Tomorrow's replay offers a great opportunity to the winner: the certainty of a home tie against either Manchester United or Reading in the quarter-finals of the FA Cup. Can we stretch our Cup run even further? Or will we have to go back to "concentrating on the league?" We played well with Boro at the Riverside, but our form in the league hasn't been the best since then... despite our now sitting precariously at the top of the Championship table. I, for one, do not think a Cup run will be a major distraction in our ultimate quest to secure at least an automatic promotion spot (if not win the league outright). Once again, we have a massively important match Saturday against Sunderland, but I have faith that we have a deep enough and fit enough squad to cope.
I hope you take Boro right to full time...then the 120 mins and then win. I hope you gain automatic promotion. I hope you don't get 3 points on Saturday.
West Bromwich Albion 1 Middlesbrough 1 (4-5 PK) All but the win in the end. We dominated the first half, but Boro were the far better in the second. We could have won in the PK had not Clement and MacDonald hit two horrible penalty kicks, but we should still be proud of what the team accomplished to push Boro this far. Not a bad Cup run, but a bit disappointing to go out this way. Oh well at least now we can - all together now - "concentrate on the League." Blues are now back on top after beating Leeds, so Saturday's match is quite important.