Middlesborough Post Match Thread

[AmericanScott]

We played very well and handled boro's threatening attacks excellently.

Atmosphere was dissapointing except towards the end.

Didn't see Yann's goal because some guys were getting past me for their half time pints.

Logan was superb!!

Fryatt looked eager to impress when he came on and could've bagged a couple. He could be key for us over the next few weeks.

Very happy with the result and can't wait for next week

[Craig]

Thought the Boro fans were brilliant today.

Good result for us, the real stuff starts next week.

[purpleronnie]

No pitch Invasion then.

Shocked!

[Sylvie85]

Thought it was a good overall performance, was impressed by how compact we were. Thought we played some good football at times. Atmosphere was what I expected really, was impressed by bruce actually.

Was good to see the lads celebrating with kermo for his goal. And good to see Tunch at the end.

[Bert]

Didn't think the 'Boro fans were that good to be honest.

Logan was MOTM in a pretty flat, typical end of season encounter. Two cracking saves and a very good penalty save, and he's not even our number one. Alex Bruce really impressed me, didn't put a foot wrong and even in the 25 minutes he played before he got injured, he stood out. Him and Wellens were arguning like mad at one point, and I think that shows the desire and will to win in our squad.

N'Guessan started off brightly, but then just faded. Vaughan was really unlucky and I think he's still a bit low on confidence. Was pleased for Kermogant, cracking finish too.

All in all a good win, without even playing too well and keeps the momentum going.

[Corky]

Not a great performance, but given the team changes and next week I didn't expect a full-throttle contest. Lovely goal by Kermo, super penalty save from Logan (very impressed with him today) and Wellens getting his first goal too.

Five wins in a row, in the play-offs in real form, good times currently at the club.

[lavrentis]

Good win, sets us good for the playoffs

[Fox92]

Although Nigel made 7 changes it was a solid performance. Another fantastic win which keeps up the pace for the play off semi-final against Cardiff which should be a good game.

Another fantastic post match view.

[Matt]

Powell unfortunate (?) not to come on for his last regular season game in professional English football.

Got his name all over a inspired last substiution late on at Wembley then to go on and score a last minute winner.

Good game, very relaxed - However if I dare say it being a 'relaxed atmosphere' is abit boring

[Guest]

Atmos was pretty poor to be honest. Unless they're doing a Mexican wave or left side, right side, too many people didn't seem to want to join in or indeed actually watch the match.

Played some nice football at times. Cracking goal from Yann, couple of fantastic saves from Logan, pleased for both of em. Vaughan looked quality again, really rate this guy. If he'd made contact with that cross I think we'd have had to reassess goal of the season

Good on Wellens for taking hold of that peno, first goal for us and another great overall performance.

All in all, it's great to see that even with so many changes we can get the results. Gonna give some of those players confidence going into the playoffs.

[iancognito]

Logan was MOTM, the penalty goes in and Boro might have gone on to force a win. Wellens & Spearing were pretty impressive in the middle and even McGivern was above average.

Re: the atmosphere, I went in G today because I was taking my young 'un to her first ever game and thought I'd go for something a bit tamer than my usual seat in K Block and I was amazed at just how crap the acoustics in the stadium are, even Jobber's drum sounds like the distant rumble of a chav's pimped up Peugeot 206 stereo. If the various singing sections in the Kop & K& L got together, we might be a bit louder but that'll never happen.

[Mr Happy]

WEMBERLEE, WEMBERLEE!!!

:scarf:

(In three weeks time)

But in all seriousness, it was a game with an outcome I guess most of us predicted. A second-string first eleven beats Middlesbrough at home rather convincingly 2-0. Nice to see the players given a chance actually taking it. Judging by the commentary, a solid game all around, a quite confident display - and Bruce, N'Guessan, Kermorgant as well as Logan in particular had the game of their life.

And it's good to see Fryatt back in action. Powell unfortunate (?) not to come on for his last regular season game in professional English football.

Really, really looking forward to next Sunday.

And then on to Wembley.

This.

[Bryn]

To be honest I reckon Powell probably chose not to come on. Model professional, probably has already come to terms with the transition to coach from player and likely advised Pearson to give the younger, more prominent players a run out.

[leftsideoverhere]

Sense won out over sentiment in the substitutions - not even an emotional swansong for Powell allowed to get in the way of some clockwork-like preparations for the play-offs. Could have gone horribly wrong in the first minute of course, when Gally went down like he'd been shot in the leg, but thankfully those who needed to get through 90 minutes did so, and Fryatt managed to not only run about for half an hour but actually touch the ball a couple of times too.

The lack of reserve team football really tells in a situation like that - Fryatt is inevitably not match-fit, but there's no choice but to throw him into the first team and it took him a good while just to catch up with the ball. That said, he did well once he was up to the pace again. The play-offs have come a game or two early for him really but I'm sure he'll do us proud.

Yann was excellent. I still don't get why so many people refuse to see the skill I think he shows. He won more headers from Logan's kicks than we usually manage in a full 90 minutes with more experienced front men, and some of his short passing was incisive. He lacks strength and confidence - and the latter will have been helped by today's performance, and the former will be helped by him being more assertive, which may well come once he starts scoring goals. Without wanting to denigrate Steve Howard's contribution to the team over the past couple of years, I don't think I can imagine Steve taking a goal like the Yann man's from yesterday.

Great work from Logan, as others have said, and nice that he had his family here to watch. It wasn't a bad penalty but he got down fast and smothered it well. On a bad day it would have bobbled free for a tap-in, but our boys were first to the ball, as they were many times yesterday. Bruce had a solid game, Hobbs seemed to enjoy the captaincy, and Wellens had his best game for a while. Danny played well in bursts, but I'm less convinced by him for a full 90 minutes. He tires quickly and several times in the second half he seemed to lose interest when there was a 50/50 that Waggy or a fully fit Fryatt would have fought for.

Didn't expect to see us ever play 4-2-4 but I suppose it's a possibility if we need to chase the game in one of the play-off matches. NP always puts a lot of strikers on the bench, so it's interesting to see them used together. But surely, if we're going to play four up front, one of them ought to be challenging the keeper on back passes?

Only downsides to yesterday? The 'carnival' atmosphere seemed to reduce most of the crowd to passive spectators. Perhaps it was the cold, perhaps it was the knowledge that the whole game represented a practice match for the play-offs and nothing more, but apart from L block bouncing at the end, there was more life in Birch's legs after his charity run than there was in the stands. A shame, because many of the young lads on the pitch could well represent LCFC's future, and they deserved more from us. And the catering, once again a complete joke - selling out of food before half-time in the kop, and being completely unable to deal with the queues. Surely it's not impossible for the ticket office and the caterers to at least talk to each other before each game, and if the ticket office is predicting a sell-out the caterers could order a few extra balti pies and summon up some extra staff from somewhere? It's not like it was a surprise that there were 30,000 in the ground, is it?

[MikeyT]

Great game to watch and helped that i was in a box with free food and beer.

Kermo took his goal really well and pleased with him to get off the mark with that. Wellens too!

Thought Bruce looked decent at centre half. Unlucky for Vaughan not to get on the score sheet. All in all a very good day at the office. Bring on the play offs.

[UrbanFox]

Good win yesterday kept the winning streak going

A couple of things made me laugh with group of blokes in front of us, one said to his mate.. if Logan was our number 1 from the start of the season we would of done alot better this year also his mate thought for the most of the first half that Kermo was Fryatt, he was bemused why he was playing so deep and shouting come on Matty get forward more I didn’t have the heart to tell him that fryatt was on the bench and make him look like a right dick in front of his mates