April 2008 - Posts
What now for Boro?
We are expected to have a new manager by the end of next week but where does that leave us?
Will it be a manger from the conference, a manager from the leagues? There are so many options now open for Boro. Players may leave and players may join.
It could completely upset the team again. We will have to rebuild from scratch, which always causes problems. Hopefully the team will gave time to re-group and start gelling as a team over the summer before the season starts again.
I hope that the new manager comes fast though, because if it is another big name like Peter Taylor was, then players like Morison and Julian may stay if they think they will get promoted next season.
I am sure they would rather be in the league with Boro than go to another team.
The fans forum is tonight. I can't quite understand why it is tonight. For one there is no manager that we can ask questions to, so why not wait a week then put all questions to our new manager.
Also Chelsea v Liverpool is on, so a lot of football fans will be watching that. It seems silly to have a forum around this time. We might as well wait. I know a lot of questions were left unanswered when Taylor left, but surely a forum would be better when we have a new manager. That way we can ask both the new manager and PW that the problems we went through won't be happening again.
Anyway, there is not much I can do about that, but hopefully PW will be answer everyone's questions and fill us with hope again of what could be a great season next year.
As many of you probably already know Peter Taylor is leaving us this week after having a meeting with PW this morning.
I think his departure is by mutual consent, although it does not state this on the website, nor does it state that he resigned or was sacked.
I think this is a positive move for Boro. I would never have thought I would have been saying that about an ex- England U21 manager, but it is true. We haven't done brilliantly since he arrived, and now i think we need a new start.
It will bring a breath of fresh air to the club. It seems like it was a very long six months, which is never good for a club. You want to have faith in your manager and I don't think many fans did have that.
At the time he was appointed, I don't think there was a better appointment than Taylor. He had my full support. The football however began to change my mind. I wouldn't have minded as much that we were losing games, if we were losing games with passion and effort. I think everyone would have been a bit more sympathetic. It was the fact we were losing games without really showing the fans what the team is made of.
My boyfriend is a life-long fan and the fact he was debating whether or not to continue with his season ticket if Taylor was here shows how much the fans were beginning to lose respect for the manager.
It is the start of a new beginning for the club, and hopefully next season will be "our" season.
There has been a lot of speculation over who is the next manager for us. The two names I have heard are Torquay's manager - Paul Buckle, and Forest Green's manager - Jim Harvey.
I don't understand why Buckle would leave Torquay as they are in a play-off position. And Harvey has come out and said he won't be leaving Forest Green. So I have no idea where these rumours come from. One thing I do know is, is that Wallace released a statement saying that a new manager will be announced in 7-10days.
They obviously have someone in mind, so I hope that it is the right appointment this time, and we can actually start rebuilding ready for the next season.
Onwards and Upwards!
Boro are set to play at Halifax away tomorrow. The team probably won't change but I am sure their hearts and minds would have.
The game means nothing to us now. Halifax need a point to stay up so I am sure they will be pleased that we have nothing to fight for.
I don't suppose many fans will be going tomorrow. And I don't blame them. It was supposed to be a massive game for us, and we blew that chance. I am going to watch Gladiators instead, whereas I would have never had gone before.
Taylor is meeting with Wallace on Monday so I guess that is where everything will be laid on the table. They will look at what we went through, the points achieved and where we finished. I think Taylor will end up staying, but Wallace hates failure so it will be an interesting call whether he gets the chop or not.
It is a shame that we don't have anything to play for, but now we have to concentrate on rebuilding our squad and bringing in better players.
Onwards and upwards!
Yesterday we played Northwich at home, which was a must win game for us.
Somehow we lost the game. We had a real chance to get in the play-offs and we blew it.
Burton were losing, we should have capitalised on it. But no, instead we go and lose 2-0 to Northwich.It is now mathmatically impossible for us to get in the play-offs. We blew, totally and utterly blew it.
We were rubbish in the first half. We deserved to be a goal down.
It was a shocking display. Where was the passion? I certainly did not see it. Morison of course ran his socks off, but other than that, there was no belief that they could do it.
I am a great fan of Mitchell Cole but his performance yesterday was awful. He was trying but not hard enough. He just stood there shaking his head. Do something about it. Don't just stand there.
I am still so bitter about the game. I just keep sitting there, and shaking my head in disbelief. I can't believe we just threw it away.
Ok, we gave it our best shot in the second half, but still we didn't put the chances away. Only when McMahon came on did we look better. He certainly showed his passion yesterday. He was constantly voicing his opinions and he even managed to score.
I don't understand why Taylor took off Grant. Bringing Berry on didn't make one bit of difference. They are both a similar players. Grant can shoot at goal, wheras Berry needs a bit more practice.
I don't know whether this will be the end of Taylor. I know he had a lot to deal with when he came to Boro, so I can't blame him for that. It wasn't exactly the most humble of places to come. But not to even see him shout at the players or change anything, every single week. It is not football we are playing. It is hoof and hope. If it means Taylor goes, and we get our football back then great. If he doesn't go, then I want to see changes. BIG changes.
I think that will be the last time I see Morison, or Julian for that matter. They are bound to go now. They were good to stay on anyway. They are far better than conference level, and it will be a shame to see them go.
I can't believe this season is over for us. It is gutting.
I really thought that this could be "the season" but obviously we were wrong. AGAIN.
No doubt there will be a few changes in the coming weeks/months, so as ever I will share my views.
But for now, I will just sit in my seat, and think, "what went wrong?"
Boro are set to play Northwich tonight. There isn't much I can write about this fixture. It is just plain, black and white. We have to win.
It is must win for us to have a hope of getting into the play-offs and it is a must win game for them because they are right near the relegation zone.
They will certainly be up for it, and I hope we are.
Julian, I assume will still be out, but hopefully other than that it should be the standard team. Westwood needs to sort himself out, as his performances of late have not exactly been brilliant.
It would be great if we could not concede a penalty tonight. I have never seen so many!
We have to come out of the blocks tonight. We have to win. We just have to.
I am afraid I am going back to my old ways of crossing everything, in a hope that it does something for the team tonight.
Fingers, arms, legs, hands and feet crossed that we win!
After the weekends fixtures and Boro's loss at Burton on Friday, we are now out of a play-off place.
It sickens me to think we have been up there the whole season and then we go and throw it away. We did play well in the first half but if you can't get the ball in the back of the net, then you always know it will come back to haunt you.
More defensive mistakes led to the goals and it was just so frustrating to see that we just gave Burton all the chances they needed.
I know I shouldn't draw on the past, but we should have beaten Exeter. That was our one chance to push the play-offs out of their reach.
I hate to say it but we don't deserve to be in the play-offs if we can't even beat teams in the top half of the table.
We have beaten Aldershot, and that's it. And that was early on in the season before these games really begin to matter.
I remember singing about us being at the top of the table. We don't even do that anymore. The football isn't great which makes it even worse.
I still stand there week in and week out, but every week I just another inch of belief and gain an inch of frustration.
It worries me that if we don't go up or reach the play-offs then we will lose our key players like Morison and Julian. I can see why they would leave. This season has been poor, despite the fact we have been in the top 5 all season. You look at where we are and you think, wow, we have done well. But if the football is rubbish, it just isn't entertaining anymore.
As I have been saying so much of late. Each game we play is now a cup final. We have to win our remaining games to even have a chance of getting in the play-offs. Even if we do win all our final games, we are not guaranteed a place. We just have to hope and prey that the other teams will slip up. I am not filled with confidence, but the players know what they have to do now, so they have to go on and win these games and put pressure on the others, like Exeter did to us.
Tonight Boro are set to play Burton away, in what is probably our biggest game of the season.
If we lose tonight we are out of a play-off position. If we win, we are in with a real chance to actually make something of the season.
The table as it stands is:
1 Aldershot 43 34 98
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2 Torquay 43 29 85
3 Burton Albion 43 23 77
4 Cambridge Utd 43 21 77
5 Stevenage 43 30 76
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6 Exeter 43 20 76
Torquay losing last night has given us that extra bit of hope, and it shows that it is not only us that keep slipping up.
If we win we will go third, above Burton and Cambridge before the weekend fixtures. If we draw however, it could make things uneasy over the weekend as Exeter could knock us out.
The fixtures for the weekend are:
Rushden & D'monds v Exeter
Salisbury v Cambridge Utd
Torquay v York
We have to win this game in my eyes. We can't leave it to the last game of the season against Halifax. If we win tonights game and our home game against Northwich on Tuesday, I think we could be safe.
Losing tonights game could just spell the end of our play-off hopes. It is not an option. I am so glad that we have Moro back. Hopefully Taylor will start with a 4-4-2, with Moro and Willock up front. I hope McMahon starts as Vincenti did not impress me at all last weekend.
My perfect team would be:
Julian, Smith, Westwood, Murray, Henry, Cole, McMahon, Grant, Martin, Willock and Morison.
I doubt it will look like that. I don't think Smith should be left back. He isn't a left back. So he shouldn't play there. If Oliver isn't dropped we would have 4 centre backs in our back four. That just isn't right, which is why I think Murray should come back in.
I have no idea how tonights game will go. All I know is that Boro have to give it their all. We have everything to lose, so hopefully they will do the business, and help us all sleep a bit easier tonight.
It worries me that the game is on Setanta. We never seem to play well when on TV. But I just hope we can lift the curse, and actually play well and as a result boost our confidence before going into the last few games of the season.
Come on Boro you can do this!
Boro played Torquay on Saturday in what was going to be another frustrating game where we ended up losing 3-1 after going a goal ahead.
There were a few changes in the squad, for example, Grant came in and Mitchell was back.
McMahon was dropped for Vincenti for some strange reason, and the decision just frustrated me as the game went on. Vincenti didn't seem to do anything. He was too slow going into tackles, and just seemed completely off the pace. McMahon had been really good in recent weeks, so I don't know why he wasn't picked.
The game would have been very good for the neutral, but for a Boro fan it was not enjoyable at all. We did manage to go one nil up after the break, but that was not before Torquay had a goal ruled out.
We managed to get the goal through a penalty after Willock was fouled. Grant took it well, and I actually thought this could be our day, what with them having a goal ruled out and us receiving a penalty. I knew now that Torquay could either drop their heads or go for it. Sadly it was the latter.
I knew the next goal was the crucial one. I said to myself the next team that scores will win the game. I wish I hadn't been right.
I thought Torquay had manged to equalise but it was once again disallowed. Again the thought that we actually might win this came into my mind. It didn't last long as Torquay were given a free kick for an apparent hand ball by Vincenti. I don't know how this is possible to give. For a start he was facing the wrong direction, and the player was about a yard away from him, so there wasn't even a chance of him moving out the way.
Of course they scored from the free kick. It was ok because we were still level. A point would at least be something. But a few minutes later they scored again. That was it. Game over. We didn't even look like we were going to score. It was like we were defending a 2-1 defeat. I thought we would have pushed and pushed for the equaliser but it just didn't happen.
Torquay then wrapped it by receiving a penalty late on. It would have been pretty good if Julian managed to save another penalty, so you just knew it wasn't to be.
I don't really know what to take from the game. We can't beat anyone up the top of the table. We are seriously riding our luck when it comes to the play-offs. Even if we got into the play-offs the likelyhood of actually beating them would be some kind of miracle. There is no spark once again. It just makes you fear for the worse.
The match against Burton has even more importance now (I seem to find myself saying that a lot now). If we lose that I think it is done and dusted. We have to some how scrape that win. I don't care how they do it. They just have to. At least we will have Moro back, and hopefully he will be raring to go.
I have decided that crossing my fingers doesn't work anymore, so instead I am just going to say...
Good luck Boro.
Boro are set to play Torquay tomorrow in what is to become a major match between the two sides.
Torquay look like they have achieved a playoff place, but they will still be up for the game.
The table as it stands looks like this:
1 Aldershot 41 33 94
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2 Torquay 40 27 79
3 Cambridge Utd 42 22 77
4 Stevenage 42 32 76
5 Burton Albion 41 23 74
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6 Exeter 41 19 72
So, if we manage to beat Torquay we would be on level points with them, which would be great. Everything is still so tight up the top, and as it looks like Morison won't be playing tomorrow, so I just hope we can get some goals.
Aldershot are playing Burton, so it would be great for us if they could beat them. Cambridge have Stafford at home and Exeter have Northwich at home. Northwich will be up for the game I am sure, because they are fighting for survival. I don't think there are going to be any easy games this weekend for the play-off hopefull teams.
I am not really sure how it will all go. I just hope we get the three points. We are at home so that should give us some confidence. We just can't lose. A point wouldn't be so bad I guess, but the three points would be a great help.
If Burton, Exeter, and Cambridge win and we fail to, we would fall to fifth, with Exeter one point away from us, Burton one point ahead of us, and Cambridge 4 points ahead of us. Yes, it would still be very close but considering we still have to play Burton away, it makes the 3 points even more crucial to get now, as our away form isn't exactly brilliant.
Hopefully it will be a happy post come Monday morning.
Fingers, toes, legs, and arms crossed.
For some reason this didn't post so....
So Boro played Exeter at the weekend. It was a big game as Burton and Torquay both lost. You would have thought that Boro would have come out all guns blazing, as a win would have pushed them second.
Although once again Boro were not at their best in the first half. This game meant so much to us, yet were still playing how we always do. Unfluent.
Exeter of course taking advantage of our non football, managed to score, and everyone feared the worst. They had beaten us 4-0 twice this season, we didn't want it to happen again.
Boro did manage to get better in the second half, much like they did against York, but this time we we just couldn't score. We had a ball cleared off the line, and none of our efforts could get into the back of the net.
One of the main talking points of the game was the penalty incident. I am not quite sure what to make of it all. One of their players went down in the area and it seemed Smith was the culprit. They took the penalty and Julian, like on Tuesdays game saved it. Everyone went mental. But then for some reason the Ref decided that the penalty needed to be retaken for some reason or another. Julian managed to save it again. It kept us in it, but we still couldn't gain a point out of the game.
We are now fourth in the league and we could have gone second. We have Woking this week followed by Torquay and Burton. None of those games are going to be easy, so I still have no idea whether we will make it or not. One thing is for sure, we need to play better football, and fast.
Boro played Woking last night, in a game that saw the departure of their manager, 3 points to us, and a ban for Morison.
Everyone knows that when Boro play Woking tempers flare and it is bound to be a good game.
Boro went 1 nil up within the first few minutes after Morison scored from a Tyrone Berry cross. I loved the fact that we were winning but the worry then starts to creep in. 1 nil is never a safe scoreline, so I was praying we would get the second.
The results at the time seemed to be going our way. Torquay, Aldershot, and Exeter were losing, whilst Burton and Cambridge were drawing. If we won and the results stayed like that we could have leaped up the table.
Sadly they all changed, but so did Boro's, as we managed to put a second goal past them to make it 2 nil. It was great that we managed to score 2 goals away from home, and get the win.
Moro managed to get himself sent off on the 90th minute mark for 2 bookable offences, which does taint the win a bit. He will now miss the Torquay game, which is crucial for us. I just hope Willock will be ok to play and hope that there is a possiblility that the card could get taken away.
It was also a shame that not all the results went our way, but at least Exeter lost, which could prove very important on the last day of the season.
The results last night looked like this:
Ebbsfleet 2 - 2 Aldershot
Burton 2 - 1 Altrincham
Rushden 1 - 2 Cambridge
Salisbury 2 - 0 Exeter
Torquay 3 - 2 Oxford
As a result the table now looks like this:
1 Aldershot 41 33 94
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2 Torquay 40 27 79
3 Cambridge Utd 42 22 77
4 Stevenage 42 32 76
5 Burton Albion 41 23 74
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6 Exeter 41 19 72
It is still very tight up there, but I just hope we can do it. Next up we have Torquay at home, so if we can win that I think we will be ok. Well I hope we will. Come on Boro!
Tomorrow Boro are set to play Exeter at home, in what is to be one of our biggest games of the season. The game will be screened live on Setanta for those of you who can't go to the game.
This game has so much importance now that we are trying to consolidate our place in the playoffs.
The table currently looks like this:
1 Aldershot 39 32 90
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2 Torquay 38 27 76
3 Stevenage 40 31 73
4 Burton Albion 39 23 71
5 Cambridge Utd 40 19 71
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6 Exeter 39 20 69
As Exeter shockingly drew with Droylsden last night, it has given us a bit more breathing space. If we lose tomorrow, Exeter still won't go above us, which is great. If we win however, we will have 76 points and Exeter will be 7 points off of us, which would be a great gap to have.
Considering the games we have coming up, it is crucial we get something out of the game tomorrow. Even though this is a difficult fixture, we are at home, so the boys really should be the more dominant side.
I really do worry how tomorrow will go. Burton are playing Grays, Cambridge are playing Droylsden, and Torquay are playing Farsley. I would expect all of them to beat their opponents. We definately have the harder fixture of the pack. We need this win so it is not us sweating as much in fifth place.
It is so tight up there but hopefully if tomorrow's result is a succesful one, we may have just steered ourselves into safety.
Come on Boro!
Boro somehow managed a win last night at home to York. The three points were crucial for us in our playoff campaign so it was great to get the result.
Of course Boro being Boro we didn't make things easy and went a goal down first off, after a bit of York pressure and bad defending.
Things were on the up though as Grant managed to equalise a few minutes later. Great we were back in it. But little did we know Boro would condede a penalty a few minutes later after Westwood pulled back one of their players in the penalty area.I don't think it was that blatant a challenge. I didn't even realise a penalty awarded, as they scored a rebound, and because the ref blew up I thought we had a free kick for some reason!
We went into half a goal down, and I was beginning to think that it wasn't going to be our day.
In the second half, Boro seemed to play alot better. We created more chances, and we were rewarded with another goal through Westwood early on to make it 2-2.
There was a scramble in the goal mouth and eventually Mitchell Cole managed to put the ball in the back of the net for Boro's crucial third goal.
Of course, our joy was short lived as Westwood made a big defensive error by trying to header the ball when it was practically at his feet. It caused their striker to run through on goal, resulting in him making a wreckless challenge to save his bacon, inevitably resulting in a penalty.
I think I can safely say everyone's heart was pounding at this point. If we drew it wasn't enough. We had to win. This penalty was so crucial, and luckily for us Julian went the right way and managed to save the penalty.
Boro went through some painful minutes towards the end and we just about scraped a win.
It was a very eventful game, but the main thing is that we got the three points. We are now third as Burton lost to Forest Green on Monday.
The top of the table is so close at the moment. I think the biggest game for us has to be this weekend where we play Exeter. If we win that, I think we could do it. If we lose, Exeter will be right on our tail and I think that could give them the momentum to go on and get in a playoff place.
Hopefully this win will spur Boro on now, and give them the extra confidence to win on Saturday.
Well done Boro!