Smoggies v God's Chosen [R]

[Californiaspurs]

Any thoughts on the Boro game?

I challenged Richard, the Boro fan at the pub, to a round of Mousebreaker Premiership Volley to determine the result, and based on that it turned out to be:

Middlesbrough 4, Tottenham Hotspur 2

He had to substitute Liverpool for Boro since the Smoggies must have been relegated in previous seasons.

Obviously, I really don't want to experience a scoreline like above, but it's a credible possibility based on our leaky defence and recent high scoring games.

On the other hand, we've been relaxing and training in the sun, whilst Boro have been playing their bollocks off in a string of rigorous games in miserable conditions, so frankly we should be shooting for 3 points.

Boro are having a really mixed bag of results. They have lost their last two Premiership games (to Birmingham and Newcastle) but previously beat ManUre at Old Trafford, and stopped off in Cardiff to pick up the League Cup.

Meanwhile, for us, I think our league form has been, in order of past to most recent

W-W-L-W-W-D

which is very decent, but they are at home.

Like all games outside of Arse and ManUre, it's almost impossible to see a clear favourite to win.

[Danners9]

I'd hope Spurs can win, but i don't know. Middlesboro were awful in the last game they played, a cup final hangover, but so were Bolton.

That might be out of their system by now. Hmm.

[sendorange]

Simon Davies is injured for this..... as is Kanoute, Redknapp and what looks like Ziege as well. Gardner is back though.

Team (from): Keller, Carr, Richards, Taricco, King, Gardner, Ricketts, Keane, Dalmat, Poyet, Brown, Anderton, Defoe, Jackson, Bunjevcevic, Doherty, Kelly, Yeates, Postiga, Barnard, Burch.

Hope we see something like this:

---------------Keller

Carr-----Gardner---King----Taricco

Dalmat--Anderton--Brown--Jackson

----------Defoe---Keane

[Bizarro Spur]

I'm with you Sendo. I'd like to see King and Gardner paired in the back to gain experience playing together. I'm still not a Tanno fan, but play what you've got I guess.

I see Kanoute pulled up lame in a reserves match, but what happened to Davies? When is Redknapp due back?

-Biz

[DigitalTron]

Blech. I knew the run of goals couldn't go on forever, but to lose 1-0 after all of those 7 goal thrillers ... well it just seems so wasteful.

Best of luck to the guys, but I must wonder why, with Davies injured, Dalmat didn't start?

-Digital

[sendorange]

This game was symptomatic of the entire season in just about every way, except the number of goals.

It also illustrates once again how the most important individual at the club is the manager, the person making the decisions affecting the team. If that person isn't competent enough, which Pleat isn't, then no amount of individual talent, coaching or preparation time is going to make much of a difference.

If only we can get someone like Jose Mourinho in the summer....

[Danners9]

Bound to happen, typical away day performance in a lifeless arena.