Three Things – Middlesbrough in the play-offs
So, here we are at last – the dreaded play-offs. In the 96th minute on Saturday, the footballing gods decreed, through the medium of Patrick Bamford, that it would indeed be Middlesbrough and not Derby. Reunited with our old ‘friends’ Tony Pulis (already playing his pathetic mind games by declaring Boro massive underdogs), Adama Traore and Stewart Downing. But in truth, I think we knew it would be Boro all along.
There is no denying that they have hit their stride since Pulis’ arrival on Teesside. They’ve won four of the last six (and six of the last 11) to see them over the line and boast the fourth-best defence in the Championship, having conceded 45 goals in the 46 games so far. Going forward, they’ve netted 67 times (five fewer than ourselves) with Britt Assombalonga top scorer with 15 league goals.
On paper, then, we are fairly evenly matched, although Villa managed seven more points to secure our fourth-place finish. Away from home, Boro won eight, drew seven and lost eight, the very definition of average. At the Riverside, they were far stronger, winning 14 of their 23 games, drawing three and losing six.
Our final record went thus: at home, W14 D7 L2 while away from B6, we W10 D4 L9. So, this play-off semi-final certainly looks to be the proverbial ‘game of two halves’, where we can expect a result one way or the other at the Riverside (a draw doesn’t look likely based on the stats) and we should be confident of getting a result at our place.
As long as we don’t make a mess of the away leg, I’m feeling pretty confident about making plans for 26th May which involve Wembley tickets and train times, rather than half-term hell with the family.
1. Keep Adama quiet
By all accounts (and judging by the various player of the season awards seemingly garnered by our former headless chicken), Adama is flourishing in the North East under the tutelage of one Tony Pulis, a coach not readily associated with attacking football and flair players.
Certainly, in the (admittedly limited) Boro matches and highlights I’ve seen since the turn of the year, he looks to have improved out of all recognition – he still has pace to burn and he ghosts past players as if they’re not there, but he looks to have added crossing ability – and more importantly decision making – to his game. He looks like the player we hoped he’d be for us.
So, the onus will be on Alan Hutton and Ahmed Elmohamady to use all of their experience to keep a lid on him as much as possible. I have every confidence in our defence to look after Assombalonga and Bamford but keeping Adama (and to a lesser extent Downing) quiet will make life a whole lot easier.
