Middlesbrough travel down to Peterborough this weekend as Gordon Strachan aims to get his first win against the Championship’s bottom club. It will be a battle of our Boro versus Posh Boro. Only one way to sort out which Boro is best. Have a f…
ootball match!
Gordon Strachan aims to get his first Middlesbrough win and start pointing the club in the right direction again. Three win-less games have seen this Boro’s promotion hopes plummet. Down in 11th place and 11 points off top spot, the revival cannot start soon enough.
Dave Kitson should be match fit now to make a major impact for us over 90 minutes. Hopefully he can start to build a goal-den partnership with former Reading team mate Leroy Lita.
Adam Johnson can banish his transfer window ambitions and get back on the goals and assists trails himself. We need to see another selfless performance from Adam and one where he stays the course for the full 90.
There will be a fair amount of competition for midfield and defensive places. Chrissy Riggott is fit and with enough reserve minutes under his belt to be considered. He will surely at least make the bench but Strachan could even be tempted to through him in alongside Sean St Ledger as a new centre back partnership.
There will be one definite change in the defence as Rhys Williams is suspended, so this should leave the door open for either Tony McMahon or Justin Hoyte to step in at right back. Whoever gets the nod has an opportunity to stake a claim. Both players need to cut out individual errors but in their different ways they can be exceptionally influential to the team.
Did Didier Digard do enough in his substitute and reserve performance to push for a start? I’d like to think so. A combination with new skipper, Gary O’Neil and Isaiah Osbourne sounds like a strong midfield line-up to me. Mind you the skipper has been struggling with an injury all week so might even miss out. Julio Arca will be waiting in the wings to pep things up down either flank or in the centre if needed.
Posh Boro are now managed by Mark Cooper, son of former Boro, Leeds and England left back the legendary Terry Cooper. Mark lost his first game in charge and like Gordon is looking for a first win. Hopefully Mark will learn a lot from Strachan today and get a much needed lesson in defeat to top up his Football League education. Peterborough have won just 2 games all season but surely the blame lies higher up than manager Darren Ferguson. Just like Paul Hart, Fergie’s son was surely doing a brilliant job with limited resources.
Peterborough are poised to give a debut to the fantastically named defender Exodus Geohaghon. He is a 6ft 7 tall man mountain, so we best keep the ball on the deck. Apparently Exodus is an England C international. Did you know there were C internationals? Me neither.
It will be a return home for Sean St Ledger who will surely get a lot of stick from the locals who remember his moody teenager strops on that ridiculous Ron Manager programme. But what on earth were Peterborough thinking to bring in the cameras and big Ron Atkinson to make the place a circus? Money, money, money I suppose.
Boro must expose and exploit the defensive frailties that Posh Boro have shown all season. They have conceded 29 goals this season. So even though they always score at home they can’t stop shipping them in at the other end. We mustn’t let Exodus feel at home too soon. Hopefully Kitson and Lita can stir things up and make it an uncomfortable home debut for both manager and defender.
With 2 goals under his belt for the reserves Marvin Emnes is poised and ready if needed. He could be a potent weapon coming on off the bench. His speed, control and low centre of gravity could be the perfect antidote to Exodus, especially as the ex Student footballer feels the pace late on.
Boro need to get that all important first win under Strachan management. We need to return to the rampant away form that kept us hovering near the top under Southgate. This is a big opportunity to stop the rot and push forward again.
The fans are looking forward to a rare opportunity to stand. We haven’t done this in a league game since Fulham at Craven Cottage back in Steve McClaren’s days. Coach Colin Cooper scored in that game but we lost it 2-1. A reverse of that scoreline would be just champion this weekend.
Fmttm prediction: Post Boro 1-2 Middles Boro (That’s the only time I will stick an extra “O” in our name). Come on Boro let's start picking up the points again. |
