Boro Blog

Next Up: Eastbourne away

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

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 an absolute cracker

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!

Next Up: Mansfield at home

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.

A little bit gutted

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 66^th and 69^th minute. That pretty much killed us off and sealed the win for them. They then scored again in the 86^th 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

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

2 Burton Albion 13 5 24

3 Kettering 13 7 23

4 Kidderminster 13 6 23

5 Histon 13 6 22

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

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

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

21 Eastbourne Borough 13 -8 14

22 Grays Athletic 13 -7 11

23 Lewes 13 -18 8

24 Northwich 13 -10 6

Congratulations Moro!

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: Torquay away

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!

In other news

As I didn’t have time to write my “in other news” post last week, I am going to combine this week’s, with last week’s. A bit slack I know, as it has only been going for a week but hopefully I will get into the routine of writing it, and then I won’t be making excuses for not doing it.

Right, so here goes:

1. Apparently Robbie Savage could be the new manager of Wrexham, as their manager left last week.

2. Although according to some reports he is supposed to be going to Port Vale instead.

3. Blue Square have had to make an apology to Histon FC as they stated in a story that the club were having financial difficulties, which is incorrect.

4. In the MK Dons v Peterborough game at the weekend, Craig Dobson failed to even make the bench.

5. Aldershot managed to beat Gillingham 2-1 on September 20^th. Although last week the Gills beat Port Vale.

6. Rushden and Diamonds are now 3-1 favourites to get promotion according to Blue Square. Stevenage are 4-1 to get promotion.

7. James Beadle has left York in a bid to get first team football.

8. Peter Taylor’s new side, are currently sitting pretty in second place in league two. The side are yet to close a game.

9. York's Sodje could be out for up to 6 weeks after his hamstring injury in his game against Boro.

High scoring game for Boro

I am really frustrated with myself. I somehow forgot to do my ‘Next Up’ report and as I am really superstitious I feel partly responsible for yesterday’s shenanigans! So i apologise.

It was a really good entertaining game, but I can’t get over the fact that we let slip a 2-0 lead. If we had got a third we could have killed them off completely.

They had 2 chances and they took them. It was so frustrating to see that two little lapses of concentration lead to us letting in goals.

I thought we were going to get off to a great start after 2 minutes in we had already managed to score. It looked like Thomas was close to getting his first goal, but his shot deflected off a York player, Morison and then was helped into the back of the net for an own goal by Robinson.

The second goal came quite soon after, when Morison was put through by Thomas, and he slotted the ball home. It looked like Thomas and Moro were linking up well, and the team were really pressuring York on the ball.

Then the match began to turn. Laird made a mistake and York capitalised on this and scored. It was really disappointing to see us concede, but we still had the upper hand, for now. Then right on half time we conceded again. Couldn’t believe it. We were 2-0 up, how were we drawing now?

In the second half it was crucial we came out well, and we did. But I was getting more and more frustrated. I started to vent my anger at Thomas. I know he wasn’t at fault for any of the goals, but everyone was making an effort, and it just seemed like he wasn’t. I don’t know how he thinks he can win the ball in the air if he doesn’t jump?

I think even Moro was getting annoyed with him as he also was shouting at him.

Then the unthinkable happened. York went in front. Obviously the fans went mental. We were not.

Luckily for me I only had to stay mad for another ten minutes because Moro, our little goal machine headed home to level the score to 3-3 after a brilliant cross from Vincenti.

A few chances went array in the final half an hour, and in the end I was pleased with the point. I was disappointed at the same time, but it was a great game of football and it was better to come away with a point then with nothing at all.

I would like to make a special mention about the midfield. Peter Vincenti was excellent yesterday. First class. Him and Martin worked so hard together. If one of them wasn’t making a tackle the other was. Vincenti’s passes were excellent too. He made quite a few through balls and most of them were successful in getting through. Cole had so much desire. He was back to his old self, running all over the shop. Wilson was trying really hard too, he was getting himself in some great positions, and was linking play up really well with the front two and back four.

There was also a bit of drama with the York fans yesterday. There was a big bang in the ground and it sounded like a gun shot or something. There was a bit of a kafuffle and eventually I could see someone carrying a seat. Don’t think breaking a seat would make that much noise, so have no idea what it was that made that noise! I have to say though, those fans were quite entertaining, even if they did break a seat. They must have been cold with their tops off but they kept on singing.

I also want to make a small mention to the guy down the front on the ‘right side’ who was teasing Sodje all game. The constant calling of “Sodjeeeeeeeeeeeeee” made me laugh all the time, even though I knew it was coming!

Boro win ugly

We did it! Somehow Boro managed to beat Grays 2-1 last night to move up to eleventh in the league.

I have to say, it wasn’t the most entertaining game to watch, and Boro looked like they were struggling in my opinion, but if you can play ugly and win, we must be doing something right.

Things didn’t start to well for Boro, Grays came out of the blocks well, and we just seemed a bit stunned from it all. Things were made worse when Boylan was caught in a tackle, and he eventually had to go off the field to be replaced by Mills, to push Mitch up front.

Boro managed to take the lead soon after the second half begun. Grays made a defensive error, which allowed Mitch and Moro to break. Mitch sprinted and it was the first time he had injected this kind of pace on goal. He composed himself and shot at goal. It was well placed in the net, and somehow we were 1 nil up.

I thought that this would compose us. We needed a goal to settle our nerves, but typically, Grays went up the other end and scored. Day had made a great save, and after a lot of scrambling in front of goal, the ball went in.

I couldn’t believe it, I know we didn’t really deserve to be in front, but I didn’t for one minute think we would concede within minutes of going ahead.

Luckily for us, as 3 of Grays’ players were taken off due to injury, their back 4 wasn’t up to standard, and they made another defensive blunder. This time Lawrie slipped round one of their players and stole the ball, and passed it to Mitch, who once again managed inject his pace into the game, run around the keeper and put the ball in the back of the net.

How we were winning I don’t know. They had quite a few chances late on, and we did really well to keep them out. It is important to continue winning, even if it isn’t pretty.

I don’t think I saw Mills the whole game. I don’t know what he was doing, but I could hear Westley shouting at him to get into the game and on the ball, so I guess it wasn’t just me who thought he was lost.

It was quite good to hear Westley shouting, I never realised how much he did. He was always shouting “concentration” and “seconds”. What did make me laugh was when he said “concentration, domination”.

Another thing that made me chuckle was when they had a talk with Day after the game. Rebecca said to him we were unbeaten now away. Not sure what they meant there. I turned to my other half and said what about Kettering, and then we both reeled off the games away we had lost. I guess Rebecca meant last 4 or 5 games or something.

I guess now we just have to look to Sunday. We did our job last night, and now hopefully we will play a lot better on Sunday and win, to push us even further up the table.

I still can’t get over that we won, but what a good win it was!

Next Up: Grays Away

Next up we have Grays away. The kick off is 7.45pm tonight, and the game is being screened on Setanta from 7.30pm.

Tonight is a massive game for us. Everyone else has already played their mid-week fixtures, and as a result we have a great chance to move further up the table.

Again, I would think that the same side would be played again, although I am not sure whether Graham may rest one or two because we are playing on Sunday as well. I would have thought if he was going to rest anyone, it would probably be for our home game against York rather than an away game.

So for me, the team would look like this:

Day, Laird, Henry, Oliver, Albrighton, Cole, Martin, Bostwick, Wilson, Morison and Boylan.

I really hope we can win tonight. We need to beat teams away from home if we are going to sustain any sort of title or play-off challenge. I am sure the boys will be well up for it, considering our recent form.

I know it is silly but it just worries me that we are on Setanta. We never seem to play well when we are on TV. Although that may have just been down to last seasons escapades. I hope my preconceptions are wrong. I hope we come out of the blocks well.

That early goal seems to be crucial for us, so hopefully we can do it again, and settle all our nerves.

Come on Boro, you can do it!

How things panned out yesterday

Last night there was a whole host of fixtures going on in the BSP. Boro are playing tomorrow, but I thought I would let you know all the results and how they affected us.

Altrincham v Mansfield (1-0)

Northwich v Barrow (2-1)

Kettering v Burton (0-1)

Oxford v Cambridge (3-1)

Weymouth v Crawley (2-2)

Ebbsfleet v Eastbourne (1-1)

Forest Green v Torquay (1-2)

Histon v Lewes (1-1)

Kidderminster v York (2-0)

Wrexham v Rushden (0-3)

Woking v Salisbury (1-0)

With the results yesterday we have now moved down to fifteenth.

However, we are now only 5 points off fifth place, without even playing.

If we win tomorrow we will go eleventh assuming we don’t concede. If we win and we do concede then it maybe to eleventh or twelfth, as Torquay are on 0 GD and we are currently on -1, so it will depend how many we score.

If we want to make tenth position tomorrow, then we need to win 9-0 as Ebbsfleet are on +8. We don’t ask for much, but it is do-able, well sort of.

If we draw, we could move up to thirteenth. If we lose, we won’t move.

Things are definitely tight in the BSP at the moment. It seems silly that in a few games time we could be fifth or sixth in the league. But I love the fact we have this chance to get ourselves back to where we belong, considering our awful start to the season.

I don’t know how this league will pan out, but one thing is for sure is that it will be extremely close throughout the season and could go right down to the wire.

Boing Boing Boro

Boro had another emphatic win on Saturday. This time it was a 3-0 win over Forest Green away from home.

I can’t quite believe our turnaround. I was rushing to get to my other halves house before the kick off, but I was running slightly late. I then got the call. We were two nil up already. I couldn’t believe what I was hearing. I thought it was going to be a really tight game. I thought it was going to be a late goal that sealed the deal for us, yet it was completely different.

The team was as I had expected. Day, Albrighton, Henry, Oliver, Laird, Bostwick, Martin, Cole, Wilson, Boylan and Morison.

That early goal for us, was once again instrumental in our win. Lee managed to get a goal within the first two minutes of the game. Bostwick passed the ball through to Boylan who slotted the ball into the goal.

Our next goal didn’t take too long either. Morison scored his 6^th goal of the campaign after Wilson put him through around the 20^th minute mark.

Typically I got to listen to the radio about five minutes after the goal and then had to wait ages before our third. Our third goal came in the 90^th minute. Willock managed to get on the score sheet after he replaced Cole late on in the game. Anaclet had also come on late in the game for Boylan, and he managed to set Willock up, so I would imagine that Graham was particularly pleased with those substitutions.

We have two clean sheets now, so we have done really well to reduce the negative on the goal difference. We are now on -1, and have moved up to 14^th in the league. We are level on points with Barrow, Wrexham, Torquay and Forest Green, but now our goal difference is for once playing in our favour.

We are only 1 point behind York, Burton and Rushden, and only 2 behind Ebbsfleet and 3 behind Kiddeminster who are in 7^th place. If we continue winning, they we will soon be right up there. It is ridiculous how close it all is, but we are playing so well at the moment, it is all possible.

We have Grays away on Thursday so hopefully we can win that and push ourselves even higher up the league table.

Come on the Boro!

In other news

I am thinking of starting an “in other news” section to my blog. Rather than it all being just about Boro (don’t panic Boro news will still be included), it will be about conference news that might be of an interest to you or some weird and wonderful stories that would interest any football fan.

So for example, it could be that Gillingham have lost again or someone has got sacked, or that a player is rumoured to come to BHW. A bit like gossip I guess. Although a bit more factual unless there are some great rumours that everyone is talking about.

If you have any good news then please email me at catherine.gill@archant.co.uk with the words “in other news” or “blog” in the subject header. Please no spam etc, as I get enough of that already!

Ok so here goes, my first “in other news”…

Ø Crawley manager, Steve Evans, is trying to find a prankster who cut off the arms and legs of his tracksuit.

Ø Exeter City manager, Paul Tisdale is rumoured to have offered a contract to Fred Murray.

Ø George Boyd scored another cracker for Peterborough at the weekend. A 20 yarder apparently.

Ø Apparently Tommy Smith maybe going on loan again soon – whether he is Boro bound we just don’t know.

Ø Mark Beesley for Cambridge is out for a month after a knee injury.

Ø Mike Woodward has resigned from Grays, although apparently the fans can decide on his future on whether he stays or goes.

Ø Mansfield are apparently under investigation after fielding an eligible player.

Ø Salisbury have managed to get Gillingham’s Sean Clohessy on a one-month loan.

Next Up: Forest Green Away

So tomorrow Boro are set to play our first away game since the bout of winning at Broadhall Way.

Forest Green, will not be an easy game to say the least. For starters they were fighting with us last season for a play-off place, so we know they are fully capable.

This season they are currently sitting in 12^th place, just three points ahead of us on 14 points with a + 1 goal difference. If we somehow manage to beat them 6-0 we will jump ahead of them and push them into 13^th. I don’t think that will quite happen but you never know!

With McMahon injured, I guess he won’t be playing tomorrow but in my opinion I think the team should be as follows:

Day in goal, Luke, Ronnie, Laird and Albrighton at the back, Wilson, Mitch, Bostwick, and Martin in midfield and Boylan and Moro up front. This team seems to be working well, obviously there is the odd change during the game where Mitch and Eddie have featured, but the core of the team seems to be there.

No one else seems to just quite cut at the moment. Which is a good thing, I like the fact players have to get fire in their bellies and fight for a place in the side. It makes them work harder. Thomas and Christie for example know this, and are now really having to step up the mark. The fact that we have players like Willock, not even making the bench shows the strength of our squad and what they can achieve.

This win away is crucial. We know they can win at home, but away tends to be a different story, apart from the Barrow game. We tend to play well, but we can’t grind out the results. Like the other week against Kettering for example, we played well but came away with no points in the bag. I am hoping that the win at Barrow and our wins at home are really going to be a great stepping stone for the players to realise that we can beat teams, and we are a good side.

Teams at the top are constantly swapping with one another, so the league is still relatively tight. If we can keep winning then before we know it we will be in that top half of the table and pushing for a play-off place.

So come on Boro win tomorrow! Fingers crossed…