Back Down To Earth

The Playoff bandwagon didn't so much slow down as veer off the road and crash into a ditch after a poor display against fellow playoff chasers/relegation battlers Celti.. erm, Middlesbrough.

Since beating Watford at Oakwell on Saturday, it's been a pretty stressful few days, so I was looking forward to yesterdays game. Away days are great to chill out and get away from stuff for a couple of hours. Providing, of course, that the team don't provide you with yet more stress on the pitch.

Before the game, I knew we were gonna lose this one for one simple reason; everything went perfectly to plan all night. The ride through to Middlesbrough was as straightforward as it could have been, with no traffic and no unscheduled detours through the Middlesbrough backstreets. My sat-nav must have taken offence at my harsh words in my Preston post, 'cos it straightened up its act and behaved itself all night. As it happens, the ground is signposted from quite far back anyway, so navigating my way through the dreadful weather conditions was made that little bit easier.

It was my first journey to the Riverside Stadium, and I was impressed. Most of these newer grounds are often accused of being bland and soulless, or lacking character, but 'Boro didn't feel that way. Despite its relatively young age, it's seen a lot of good and bad times already and had a totally different feel to stadiums like the Ricoh Arena or Madejski Stadium. Also, the old Ayresome Park gates have been located at the Riverside to give it a traditional feel, and I liked that touch. Overall, it's an impressive ground both inside and out.

We got into the concourse nice and early, plenty of time to grab a bite to eat and a swift Carlsberg. The best way to describe the burgers at the Riverside is that they're like the sort you get at Burger King. For some people, that's unacceptable, but since I'm quite partial to a BK, I could probably have stayed in that concourse eating them all night. Anyway, once we'd polished off the grub, we had ten minutes watching the rather strange MTV (Middlesbrough TV, not the other one) that was being broadcast, which was complete with some rather cringe worthy shots of various 'Boro players posing for the camera. It also managed to spell a couple of our lads names wrong; notably Fredson, minus the 'Half'. I'm beginning to worry about Emil; it can't be long before he's suffering from an identity crisis. Last week at Preston, he was Auf Weidersehn, this week he's Fredson, what next? No wonder he looked so lost on the pitch, he hasn't got a clue who he is anymore.

Just before heading to the seats, I buttoned up the coat, pulled all jumpers down and tightened up ready for the ice cold weather. The concourse was freezing, and I was dreading walking out to the pitch side for the first time. I'd only brought a little jacket, and it was beginning to feel like I'd made a schoolboy error. It was a nice surprise, then, that the design of the stadium meant that it was actually pretty mild by the time we were sat down, due to the roof covering the whole away end and the whole ground being enclosed. And after seeing the way the rain water was splashing up at pitch side, I wasn't jealous of the players being out there.

The game itself was exactly as it's been all season; a game of two halves. We were beyond dreadful for all but the first 7-8 minutes in the first half, and if we'd been trailing at half time 4-0 it wouldn't have flattered them. I don't think they were as outstanding as some match reports would have you believe, rather that time and time again we needlessly gave them possession. They weren't having to work too hard to win the ball, which at this level is criminal. We also looked totally toothless going forward, and never looked like managing a shot, never mind scoring. And yet again, we resorted to hoofing the ball forward, which is so frustrating after seeing what we can do with the ball at our feet at Preston just a week ago. The half time whistle couldn't come soon enough in this one, and 2-0 was a decent scoreline considering how much worse it could have been.

After nipping down at half time to passively smoke a couple of cartons of cigs in the toilets, I was ready for the second half. We do have previous for turning games around after the break, and 'Boro know this first hand from their Oakwell trip before the new year, so it's always impossible to write us off. We started with more urgency than we had first half, although the quality was still poor and overall we got what we deserved; nothing. Our goal came from our first shot on target, and although both Gray and Rodriguez missed very good chances to steal a point, it was a fair result overall. Without wanting to sound bitter, 'Boro weren't particularly outstanding, but most of the time they didn't need to be.

The away fans were in fine voice again throughout, and even managed to cram in a couple of contenders for Chant of the Season; particularly the 'Good Refs' chant immediately after the celebrations for our solitary free kick of the evening, but any of the Celtic based songs that were on offer too. Although I must say it raised a smile when the England chant went up, shortly after local boy Hugo Colace scored for his boyhood heroes., The irony wasn't lost for that one. As for Man of the Match, it's a tough call today, but I think I'd give it to Steele, who kept the score down in the first half with some fine saves and looked generally steady throughout the night. Doyle looked decent again, although his performance dipped as the game went on, and he totally lost it when he was switched to right back. Anderson was poor and will be lucky to keep his place at the weekend. Hammill was just his usual, frustrating self.

The drive home after the game was quiet and rather sombre. I don't think we'd really expected anything at 'Boro, but it just felt like a let down that the team didn't turn up. I can take being beaten by the better team, but it's more difficult to accept when we've let them have it easier than we should have. Other results on the night mean that the Championship is wide open, piling more pressure on us for Saturday against our old foes Plymouth. On paper, it's very winnable, but if we do slip up, the table starts looking a bit worrying again.

Still, we've had our bad performance, so we look forward to seeing a decent one at the weekend. It does worry me for Scunny away next Tuesday, but I've enjoyed the last couple of midweek away days so I look forward to it already. And I'll definitely be remembering to take the big coat for that one.

Thanks for reading.