Tuncay - Back from Injury

By Luke Sandelands
October 25 2008

A lacklustre game at Ewood Park saw Middlesbrough only manage a point against Blackburn, after Afonso Alves's 74th minute strike was countered in the 94th minute when Benni McCarthy headed home Brett Emerton's corner. While a wonderful overhead goal from Tuncay was unjustly disallowed, it is quite frankly the case that this Boro performance did little to merit a win.

While the point alleviates the pain of the humiliating 5-0 home defeat against Chelsea last weekend, you cannot help but feel that little bit robbed when the Boro were so close to three vital away points. Some positives can be taken from the game though, notably that after somewhat of a goal drought Afonso Alves is once again off the mark, and will hopefully have gained the confidence to put away further scoring opportunites in the upcoming matches. The return of Tuncay brings back the taste of energy and an outlet to create goals to the Boro, which has perhaps notably been lacking in our past few games. Also after seeing 5 goals go past him last week (4 of which were little fault of his own) an assured performance by Ross Turnbull will no doubt give confidence to an at times shaky Boro defence.

However, what is unfortunately evident after todays game is the Boro's persistent inability to stay focused for an entire match, and it is no great secret that we are still conceeding an unnerving number of goals in the final 10 minutes of games. Whether the team is lacking experience, or certain weaknesses are proving perilous is up to question, but it does seem that we are both inexperienced and weak in our full back positions, when taking into account we are relying on playing David Wheater at right back to cover the frailties of our own academy fullbacks - who in fairness perhaps require the opportunity to gain more experience. Nevertheless this is still a decent point and we should hope to build on this into the season.

Boro only manage a point at Ewood Park.

Discussion started by Down by the Riverside (IP Logged), 25/10/2008 22:14

Down by the Riverside
25/10/2008 22:14

Boro only manage a point at Ewood Park.

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Spirit of Steaua
31/10/2008 10:42

Hope we do better tomorrow at West Ham. Lawro's tipped us as having a good, attacking side. Hope so!
C'mon Boro.

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