Sunday, February 26, 2006
West Brom 0 Boro 2
A lot of our recent cup success has been played down this week, with the boss and the captain both saying that the West Brom game was the most important of the season so far. A big number of the fans will have appreciated that sentiment - Uefa is good for the club, we have matched last year's result and have a glory tie to look forward to, and the FA Cup would be amazing, but we have an awful lot to do to even reach the semis, and to concentrate on clawing our way out of the bottom five is sensible, realistic and essential.Good news then that tactically we were spot on on Sunday, hitting them with the double whammy of in form strikers, Yakubu and Hasselbaink and holding firm in defense for every one of the 90 minutes. It could have gone either way in the first exchanges of the game, and even after Jimmy had fired us in front they looked dangerous coming forward with their final ball their only downfall. The answer to my midweek question of Pogatetz, Queudrue or both turned out well. And with Southgate and Riggott once again getting those crucial tackles in, and Mark Schwarzer somewhere near to his best again, we looked as solid as we have done all year. A little luck from a deflection for our 2nd cliched it with time to spare, raising a big smile from our rejuvenated Dutch striker, a very nice thing to see! By the time Quashie was sent off for a cynical boot in Boateng's back the game was beyond their reach anyway - a deserved 3 points for us and the icing on a very tasty cake in the month of February.
So, 31 points and a good 8 off the drop zone. A win against Birmingham next weekend would surely mean safety all but guaranteed, leaving us to concentrate on a mere 10 point gap to Arsenal in seventh, with a game in hand to boot! Seriously, with a dozen games still to come a continuation of current form could see us back in the mix. Granted there are nine teams between us and that kind of target, but 50 points is easily do-able if we keep the sheets clean and the goals screaming in - a total that has been good enough for a top ten finish in each of the last five seasons. Add five more to that and we are where we were last year! But I know, I know, one game at a time, eh? It's just nice to have confidence and positive targets again.
My MOTM: Mark Schwarzer played a big part today, with safe hands throughout - I'm going to show I've all but forgiven his transfer list nonsense and give him the vote ahead of Jimmy this time.
