What a relief! Boro finally picking up that oh so much needed elusive win after 14 games of not doing so. It was strange because I felt confident about the game beforehand, it probably would have been down to the fact that most of the attention was on Liverpool ‘surprise surprise’ and not us.
However first half looked as if it would be a difficult task, with Gerrard, Kuyt and Babel all breaking away, but some great saves from Jones proving we would be hard to score past. We created a couple of chances as well, Gary O’Neil was unlucky not to squeeze it underneath Reina but it was good indication that we were in the game too.

The opener came at the 32nd minute, with Xabi Alonso scoring an own goal you see on a computer game, it seemed weird as it just well, hit him and went in wahey!

Second half dawned and Liverpool’s El Zhar missed a glorious chance to get the Scousers back in the game but it didn’t seem like Liverpool’s day

However their missing of chances went punished through Tuncay! Netting his second in as many games the Turkish International finished off a well-worked move after a gorgeous pass from O’Neil cut Liverpool open to let Aliadiere on his way, he squared it to Tuncay and that was that. Jubilation I think so! As he took his shirt off ran into the North West you had to go ballistic and mental as we’ve haven’t half been waiting for this.
Great performance and possibly a great catalyst in our battle against relegation. Some scores didn’t help us over the weekend, with Blackburn winning over rapidly declining Hull. Stoke put in a comeback against Villa, which didn’t help, and the only good one was probably Newcastle but even that result doesn’t change much. It’s a boost in confidence we really needed and it’s confidence we’ve hopefully we’ve now got.
The Spurs game could be well-timed which was the case last season as we played them just after the Carling Cup final and got a point, but the way we’re playing could we get more?

Things are now in motion, the only concern I had was the central midfield, Bates has being playing really well but there were a few occasions he seemed in awe of his opposition. MOTM would be a choice of a few, Jones, O’Neil, Downing, Tuncay, Wheater & Huth but who cares we won, kept a clean sheet and put in a great team performance.

Next 2 games are pinnacle to our season, we could be out of the bottom 3 and going to Wembley if things go our way so keep the faith!

Get in there!

MarkA