October 2008 - Posts
Next up Boro have Woking away.
This is not going to be easy for Boro. Derby day is never easy. Although if it is anything like Arsenal v Spurs in the week it is going to be a cracker! (What a point by the way – over the moon with that – Was almost like a win yay)
Hopefully the FA Cup win at Horsham will give us some sort of confidence, even if we didn’t play well in the first half. The boys know they have to work at it, and slowly but surely and squad is strengthening again, with players coming back from injury and competing for places.
I really hope we win tomorrow, not just because it is against Woking but because it will give us confidence going into next week’s clash against Leicester.
Fingers crossed it will all go well, and that will be another good result under our belt.
Come on the Boro!
Boro came from 1-0 behind last night to win 4-1 at Horsham to push us into the next round of the FA Cup.
This is a great result for Boro. We needed to make it through to help boost our confidence, and to have the chance to play Leicester is a great opportunity.
It is not going to be an easy game, but it was good to see Willock get on the scoresheet twice, with Moro and McMahon also scoring.
Boro have nothing to lose against Leicester. This could work in our favour, so hopefully Boro can put in a great display and get a draw or win. I am sure the size of the stadium will help boost Boro, as it did at Wembley.
It is definitely going to be a tall order, but challenges are there for a reason so hopefully we can get through and beat Leicester.
If you would like to read a full match report on last night, click on the link below.
http://www.thecomet.net/content/comet/sport/boro/default.aspx
Come on the Boro!
Boro drew 2-2 with Horsham in the FA Cup on Saturday.
Mitchell fired home to put us 1-0 up, with Horsham shortly equalising. Boro looked a little bit lack lustre and Horsham managed to go ahead. Changes were made and Laird came on with time slowly disappearing for Boro. Luckily for us Laird managed to get on the ball and score to equalise.
Following Boro’s tough 2-2 draw against Horsham, the replay is now set to be played at Horsham on Wednesday.
The draw for the next round of the FA Cup has been made. If we beat Horsham on Wednesday, we are set to play Leicester away.
This is a very difficult draw for both teams. It could spell the end of a short FA Cup run, but it could end up being a magnificent win for both sides. Boro and Horsham will have nothing to lose against Leicester, so hopefully this draw will help provide a cracking match on Wednesday (with a Boro win, obviously).
In other news…
1. Dino Maamria has been sacked from Northwich.
2. Woking have signed Carl Pentney on a one month loan from Woking.
3. Chris Todd (Torquay) is set to be out for 6 weeks following groin surgery.
4. Luke Waterfall has signed from Tranmere to Altrincham in a one month loan.
5. Ashley Westwood is set to go to Wrexham.
6. Karleigh Osborne has joined Eastbourne Borough on a one month loan deal from Brentford.
7. Mansfield have confirmed that they will not appeal against their 4 points deduction.
8. It is rumoured that both Cambridge and Boro are interested in Grays defender Jon Ashton.
9. Boro youth have progressed to the first round proper of the FA Cup.
10. Peter Taylor’s Wycombe are still top of the table in league 2 on 24 points.
11. Gillingham are currently ninth.
12. Peterborough are 8th in league one.
Boro managed to win 2-0 on Saturday, and with the return of Drury, things are looking up.
Moro started which was good, considering we were told otherwise. Drury was back in the team, although Mitchell didn’t start. Laird, Henry and Mills were also left out. Albrighton played in the centre with Luke, with Anaclet and Wilson on either side.
Martin, Drury, McMahon and Bostwick were in midfield with Moro partnered with Black.
It was a bit of a funny game really. It was good, but it was frustrating at the same time. It was a bit gritty and there were good passages of play both teams.
We were playing well, and Moro was having quite a few shots on goal, but their keeper was excellent. He just parred away every shot that Moro had and it just wasn’t going in the back of the net.
Disaster struck though when Salisbury were given a penalty. I still can’t get over the decision. The ball was pounded at Bostwick who had no chance to get out of the way, yet the ref gave a handball. Justice was shown though when Sandell missed the penalty wide of the goal.
In the second half, we came out well. Balls were flying in the box, and somehow Albrighton got his head on it and it went in. At first I thought it was Mitchell, after he came on for Black, so I thought that was a great substitution. It still was because Mitch was miles better than Black.
We had a few more chances after that and so did they. I don’t know how they missed to be honest. They hit the post only for us to run up the other end with a great break with Morison scoring his tenth goal of the season.
You could see how much it meant to him. It was such a clinical goal that we desperately needed to finish off the fixture.
We have now moved up to ninth, which is the highest we have been all season. Hopefully we will continue to climb the table.
Next up we are set to play in the FA Cup against Horsham on Saturday, so we will have to see how that turns out.
Next up Boro have Salisbury at home. This is going to equate to quite a big game for us considering our defeat against Eastbourne.
Moro is a doubt but I am not sure what his injury is as the club hasn’t released that info yet.
I hope the midfield is a bit more prominent tomorrow. Ideally I would like Cole to be in midfield, but if Moro is a doubt, I have no idea who we will have up front. Maybe one of the youngsters?
I hope I get to write a happy post on Monday, but you just never know. We played well against Eastbourne, so hopefully the lads won’t feel too down in the dumps.
Who knows how tomorrow will go, but hopefully we will be chasing those seconds balls, and that we get a goal early on, as that always settles the nervous of players and fans.
Boro are set to entertain Horsham in the fourth round of the FA Cup. The match will be played on the 25th of October, and hopefully we can get another win under our belts and do well in such a great competition.
I can’t get over what happened on Sunday. Firstly, I couldn’t find anywhere in Manchester to watch the game, so we had to check via a mobile phone, which is so frustrating. And then we go and lose to Eastbourne.
It is not easy to follow football on a phone, but 0-0 at half time didn’t exactly fill me with joy.
From what we could gather we had quite a lot of possession, but there were hardly any shots on goal or on target for either side.
No offence to Eastbourne, but we should be a cut above them. How we could not have even scored in the first half was beyond me. Then of course it got worse. We went 1-0 down. I wasn’t that worried because it thought that could be the trigger in us scoring and waking ourselves up.
I was right, well for a little while. I was so pleased that we had got a goal back through Anaclet just ten minutes after Eastbourne had scored. I thought we were then going to go on and get the winner. From reading reports, I wasn’t the only one sharing that view.
But somehow, we managed to lose in injury time. I don’t get it. How can Eastbourne do the double over us? We can go out and beat Mansfield, yet we can’t beat Eastbourne, where is the logic in that?
Consistency seems to be a very rare thing in this league. If you have it, you win the league, if you don’t, you battle it out with every other team. As soon as you get a run together you can go so far up the table, but the minute you don’t, you drop like flies.
It is so frustrating. If we played how we know they can play, we would have been out of this league years ago.
I don’t like to be pessimistic, but I can’t count the number of times I have said that Boro are excellent in one game and then they lose others that are considered “easier”.
Something has got to change, but I just don’t know what.
Next up Boro have Eastbourne away on Sunday. The game kicks of at 1.30pm and is once again being screened on Setanta, so hopefully rather than it being the curse of Setanta like last year, hopefully we can get three wins out of three when appearing on TV!
I hope to be able to watch it as I am in Manchester at the weekend. I have a plan to plead nicely to a barman, so they will let me watch it up there!
After our win on Tuesday I think the lads will be raring to go. It turns out that Martin had an illness which is why he was left out of the team, so hopefully he will be back on Sunday.
It would be great to get another win. Away wins are always important and so it is a must win game for us, as you should always beat the people below you. The majority of the conference games at the weekend are taking place on Saturday, so at least we will know where everyone lies bar a few teams. At least then we will know how far up the table we can go with a win. It might make them even more determined.
I am going to keep all my fingers crossed for the weekend, and hopefully the midfield will be a bit more prominent in Sunday’s game.
Enjoy the game everyone, and hopefully we will get the win that we fully deserve, and I can find a pub that will let me watch it!
In other news this week…
1. Weymouth’s chairman has disputed rumours that the club is struggling to pay staff wages.
2. Mansfield have been deducted 4points for fielding eligible players.
3. Adam Miller is rumoured to be on the transfer list for Gillingham. Whether this is true or not, I am not sure. I don’t know if I would want him back because when he wasn’t playing well he really wasn’t, but when he is good, he is very good!
4. Barry Fuller has taken over as captain at Gillingham. This one surprised me quite a lot, but good luck to him.
5. Wrexham have managed to secure a match postponement against Histon because they have players taking part in international duty.
6. Bournemouth have signed Michael Rankine on loan from Rushden and Diamonds.
7. Our Steve Morison was named player of the month.
8. Crawley manager, Steve Evans was named manager of the month.
9. Wrexham have appointed Terry Darracott as their new assistant manager.
10. Crawley’s 2-2 game against Forest Green only had an attendance of 876. Considering Crawley is at the top of the table, I am not quite sure why their home fans didn’t turn out for this clash?
11. Lewes have released striker Shabazz Baidoo.
12. They have also Jack Compton on loan from Brighton for a month.
What a cracking game of football last night. I can’t thank the players enough for getting those three points.
The first half wasn’t exactly brilliant. It was also a shame to see Wilson go off with a suspected broken nose. It looked like he was really struggling, but hopefully he wont be out for too long.
Neither team were really making chances or threatening to take the lead until…
Mitch made a darting run in the box and got pulled down in the area.
I wasn’t sure if it was a foul or not, but the ref seemed to think so and gave a penalty right before the stroke of half time.
Moro steps up, and true to form puts the ball in the back of the net. 1-0 to Boro. Half time.
We were a lot better in the second half. We were playing good football and creating chances. However, somehow Mansfield managed to get two goals really quickly. The first goal was from outside the area, low and hard. It was a good goal, but he should have been closed down in my opinion. It wouldn’t have happened otherwise.
In a moment of madness Boro then conceded again 3 minutes later when Mills headed backwards rather than forwards. Don’t know what he was doing there but O’Connor picked up the ball and scored to make it 2-1.
I couldn’t believe it. We were on top. They scored against the run of play which is so frustrating.
Then came Mitchell Cole, what a legend. He ran down the left flank, flicked the ball over a defenders head and scored an absolute cracker of a goal to make it 2-2.
That’s when Boro started to take over the game. We looked like we were going to score the winner. We were playing really well. The midfield still looked a bit sheepish but we were starting to control the ball better.
Moro had a great swooping header that just missed the goal, a Bostwick header also came close and Mitchell was getting into good areas.
Eddie was then fouled, and McMahon took the free kick. The keeper fumbled the easy ball, and Bostwick was there to put it in the back of the net. 3-2. Excellent goal. We had come back and scored 2 goals, just when it matters.
We also had a chance to make it 4, when new boy Tommy Black, was through on goal, and the keeper saved the ball.
Towards the end though, Mansfield had a great chance to equalise when Eddie, Chris and Luke had a lapse in communication and they got a shot off on goal, which they should have scored.
It was a lucky escape for Boro, but I think we did deserve to win. We had more chances than they did, and controlled the game better.
The game was rounded off with a sending off for Mansfield. Chanot had received a yellow card for his foul on Eddie that led to our goal, and then he hand balled it for the second yellow.
The midfield was a bit of an issue last night. Well it was non existent for most the game. Black didn’t impress me at all. He started off as a striker alongside Moro, and that clearly wasn’t working. So he got moved to midfield with Cole up front. But he just look lost to me. He had a few good runs but just did a lot of pointing and not a lot of running.
Mills was also relatively quiet. He was working hard but it just wasn’t clicking. Quite often the ball would just bypass the midfield, and it began to leave the defence with no protection. We held out, but the two sloppy goals that we conceded shouldn’t be just blamed on the defence, the midfield were not doing their job of closing down and helping them out.
I think we really missed Martin last night. I am not quite sure of the extent of his injury but hopefully he will be back soon, as he is such a good worker.
Other than the frustrating times, it made a great game of football, especially as it was screened on Setanta. Hopefully other teams will now realise we are a ‘never give up’ club and that we are on good form.
Boro are now eleventh in the table which is great news. Hopefully we will get another win on Sunday when we play Eastbourne away, to push us up the table even more.
Well done Boro!
Today Boro are set to play Mansfield at home. It is a big game for us, what with losing on Saturday. Mansfield are going to be right up for it as well, as they were deducted 4 points yesterday for fielding an eligible player. So they are going to want to retrieve those points quickly.
I don’t know if Cole will start up front with Morison, but if so the team would probably look like this:
Day, Laird, Henry, Oliver, Albrighton, Bostwick, Wilson, Martin, Vincenti, Morison and Cole.
I really hope we win tonight. To get another 3 points could potentially push us up to tenth. We need to keep a clean sheet and we need to score quite a few too, so we can get our goal difference back.
I am sure the lads will be well up for the fixture and hopefully we will see another great game of football and a convincing win for Boro.
The only thing that worries me is the fact that we are on TV. We tend to not turn up when we are on TV, but hopefully the home crowd will help them win. Fingers crossed etc.
I’m a bit gutted about Saturday’s result. I knew it would be a difficult game, it always is against Torquay, so in my heart I would have been very happy with a draw.
Sadly we lost 3-0. We did have chances. Moro had a chance to put us ahead and we had managed to stay level on 0-0 up until half time. It looked quite promising. Annoyingly, Torquay came out of the blocks well and scored 2 goals in quite quick succession in the 66th and 69th minute. That pretty much killed us off and sealed the win for them. They then scored again in the 86th minute to seal the deal.
It was a shame that we lost. But we haven’t lost any in a while and it was bound to happen. We are still on good form, and I don’t doubt for a minute that we won’t bounce back and get the win tomorrow against Mansfield at home.
Hopefully there will be a good turnout at home tomorrow. We have been playing really well, so I think the lads deserve the support.
We have slipped a couple of places in the table, but it is all still really tight.
The table as it stands at the moment:
1 Crawley Town 13 10 26
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2 Burton Albion 13 5 24
3 Kettering 13 7 23
4 Kidderminster 13 6 23
5 Histon 13 6 22
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6 Cambridge Utd 13 4 22
7 Mansfield 13 4 21
8 Torquay 13 3 21
9 Ebbsfleet United 13 9 20
10 Salisbury 13 2 20
11 Rushden & D'monds 13 7 19
12 Weymouth 13 -1 19
13 Wrexham 13 4 18
14 Stevenage 13 -3 18
15 York 13 0 17
16 Barrow 13 -3 17
17 Altrincham 13 -5 16
18 Oxford Utd 13 -2 15
19 Woking 13 -4 14
20 Forest Green 13 -6 14
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21 Eastbourne Borough 13 -8 14
22 Grays Athletic 13 -7 11
23 Lewes 13 -18 8
24 Northwich 13 -10 6
Steve Morison has been awarded Blue Square Player of the month. He totally deserves it, whenever he seems to get the ball at the moment he scores.
Considering he didn't have the best of starts, what with the sending off, I think he has really proved that he is a great striker, and hopefully he will help us get us into the league for next season!
Well done!
Next up Boro have Torquay away. This is a massssssssiveee game for us. Torquay are a good side, and they too haven't had the best of starts and are turning a corner.
I am quite apprehensive about the game. Even though we have won away the last two times we have played, Torquay is always a difficult ground to go to.
They have a big squad and I always seem quite impressed with them when I have seen them play on TV etc.
Although, having said that, we are beginning to be a force to be reckoned with, and I am sure the lads will do their best to score us another away win.
The game will probably be a bit more publicised as well as Helen the presenter of Soccer Am is a Torquay fan, and she always discusses Torquay and who they have to play at the weekend. Hopefully she will say what a great side Boro are J
I am not quite sure on how the team will be this weekend. Mills was out last week because of illness and I am not sure if Luke is back.
So the starting eleven maybe the same as our game against York. Day, Albrighton, Henry, Laird and Bostwick in defence, Martin, Cole, Vincenti and Wilson in midfield and Morison with either Thomas or Willock up front.
Personally I would rather have Calum up front because I think he holds the ball up a bit better than Thomas, and he seems to have a good relationship with Moro.
Having said that, I don’t care who we play as long as we win! Come on the Boro!