Holmes_and_Watson

Sulemana did well. It gets to Aribo. He's in a good position. SO points for that. But he lazily puts it into a space. He's not confident to take the risk of a shot. He's not aware enough to pick anyone out. He just as little as possible with it. An that's us as an outfit right now.

Arobo for Smallbone... because...

'Boro have been better But 'boo should have had 2 reds here. One of them at least. If only to hear Martin trot out "well, it's harder against 10 men" to seal his fate. 🙂

oh for heaven's sake. We can;t even pass it across midfield without giving it away. As always, we've everyone up. We had a warning about that a minute ago. This time, we're caught and ther'es noone. Baz blocks the shot. We break and they have 4 back. Jones is back. surely another booking!

Great. We'll see Manning a bit earlier next time. That will help. 🙂

I heard on the radio Steve Bruce is looking to get back in. 'Boro able to pick passes from deep, while still maintaining their shape. So many things we see from any of our opponents this season, that you wonder why seem incable of doing any of them. 😞

Never mind statistically. The worst defence in the league, as seen from orbit, it's that clear to everyone apart from Martin. 🙂

Edozie coming on. Hard on him not to be starting. But Martin clearly wanted a mroe experienced side for this particular defeat. Maybe Stu too. Again, getting a player to pin them back directly, when they are already going to not be bothered dropping back. Still, they might be able to unpick their defence, in a way that our disjointed passing effort failed to. Adams off, so I guess AA up front now.

Martin making the change he needed to make before we went behind. SO our pace merchant is on yet again against a defence who will be looking to soak up pressure from deeper. Well done.

Martin picks up a yellow. Some may think a red from his board is in order. All the mistakes from previous games are still here.

Howson was part of the abject Norwich midfield that Martin defended behind. Embarrassing to be second best with our resources. They have earned it.

sod

stupid foul. I don;t think he was going to get near it.

oh heck... a penalty!

Lots of space for a shot for them. Straight at Baz, who could put both paper wrists behind it, and keep it out comfortably.

A let off for their booked player? 4th official explaining to Martin why the rules are actually flexible things. 🙂

Crumbs. Nearly forgot Fraser was playing. Decent again. Smallbone pulling the strings when they drop back. But it means we lack a driving midfielder in there. We just don;t have a player who can do both, sadly.

Nearly from us. Smallbone had space a shot. He did have a pop earlier, so can;t be too critical. Manning got back in time. We did have 2 back for that one. So 1 of them will be getting a telling off later for noti being in the 'boro box. 🙂

Manning yet again not up to his opponent. Worrying, since he's now above Holgate and Bree in the pecking order. Smallbone covered well. I suspect as he knows that it's a weak link, and he's been told to watch out for it.

Decent chance for us, but AA's pass is too lightweight. We'd never know how Adams would conspire to miss it or score.

Patient, possession football. Looking for space to exploit. But enough about 'boro... 'Boro give it away, but we make nothing from it. They manage to get players back, even when they give it away. We would be panicking and racing back, having all moved up.

'Boro looking to pick out Jones in that free gift zone exists behind our tucked in full backs. A minute later... We push up, so look a bit desperate racing back to defend. Ball goes back into the free gift zone and they get a shot in. Fortunately, not even Baz could get out of the way of it on time, so it got saved. 🙂

Utterly mental passing move out from the back. Now we did get a corner form it in the end. So that sounds decent. But we had every opportunity to pass it forward a lot earlier, and chose to not bother looking and play back and slowly across. It's that lack of intesity in pretty much everything that makes so placid looking, and easy for teams to regroup and pick off.

Decent ball to Adams... one in the box. Smallbone decent shot.

Holgate off? Strange the manager would seem to have doubts about him? Not enough not to start him, though. 🙂