You knew how important this game was? Massive in terms of the battle for survival and trying to steer ourselves away from the bottom 3. Now we find ourselves in the thick of it especially now that Stoke beat Citeh (which was painful to watch before setting off for this spectacle), and now we’ve dragged Blackburn firmly in the bottom 3 also.
From our point of view we started Tuncay & King up top, Wheater shuffled over to right back whilst Hoyte and McMahon sat it out on the bench - Josh Walker made a well-timed return. Brad Jones started instead of Turnbull because… well I don’t know why that is but I digress.
The first half was pretty poor to say the least; Boro lacked the cutting edge, which was viewed all the way through the 90 minutes and chances were woeful but rare. Thank god we chopped down former Smac target Brett Emerton, every time he picked the ball up he ran diagonally poised for that killer ball but somehow didn’t slip it through and we just couldn’t get the ball off him.
The first half was lacklustre beyond reckoning; Johnson had an ambitious shot deflected just past diagonal of the post. It was even mentioned to me that he was lazy and to be honest I hadn’t really noticed him, as he was one of a few that remained anonymous throughout the game.
The game just didn’t have any openness about it as neither side could conjure anything, it was (here it comes) a Mclaren of old type match, a 0-0 draw with both sides just looking at each other with no attacking prowess.
However, I think this is the phrase that sums up our season - ‘typical Boro’ - where we have to endure the last 10 minutes clutching straws and hoping our net wouldn’t be touched. Brad Jones made some good saves, great saves some of them and that remained still as 0-0 the final score.
Obviously today is transfer deadline day, highly doubtful that anybody will be coming in or going out, we will have to try and keep hold of Gary O’Neil with his possible return to Pompey. Let’s be honest, we need him, we need them all now to battle and play for our Premiership status but just when will our next win be? Who knows where it will come from, all I know is that our home form has been dire this season and that we need to score goals as we have only managed a grand total of 18, which is pathetic.
We have some massive home games this season where a win is vital, such as Wigan on the 21st of Feb, Portsmouth on the 14th March and Hull on 11th April, those are bloody important to our survival.
I’m not worried anymore I’m frightened.
MarkA