere?

 

Birmingham v Preston

Plymouth v Bristol City

Rotherham v Millwall

Stoke v Huddersfield

Sunderland v Blackburn

Swansea v QPR

 

Not expecting too many kind results this round, but this division and this season are insane. I wouldn’t be confident putting money on a single one of those outcomes.

 

Boro have absolutely nothing to play for, they’ve just come back from the gruelling trip to Southampton, and they have their own long and worsening injury list. I’m worryingly optimistic about this one. I think we can do it.

 

Maybe, at last, we’ll get a long-overdue slice of good fortune. But maybe it’s time to give Lady Luck a helping-hand. So, if there’s a big, scary, intense, wild-eyed Wednesday fan attending the match, and you find yourself on the train, or at the checkout, or at the urinal, next to the matchday ref, Tom Nield, please put your face right next to his, stare wildly into his eyes, and in your most intimidating voice….
 

“Gizza pen Tom. Go on, gizza pen”.

 

COYO

 

Danny, Danny Röhl

 

[duncanidaho]

nailed it, as always.....

 

just like we need to nail 3 points tomorrow

[WalthamOwl]

Another massive game. Certainly a must not lose one imo. 

[Lombardo]

I think we need something from this game to build some momentum.

Great post as always

[Thurcroft owl 72]

Tony Blair

[York_Owl]

Didn’t Souness ruin Siggi Jonsson’s career with one of his assaults? 

[Hirstyslaces]

Thanks for another great OMDT

 

We need things to start going for us, including the full return of key players, asap.

 

Come on Wednesday!

 

UTO

[DSandersonOWL]

1 hour ago, WalthamOwl said:

Another massive game. Certainly a must not lose one imo. 

OMG ! A 'must not lose' game after all the nonsense of Swansea being a 'must win' game, which we did not win, but finished the day closing by a point on the four teams above us. If we lose then we live to fight another day. 

Obviously a surprise win or a scrambled draw would be much better, but this is not a 'must not lose' game as you will see at 5pm if we do lose but remain in the mix, with others (even Udders) also losing !

[MF TAZ]

We need a win 

 

a win takes the cannot possibly not win element away from the 3 6 pointers we have coming up 

 

if we don’t win we have to beat Stoke qpr and Blackburn 

[Ian_D]

21 minutes ago, Hirstyslaces said:

Thanks for another great OMDT

 

We need things to start going for us, including the full return of key players, asap.

 

Come on Wednesday!

 

UTO

Saw him do Mick Lyons, straight from the kick-off.  Oops, wrong poster quoted.

Edited March 31 by Ian_D

[Ian_D]

37 minutes ago, York_Owl said:

Didn’t Souness ruin Siggi Jonsson’s career with one of his assaults? 

Saw him do Mick Lyons, straight from the kick-off

[REDOWL]

Keep 'em coming @Holmowl they are spot on thanks.

Two good 'uns came from Middlesborough...Paul Rodgers and Chris Rea but  we'll not let that get in the way of three points for the Wednesday Boys tomorrow

WAWAW 

 

[oneeyedmilkman]

Any idea where the away pub is tomorrow?

[Southie_Owl]

This team,  it will either lose 5-0 or win 0-1.

 

i haven’t looked at stats but feels like when we concede first away we tend to lose, and badly in a lot of those cases.  
 

Need some luck on our side to get that first goal tomorrow.  Please 

 

 

[MAL]

Absolutely hated Souness, but...

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

He would have been the first name on my team sheet.

[sternlad]

15 minutes ago, REDOWL said:

Keep 'em coming @Holmowl they are spot on thanks.

Two good 'uns came from Middlesborough...Paul Rodgers and Chris Rea but  we'll not let that get in the way of three points for the Wednesday Boys tomorrow

WAWAW 

 

IMHO Paul Rodgers is the finest vocalist ever produced in the UK…still not in the Hall of Fame though? He didn’t stay long in Middlesbrough… think he was in London chasing fame and fortune by the age of 16/17? 
Can’t predict tomorrow’s result but I hope we continue to create chances and maybe Lady Luck will flash her knickers

[REDOWL]

1 minute ago, sternlad said:

IMHO Paul Rodgers is the finest vocalist ever produced in the UK…still not in the Hall of Fame though? He didn’t stay long in Middlesbrough… think he was in London chasing fame and fortune by the age of 16/17? 
Can’t predict tomorrow’s result but I hope we continue to create chances and maybe Lady Luck will flash her knickers

I agree mate....Free.. Bad Company etc doesn't get any better.

I have a sneaky feeling in my watter that three points are coming our way tomorrow. 

[horny owl]

1 hour ago, Ian_D said:

Saw him do Mick Lyons, straight from the kick-off

I knew souness was a bit of an idiot but did he seriously mess with mick Lyons???

[CalmJimmers]

1-1

 

Ugbo for us

[Warhurstsleftfoot]

“OMDT?  I could do that. Go on. Give us a go. Go on. I can do that …..”

Brill stuff HolmOwl as usual.  Don’t appreciate being reminded of Souness’ playing days though. For ‘hard man’ substitute ‘dirty psychopath’. Get the man first and then anything else is a bonus kind of player. Still, if we’d have had him in the blue and white then “legend” oh for an enforcer on the pitch  against Boro.