Norwich City v Middlesbrough (Fri 17th April)

[Hooray]

I'm excited. I'm confident. 3-0 to Norwich.

 

[Dazza]

Middlesbrough have struggled away to the top sides recently.Bournemouth and Watford beat them fairly comfortably. 2-0 Norwich.

 

[Luke_1884]

I'm in for this one, should be a good game.

From what I've seen of both teams recently I'm going for a home win.

 

[Super_horns]

Draw please!

If Norwich win then only by a goal.

 

[TractorBoys]

Wonderful start. M'boro have started well.


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[Super_horns]

All Boro for now.

Worry is Norwich can only improve.

 

[JJH]

Think that will go down as a Tettey OG.

M'boro all over Norwich - Bamford's runs are causing the Norwich back 4 all sorts of trouble.

 

[JJH]

Howson shocking miss

 

[JJH]

Bamford's very much struggling.

 

[TractorBoys]

Bit of desperation creeping in? Hoolahan should take up acting.


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[Luke_1884]

Decent game, Boro deservedly 1 up after their storming start. Since Bamford picked up his knock they have been very flat.
All Norwich for the last 25, probably more of the same to come second half.

Boro's time wasting is getting tedious and I'm a neutral. Hoolahan's dive was shite too, rightfully booked.

 

[JJH]

Bit of desperation creeping in? Hoolahan should take up acting.


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Think Tom Daley's been giving him tips on that one..

 

[JJ1532]

Decent game? I think its been bloody awful. Boro have decided to camp on the 1-0 since Bamford got injured and Norwich have played 5 central midfielders(only 1 of them as a creator too) and for some reason decided to lump long balls to Jerome or rely on set pieces. Maybe this is an off night for them because they surely can't have made it into the top 4 without playing better football than what they have shown tonight.

Commetnators praising the Boro defence, rightly so, but its been so so easy for them. Norwich have been one-dimensional, predictable, boring, lacking creativity. You can count the amount of decent goalscoring opportunities on 1 hand. Dour game.

 

[JJH]

Bamford misses a sitter.

Could have squared it for 0-2, selfish bastard.

 

[JJ1532]

What on earth was that? An effort with the outside of his left foot, when his right was obviously the better option. What a prat. Can't believe Karanka kept him on when he clearly did his ankle in the first half, especially with Kike on the bench to replace him.

 

[Super_horns]

Boro looking very comfortable.

Norwich are playing like we did against Ioswuch when there was pressure.

 

[Super_horns]

What on earth was that? An effort with the outside of his left foot, when his right was obviously the better option. What a prat. Can't believe Karanka kept him on when he clearly did his ankle in the first half, especially with Kike on the bench to replace him.

Could be a long term injury as well?

 

[JJH]

Hell of a lot of long diagonal balls this second half from Norwich - they paniced far to early.

Tempers flaring - a lot of gamesmanship going on from M'boro here.

 

[Luke_1884]

I thought the first half was pretty decent when I wrote the post, Boro had 3 good opportunities and then Norwich got back into it. Howson had a great chance too.

The second half has been awful, reminds me of watching Chelsea in the Champs League in recent years.

This petty time wasting is annoying too. Obviously Boro don't want the game to flow as its all Norwich but it's frustrating for a neutral spectator wanting to see a good game.

 

[AFCB_Mark]

Odd game. Norwich didn't seem confident in the own ability to get back in it playing their usual game. Just panicked and went long for no apparent reason.

Second half was ugly. Boro did what they needed to. The time wasting from Boro and the attempts to win fouls from both sides dragged the second half into a mess. And to think we get stick!

 

[Super_horns]

Well I won't say too much as we tend to try and do that - although not as much as under Zola or Sannino.

Oddly we haven't let in as many late goals either (hope that isn't a curse!)

 

[Hooray]

Glad I've had a couple of hours and a couple of pints since that ended to calm down a bit.

Boro started like a house on fire and deservedly scored (despite the fortunate nature of the goal), but as soon as that went in they had obviously done their homework as they knew that defending that lead would probably mean they were able to keep that lead. We are not good at coming from behind against a team who is strong and organised at the back. We were punished for the slow start and need to learn from that.

Disappointed in the injury-feigning antics from Boro though. They're a good team - they don't need to resort to that. It was beyond embarrassing long before the end. Dimi going down holding his leg in the final stages was just ridiculous. As soon as that final whistle went he was sprinting and bouncing around like a mad man.

And that ref. LOL. Actually blew his whistle and stopped play because he saw Bamford limping. Genuinely never seen that before.

 

[Rammy]

That has to be Norwich's hopes of the top two over. Munkiki will be delighted that he was right.

 

[Veggie Legs]

Only saw the second half but it looked like a superb rear-guard action from Boro, you can tell who Karanka learned from. Norwich struggled to create anything from what I saw. Was the first half more interesting?

 

[Munkiki]

Brentford aside (who played us off the park), every defeat for us at CR has been pretty much the same. Lots of possession without creating any clear cut chances at all. We were never going to score in a million years - much like the hundred other 1-0 defeats we've had this season.

Karanka must've noticed that we don't turn up until around 20 minutes after kick-off so knew that if they came out of the blocks quickly, the game was theirs. As soon as the - deserved but incredibly fortunate (quelle surprise!) - goal went in, it was over. Middlesbrough defended well but I think we contributed to that by bottling it. Just seemed to panic and resort to lumping the ball long - although it was made hard to play it out when every time we tried, a Middlesbrough player hit the deck and got the ref to stop play, allowing them to kick the ball back to Ruddy. Sorry but if you're injured enough that you have to go down every five minutes, you shouldn't be on the pitch. Absolutely ridiculous the ref allowed them to piss about like that all game - even more ridiculous that he stopped play every single time they did it (thought you only stopped play for head or serious injuries?)

Regarding the only bit of cheating that was punished - Wes has dived a few times recently. Not sure where that's come from because he's not usually guilty of that kind of thing. Think he's probably dived more this season than his previous five seasons combined. I hate diving so much. Footballers are lucky I'm not in charge because I'd be retrospectively handing out cumulative bans to repeat offenders. Not just diving though, any kind of cheating. Only way you're ever going to get rid of it or at least reduce it is by taking action. Cheating is now part and parcel of the game because they sit back and do absolutely fuck all about it. When only very few get punished, where is the incentive to not do it? Sure it'd be lovely for players to just have the integrity to not do it but that's not going to happen, especially considering the "win at whatever cost" mentality has pretty much taken over sport.