Saturday, January 07, 2006
Boro 0 Man City 0
Two managers desperate to reverse bad runs of form, yet contrasting in that one strains every sinew to urge his team on and one simply looks bored... I have to admit that due to seasonal festivities I missed any kind of commentary or highlights of this one - looks like I picked the right game.The boss had issued orders (surprise, surprise) to primarily stop the rot and defend a clean sheet at all costs. From all accounts that plan worked, to the detriment of any attacking threat whatsoever! City outscored us in every statistic bar the actual scoreline and probably deserved something better for their efforts from a neutral point of view. Southgate, Riggott and Schwarzer all did well in fending off some vicious attacks from Cole, Vassel and the in-form Joey Barton and deserved some praise in light of recent results, but anywhere forward of the half-way line it looked like only a fluke would give us all 3 points that we so urgently needed. But 90 minutes went by in stalemate, giving us a home point that is not nearly enough, as teams around us did better to push us ever closer to the relegation fight.
That the season has come to this, that we don't even risk an equal fight on the day, says to me that everyone has given up already on any kind of Euro surge and is concentrating on mid-table respectability rather than glory. Not my idea of how Boro should be playing, but I'm not in charge am I? Magnificent? Not quite...
My MOTM: Any of the back line deserve mention, but perhaps Franck Queudrue above all.
