Middlesboro v Swans | Vital Football

Middlesboro v Swans

K

keith margam

Vital Football Legend
After their fine away win at Forest on Sunday, it’s the battle of the two best defences in the Championship coming up next.
On Wednesday evening, (7pm kick off) we make the long 464 mile round trip North to take on Middlesborough at the Riverside Stadium.
Highly experienced Neil Warnock is their manager. Like his football or loathe it, he is certainly the promotion specialist. He’s had a record eight promotions throughout his career, the last one being at Cardiff. He’s still going strong at 73 years years of age and amazingly still in management.
He rescued Middlesborough at the latter end of last season, taking over when they were on the brink of relegation under Jonathan Woodgate.
This season they are hard to beat and very strong defensively.
In the 14 matches so far this season, Boro have conceded only 9 goals, 3 of them last Saturday.

Boro last 6 games WDDLWL F6 A4 8 points
(Last Saturday they lost 3-2 to Huddersfield, an 85’ deciding goal by Koroma)

Boro last 6 home games WDWWLW F8 A2 13 points
(Their only defeat was to Norwich 0-1, an 85’ penalty by Pukki)

Swans last 6 away games WDDDLW F6 A4 9Pts
(Their only defeat was to Norwich 1-0, an 85’ goal by Stiepermann)

The 85’ seemingly being a key period for both teams.

With Boro conceding only 3 goals in their 7 home matches this season and Swans conceding only 4 goals in their 7 away matches this season, a tight match is predicted. Boro have home advantage and an extra day of rest/preparation over Swansea.
 
Here we go, the team tonight. Team rotation again as Ben Cabango, Ryan Manning and Kasey Palmer start, with Kyle Naughton, Jake Bidwell and Matt Grimes dropping to the bench :

Swansea City: Freddie Woodman; Ben Cabango, Ryan Bennett, Marc Guehi; Connor Roberts, Korey Smith, Jay Fulton, Ryan Manning; Kasey Palmer; Andre Ayew (captain), Jamal Lowe.

Substitutes: Steven Benda, Kyle Naughton, Jake Bidwell, Matt Grimes, Yan Dhanda, Wayne Routledge, Jordon Garrick, Viktor Gyokeres, Liam Cullen.
 
....... and the Boro team:

Middlesbrough: Marcus Bettinelli, Djed Spence, Dael Fry, Paddy McNair, Marc Bola, Sam Morsy, Jonny Howson, Marcus Tavernier, Marvin Johnson, Duncan Watmore, Chuba Akpom.

Substitutes: Dejan Stojanovic, Nathan Wood, Hayden Coulson, Lewis Wing, George Saville, Isaiah Jones, Sam Folarin, Patrick Roberts, Britt Assombalonga.
 
Battle of the defences, we’ve succumbed already.
One shot for Boro, one deflected goal, Watmore 26’
 
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Goodbye Swans, sucker punch, 2-0, Watmore again 67’, bitterly disappointing this.
Huddersfield put 3 past Boro last Saturday.
Changed formation and we are wide open.
Dhanda for Palmer 66’
 
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Down to 7th, not enough quality in the final third to break down such a resilient defence.
Boro only two points behind us.
 
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Swans had four corners in the last few minutes which came to nothing
We badly need a bit of punch up front. Gyokeres not the answer, send him back in January and get a recognised goal scorer in.
 
SC:
“We didn't play anywhere near our expected standards, we gave away two really poor goals. To do those two things doesn't give you much hope of winning a football match.
Although we got back into the game and had a little flurry late on, the damage was done and it was self-inflicted unfortunately.
I don't know if we should have a penalty. That's not what I'm going to focus on. I will focus on what we are in control of and that's playing better in the next game.
Any of what we want to do well in games we didn't do, both in and out of possession. It's a disappointing night.
The players don't need me to shout and scream at them. I can tell that they know there's a missed opportunity there."
 
Norwich out of sorts tonight too, going down 3-1 at Luton, our next opponents! Watford could only draw at Forest. An ideal opportunity lost it seems.
 
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