Boro 0-0 Saints - Match Thread

[AlexLaw76]

2 minutes ago, SotonianWill said:

It was very telling that their manager before the game was fairly courteous, declaring it made little difference etc.

 

After the game however, having failed to win their home leg, we’re cheats blah blah blah. Biggest bunch of babies. Northerners. 

Fair point.

they battered us in the first half and should have been 2-3 up. That was there best chance as you know it will be a very different situation Tuesday night

[Tamesaint]

1 hour ago, CB Fry said:

I had a good wander about and basically it is as much of a shitehole as other English cities like, say, Southampton.

There are spots where they've put some infrastructure/investment in but a town with an empty Debenhams and an empty House of Fraser is always going to be run down. Amazon (and others) have fucking killed the British high street.

Add Marks and Spencer to the list of empty stores.... Along with no end of empty shops. There are even plenty of empty shops in their new shopping centre. 

Edited 21 hours ago by Tamesaint

[Turkish]

2 hours ago, Lord Duckhunter said:

What a load of old pony. “First half went to plan” 😂. If that’s the case it was a fucking stupid plan. “ Let’s keep giving the ball away, allowing crosses, let our centre forward be beaten in every physical battle and rely on their poor finishing to go in 0-0”. 
 

We got away with one there, and despite have 2 excellent efforts, could well have gone in 2 or 3 down. Completely different game then, and they’d have sat in and made it very very difficult. Probably edged the second half, but god the first half we were lucky they couldn’t finish. Larin was appalling, as was Fellows. Azaz anonymous up there again, and Leo was a long way from his best. Keeper did well again as did THB. 
 

Completely different game Tuesday and we must be slight favourites. However, if we play like we did first half, I don’t think we’ll get away with it again. 

The biggest load of pony on here today was the first half was down to the players being effected by the spy stuff 😂😂😂😂

not everyone is an absolute drip that goes to pieces at the first hint of adversity 

[Saint Gifford]

2 hours ago, Lord Duckhunter said:

What a load of old pony. “First half went to plan” 😂. If that’s the case it was a fucking stupid plan. “ Let’s keep giving the ball away, allowing crosses, let our centre forward be beaten in every physical battle and rely on their poor finishing to go in 0-0”. 
 

We got away with one there, and despite have 2 excellent efforts, could well have gone in 2 or 3 down. Completely different game then, and they’d have sat in and made it very very difficult. Probably edged the second half, but god the first half we were lucky they couldn’t finish. Larin was appalling, as was Fellows. Azaz anonymous up there again, and Leo was a long way from his best. Keeper did well again as did THB. 
 

Completely different game Tuesday and we must be slight favourites. However, if we play like we did first half, I don’t think we’ll get away with it again. 

I get it, and we were very lucky in the first half to not go down at least 3. 
 

Keeper, Bree fantastic and did what was required. No way could Boro keep up that first half for 90 mins. 
 

Tired them at home, defended unbelievably. The stats said no shots on goal, no passes in the last third. 24% possession. 
 

But I’m guessing that was the plan and hit them second half which we did. 
 

Yes agree the plan looked crap because our touches were awful, and lost possession and second balls ect ect ect. 
 

But it worked, nil nil is a great result taking it back home. We could have done with the plan of a second half goal. 
 

Boro will not play like they did 1st half today at ours. They went all out today. They won’t do that again, technically it looks like we are playing the long game to get to Wembley.

Yes we looked awful 1st half and got away with it. But stuck to the plan it seems, and didn’t panic, and got the result. 
 
IMO obviously. 

 

[Badger]

24 minutes ago, Saint Gifford said:

Boro will not play like they did 1st half today at ours. They went all out today. They won’t do that again, technically it looks like we are playing the long game to get to Wembley.

Yes we looked awful 1st half and got away with it. But stuck to the plan it seems, and didn’t panic, and got the result. 
 
IMO obviously. 

 

Hope you’re right, but I think you may be underestimating them, and their away form. See the post from the Ipswich fan on here, that seems to be exactly as they played at Portman Road. 
 

[Lord Duckhunter]

19 minutes ago, Badger said:

Hope you’re right, but I think you may be underestimating them, and their away form. See the post from the Ipswich fan on here, that seems to be exactly as they played at Portman Road. 
 

You’re right they’re s good side. Tony Pulis has been saying all season they’re good enough to go up and Coventry aside, are the best side in the league. I know people will say, he’s a dinosaur etc, but he’s been around football a long time and his opinion is as valid as anyone’s. There’s no doubt in my mind that us and them are head and shoulders above the other 2, on our days. And that’s the point, the winner of this tie should go up, but if we don’t produce our best on Tuesday, it won’t be us. 

Edited 21 hours ago by Lord Duckhunter

[Turkish]

45 minutes ago, Saint Gifford said:

I get it, and we were very lucky in the first half to not go down at least 3. 
 

Keeper, Bree fantastic and did what was required. No way could Boro keep up that first half for 90 mins. 
 

Tired them at home, defended unbelievably. The stats said no shots on goal, no passes in the last third. 24% possession. 
 

But I’m guessing that was the plan and hit them second half which we did. 
 

Yes agree the plan looked crap because our touches were awful, and lost possession and second balls ect ect ect. 
 

But it worked, nil nil is a great result taking it back home. We could have done with the plan of a second half goal. 
 

Boro will not play like they did 1st half today at ours. They went all out today. They won’t do that again, technically it looks like we are playing the long game to get to Wembley.

Yes we looked awful 1st half and got away with it. But stuck to the plan it seems, and didn’t panic, and got the result. 
 
IMO obviously. 

 

As I’ve said the plan was clear sir deep, block The middle hit them on the break like we did v Arsenal and city.

the problem we had was that Larin had his worst game since he’s been here getting dominated by their defence so we had no outlet the midfield werent getting forward quick enough so the ball kept coming back.

second half we played a bit higher up and had a bit more control of the game. We did get a bit lucky but you see games like that all the time. Home team starts at 100000mph then away team takes control as they blow themselves out. 
 

Tuesday will be different again we’ll control The game but they’ll be a threat on the break main thing is they’ve not got A lead to protect so won’t be able Spend 90 minutes with 11 men behind the ball. Overall a 0-0 draw is a much better result for us than them so say what you like about luck not getting it right we got the result most of us would have taken at 12pm today 

[Patrick Bateman]

43 minutes ago, Turkish said:

 

the problem we had was that Larin had his worst game since he’s been here getting dominated by their defence so we had no outlet the midfield werent getting forward quick enough so the ball kept coming back.

 

Yeah Larin suffered from a few things I think today;

1. He does hold up play brilliantly, but a lot of the time he relies on being able to knock the ball 1, 2 or 3 metres at most to a nearby Saints player. We were defending more, so no one close enough to sweep up the little taps from his hold up, hence 'Boro picked them up

2. Their centre back, Fry, was actually very good at not letting Larin get away with pushing him around so much - I liked him

3. Larin went down a fair amount to start with, the ref was not having any of it, rightly so

 

[Turkish]

14 minutes ago, Patrick Bateman said:

Yeah Larin suffered from a few things I think today;

1. He does hold up play brilliantly, but a lot of the time he relies on being able to knock the ball 1, 2 or 3 metres at most to a nearby Saints player. We were defending more, so no one close enough to sweep up the little taps from his hold up, hence 'Boro picked them up

2. Their centre back, Fry, was actually very good at not letting Larin get away with pushing him around so much - I liked him

3. Larin went down a fair amount to start with, the ref was not having any of it, rightly so

 

Fry was very good very strong and like you say Larin had no Close enough to him to lay it off to. Our front 4, aside from a couple of decent crosses weren’t at it today but Tuesday will be different with Azaz and a Scienza will Have more impact  and of Stewart starts I think he’ll get goal 

[SWLondon Saint]

Only watched the first half, but even though they were all over us I didn't feel particularly panicky - the players seemed very calm about the situation, maybe a bit too calm and passive tbh.

Thought Larin, Fellows, Azaz were all poor, the few times we had it they all seemed out of sync and gave it away too easily. At the back Wood was awful, I think their plan was to let him have it then press him hard when he stepped forward and he duly coughed up the ball a number of times.

Couldn't watch the 2nd half but sounds better. I do feel Azaz seems a bit out of sorts the last couple of games, could play one of Bragg / Charles there or Matsuki even...?

[Oh no Mick Mills]

37 minutes ago, SWLondon Saint said:

Only watched the first half, but even though they were all over us I didn't feel particularly panicky - the players seemed very calm about the situation, maybe a bit too calm and passive tbh.

Thought Larin, Fellows, Azaz were all poor, the few times we had it they all seemed out of sync and gave it away too easily. At the back Wood was awful, I think their plan was to let him have it then press him hard when he stepped forward and he duly coughed up the ball a number of times.

Couldn't watch the 2nd half but sounds better. I do feel Azaz seems a bit out of sorts the last couple of games, could play one of Bragg / Charles there or Matsuki even...?

Harsh on Wood, I thought he did ok. 

I'd prefer Stephens but Woods has his  strengths too. 

[SNSUN]

34 minutes ago, Oh no Mick Mills said:

Harsh on Wood, I thought he did ok. 

I'd prefer Stephens but Woods has his  strengths too. 

Wood can defend well but I noticed today how quickly he tries to get rid of the ball when it's passed to him. He's not terrible in possession but it's clear he's not as comfortable with it as THB or Jack. 

[Harry_SFC]

6 hours ago, SNSUN said:

Wood can defend well but I noticed today how quickly he tries to get rid of the ball when it's passed to him. He's not terrible in possession but it's clear he's not as comfortable with it as THB or Jack. 

What I've noticed about Wood is he's a great last ditch defender but not so good at picking men up inside the box. He's about as good a back up as you'll get at this level though so no complaints from me. 

[bangkoksaint]

11 hours ago, Gloucester Saint said:

Was Middlesbrough as grotty as I remember it being during the 2010s?  

Worse!! Chimneys belching out whatever on the way in and just totally grotty. Fair play to their supporters though as there’s o glory following Borough and apart from football they probably don’t have a lot going for them. For the 2000 coming down on Tuesday they should get everyone’s respect.

[Football Special]

12 hours ago, CB Fry said:

I had a good wander about and basically it is as much of a shitehole as other English cities like, say, Southampton.

There are spots where they've put some infrastructure/investment in but a town with an empty Debenhams and an empty House of Fraser is always going to be run down. Amazon (and others) have fucking killed the British high street.

Its always sad to see the state of town centres like these, the grey clouds and rain post match didn't help either , can't complain at £6.40 for two pints though. 

Boro fans i chatted to in the pub were sound to be fair, had a good laugh at the whole spy affair . 

Still dont know how they failed to score first half,  luck was on our side a bit there 

[Osvaldorama]

3 minutes ago, Football Special said:

Its always sad to see the state of town centres like these, the grey clouds and rain post match didn't help either , can't complain at £6.40 for two pints though. 

Boro fans i chatted to in the pub were sound to be fair, had a good laugh at the whole spy affair . 

Still dont know how they failed to score first half,  luck was on our side a bit there 

Country has been asset stripped by greedy corrupt politicians unfortunately and no one seems to care about it. 
 

I travel a lot for work and I genuinely can’t believe the state of things half the time 

[Hawkswood]

8 hours ago, Oh no Mick Mills said:

Harsh on Wood, I thought he did ok. 

I'd prefer Stephens but Woods has his  strengths too. 

Funnily enough I thought he was probably our worst performer in that first half. Ran into trouble a few times, gave the ball away even more times. Slipped over a number of times and his clearances were awful, either straight out of play or scuffing them to the oppo. I felt he was our biggest liability.

[OnceaSaintalwaysaSaint]

2 minutes ago, Hawkswood said:

Funnily enough I thought he was probably our worst performer in that first half. Ran into trouble a few times, gave the ball away even more times. Slipped over a number of times and his clearances were awful, either straight out of play or scuffing them to the oppo. I felt he was our biggest liability.

He was the weak link in that back four yesterday. There's a difference between sitting back and trying to catch them on the break and being swamped like we were yesterday in the first half and we got lucky. Got to have outlets and got to have people who can clear to those outlets and Wood doesn't do that.

Agree with comments that on their days these are the two best teams in the playoffs. It will be a lot more balanced at St Marys and I'm not expecting a walkover by any means.

[Osvaldorama]

Do we know when Stephen’s is back

Will he be fit for the 2nd leg?

[AlexLaw76]

It makes sense why some of the Boro fans are a bit mad

https://www.facebook.com/share/r/1AX7uGLnqb/?mibextid=wwXIfr

[Football Special]

51 minutes ago, Hawkswood said:

Funnily enough I thought he was probably our worst performer in that first half. Ran into trouble a few times, gave the ball away even more times. Slipped over a number of times and his clearances were awful, either straight out of play or scuffing them to the oppo. I felt he was our biggest liability.

Close call between him and Azaz who looked like he was playing with one of these in the first half 

 

[OnceaSaintalwaysaSaint]

55 minutes ago, AlexLaw76 said:

It makes sense why some of the Boro fans are a bit mad

https://www.facebook.com/share/r/1AX7uGLnqb/?mibextid=wwXIfr

So what's daughter saying:-

"Mum, you're an embarrassment" or "Mum, don't bring your work to the game." Loved that's she's dressed in white to really make a tit of herself.

[Jack]

Fair play to Boro, they made it a cracking atmosphere first half. They faded as much as their performance second half after not capitalising on their dominance, must be so frustrating to see that happen every week. I think if we’d just made the ball stick up top a couple of times the game may have become more even before it did, we just needed to give them something to worry about rather than letting them camp in our half. Fellows was fucking dreadful, Matsuki 100% needs to start on Tuesday. We caused all our own issues by giving it away cheaply and not pressing. Azaz had another stinker, they really seem to rattle him. Everything bounced off Larin and the ref gave him no protection from the man handling, though felt he could’ve been more aggressive. Don’t think I’ll ever plan a night out in Middlesbrough again. 
 

Fantastic result overall, need to recreate the atmosphere from the WBA game 2 years ago and get the job finished. Up the cheating scummers. 

[Gloucester Saint]

3 hours ago, Harry_SFC said:

What I've noticed about Wood is he's a great last ditch defender but not so good at picking men up inside the box. He's about as good a back up as you'll get at this level though so no complaints from me. 

Poor man’s Bednarek with slightly more pace.

Horrible business that violent robbery on Jan’s house. Hope those responsible caught and detained in the worst prison possible.

[Mr X]

I am Pleased with leaving there goalless with the way things were going! but at the same time we simply didn't play football at all in the first half it was shambolic there's setting up to not concede and there's yesterday where we barely managed a shot on goal or anything in their goal area 

[Saint Pete]

13 hours ago, Lord Duckhunter said:

You’re right they’re s good side. Tony Pulis has been saying all season they’re good enough to go up and Coventry aside, are the best side in the league. I know people will say, he’s a dinosaur etc, but he’s been around football a long time and his opinion is as valid as anyone’s. There’s no doubt in my mind that us and them are head and shoulders above the other 2, on our days. And that’s the point, the winner of this tie should go up, but if we don’t produce our best on Tuesday, it won’t be us. 

Yep, we've had our slice of luck in that first half when we could have been several goals down. We can't afford to rely on being lucky again, absolutely need to be right on it from the start on Tuesday night to get through. 

[Charlie Wayman]

No way was it our "plan" to sit back in the first half and invite them to give us a battering. They came out of the blocks gunning for us, rocked us onto the back foot before we could settle and all we could do was to resort to rearguard action. They were by far the better team and should have been out of sight at HT.

Credit to the coaches for lifting the team for the second half and spotting ways to neutralise their threat; thus enabing us to settle, slow the pace and start to play our game rather than theirs. Maybe 'born tired but it was us that had to do all the first half chasing so our lads were probably even more knackered than them. 

It was a tactical victory but only in the sense that we stopped the rot. We did not deserve anything from this match other than taking a good look at ourselves in the mirror.

Tuesday is not going to be an easy stroll to Wembley Way, if we don't pull up our socks over this weekend there is every chance that this is all going to end in tears in front of our home fans.

Edited 3 hours ago by Charlie Wayman

[Maggie May]

On 08/05/2026 at 22:07, Maggie May said:

This. We’ve absolutely f***ed it.

Yep…