Middlesbrough 1-0 Bolton

bwfc1874 wrote:

luckyPeterpiper wrote:Personally I think we lost to a side with a new manager in his first home game with a highly partisan home crowd. That we lost this match and as regrettable as the penalty miss is we haven't suddenly become crap. In my humble opinion the eight match unbeaten run was decent at least, we should not be too down hearted about today and we need to roll our sleeves up and start another unbeaten run against Huddersfield.

Got that bang on for me, we could have easily picked up a point today but it didn't go our way. What's important now is to win our next two home games, think Dougie needs to go for it in these and give Moritz as start over Pratley.

Unbelievable. Dougie reckons our progress won't be decided on away games we need to keep our home progress going. Dougie, we've won one at home you cretin what progress is that? And you two think he's worth persevering with. God give me strength.

Let's wait and see how we get on in our next two home games. The facts are there's been an improvement all round in the last 8 games. The next two are massive if we don't get at least 4 points then we've got some serious worries.

I don't know what all the panic is? We'll easily get in to the playoffs at the end of the season and we will finish above Blackburn, Blackpool, Wigan & Burnley.

Fucking useless. Boro were there for the taking but negative freedman waits till we are losing to add some attacking options.

Boggersbelief wrote:Fucking useless. Boro were there for the taking but negative freedman waits till we are losing to add some attacking options.

I haven't seen the game, but from the commentary I was listening to it was a close game and had we come away with a point I'd have been happy.

The fact is we did make an attacking change, Moritz on for Pratley after 70 minutes, that says we were trying to win the game as Pratley's only in there for cautions sake - for his running. True we could have gone all out and shoved Mason to go 442, but the priority was to keep a clean sheet.

When we conceded the game plan completely changed but it happened so late we knew we'd only get one chance, unfortunately we missed it.

Again it's all with the benefit of hindsight, truth is had we been more attacking earlier we may still have lost the game, we've no idea.

His negative tactics are what will cost us a play off place.

Possibly, but they nearly got us a play off place last year and by keeping it tight and counter attacking well we've also seen an upturn in form this year.  

Today was disappointing but far from a disaster, the unbeaten run wasn't going to last forever the important thing is how we 'bounce back' in the next two home games which realistically we need to be winning if we want the play offs.

Crap team selection,negative tactics once again and a reluctance to take the initiative with astute substitutions when the game is there for the taking !! Sound familiar ??? Jol out Freedman in with any luck on Monday. For any Dougie lovers our recent run has been against shit opposition and a huge slice of luck ! The guy is effing clueless and with a squad that at the start of the season was supposed to piss it into the playoffs. Bollocks !!

Sounded like Ream dropped a few bollocks, from what I heard on manc radio.

bwfc1874 wrote:Let's wait and see how we get on in our next two home games. The facts are there's been an improvement all round in the last 8 games. The next two are massive if we don't get at least 4 points then we've got some serious worries.

Trouble is 74 the only improvement has been in results but not really in the quality of football. You're right the next two games are pivotal and if we are to push on up the table we realistically have to win both. I'm not confident I must say and with the terriers winning today it will boost their confidence. My problem is that Freedman's always defensive set up is just so boring and negative when surely at home against such opposition we should be more adventurous? Still let's wait and see, maybe today's result will make him think again?

The run was always going to end, however our inability to retain possession will be our undoing all season which in the end will mean us only being mid-table.

As good as the unbeaten run was we still need much more up front, Beckford on his own up front all season is pretty poor as it's only him who is scoring at the moment on a regular basis.

As for the game as a whole Boro sounded like they edged it as they were the only team trying to get the 3 points in the second half until they scored.

aaron_bwfc wrote:As good as the unbeaten run was we still need much more up front, Beckford on his own up front all season is pretty poor as it's only him who is scoring at the moment on a regular basis.

Agreed, sounds as if Chungy and Danns both had quiet games, we need to see more of the attacking players on the bench.

If dougie had thrown on Moritz and Mason on in the 2nd half and gone at it like Boro did then I reckon we would have taken at least a point.

At times Douglas is too negative for his own good.

He went for a point which backfired, whats worrying is the lack of goals from midfield, we can't just rely on JB week in week out.

Whitesince63 wrote:

bwfc1874 wrote:

luckyPeterpiper wrote:Personally I think we lost to a side with a new manager in his first home game with a highly partisan home crowd. That we lost this match and as regrettable as the penalty miss is we haven't suddenly become crap. In my humble opinion the eight match unbeaten run was decent at least, we should not be too down hearted about today and we need to roll our sleeves up and start another unbeaten run against Huddersfield.

Got that bang on for me, we could have easily picked up a point today but it didn't go our way. What's important now is to win our next two home games, think Dougie needs to go for it in these and give Moritz as start over Pratley.

Unbelievable. Dougie reckons our progress won't be decided on away games we need to keep our home progress going. Dougie, we've won one at home you cretin what progress is that? And you two think he's worth persevering with. God give me strength.

Yes White I at least do think he's worth persevering with. I'd like to have someone better in charge, someone with a big name and a proven track record of success but don't see anyone of that stature coming here. That being the case I'll stick with Dougie or would you prefer someone else's cast-off, say Tony Mowbray for example? How about Ian Holloway? He plays great flair football and all aout attack at the expense of absolutely everything else. Oh wait; didn't we sack a guy for doing pretty much the exact same thing a year or so back? 

White I think Dougie's got us going in the right direction overall. It's not pretty and it may be a while before it is but we've lost just one in nine and could easily have had at least a point in this match too. I don't know if Dougie is right for us in the long term, a point I have made many times already but until and unless we get taken over by Sheikh Wonga-Dosh and his cousin Sheikh Quid-Cash he's the sort of manager we will be able to get. We're never going to have a SAF or a Mourinho or even a Klopp. Our managers will be people who know they're working on a limited budget with limited back room resources and as a result we like several other similar sized clubs will be seen as stepping stones for young managers who want to build a reputation and move onto something better or for older managers who aren't that great we're the level they can handle. I personally want a younger manager, a man with ambitions to go onto bigger things because the only way he's going to get it is by succeeding here. Personally I think Dougie COULD do it; he has the players, he has the skill set (look what he did with Palace) and he clearly isn't afraid to man up and admit he got some things wrong. 

I hope he's the right man; I want the club to be stable because that in itself brings success and we haven't really had that since the BSA days (stability or success). I hate to see us going back to the change the manager every year or so and hope that stops the slide days and changing dougie now would in my opinion be a retrograde step reminiscent of the early to mid 1980's. I think we should reserve judgement and give the man the rest of this season at least then decide his fate. That's how I see it and what I've already decided to do myself. I understand if you feel that's wrong and respect your opinion but as you well know white, changing the manager is always a gamble. Changing one the players are clearly trying their best for is a dangerous and unwarranted gamble in my opinion and the players clearly back him right now so I would not change it.

luckyPeterpiper wrote:

Whitesince63 wrote:

bwfc1874 wrote:

luckyPeterpiper wrote:Personally I think we lost to a side with a new manager in his first home game with a highly partisan home crowd. That we lost this match and as regrettable as the penalty miss is we haven't suddenly become crap. In my humble opinion the eight match unbeaten run was decent at least, we should not be too down hearted about today and we need to roll our sleeves up and start another unbeaten run against Huddersfield.

Got that bang on for me, we could have easily picked up a point today but it didn't go our way. What's important now is to win our next two home games, think Dougie needs to go for it in these and give Moritz as start over Pratley.

Unbelievable. Dougie reckons our progress won't be decided on away games we need to keep our home progress going. Dougie, we've won one at home you cretin what progress is that? And you two think he's worth persevering with. God give me strength.

Yes White I at least do think he's worth persevering with. I'd like to have someone better in charge, someone with a big name and a proven track record of success but don't see anyone of that stature coming here. That being the case I'll stick with Dougie or would you prefer someone else's cast-off, say Tony Mowbray for example? How about Ian Holloway? He plays great flair football and all aout attack at the expense of absolutely everything else. Oh wait; didn't we sack a guy for doing pretty much the exact same thing a year or so back? 

White I think Dougie's got us going in the right direction overall. It's not pretty and it may be a while before it is but we've lost just one in nine and could easily have had at least a point in this match too. I don't know if Dougie is right for us in the long term, a point I have made many times already but until and unless we get taken over by Sheikh Wonga-Dosh and his cousin Sheikh Quid-Cash he's the sort of manager we will be able to get. We're never going to have a SAF or a Mourinho or even a Klopp. Our managers will be people who know they're working on a limited budget with limited back room resources and as a result we like several other similar sized clubs will be seen as stepping stones for young managers who want to build a reputation and move onto something better or for older managers who aren't that great we're the level they can handle. I personally want a younger manager, a man with ambitions to go onto bigger things because the only way he's going to get it is by succeeding here. Personally I think Dougie COULD do it; he has the players, he has the skill set (look what he did with Palace) and he clearly isn't afraid to man up and admit he got some things wrong. 

I hope he's the right man; I want the club to be stable because that in itself brings success and we haven't really had that since the BSA days (stability or success). I hate to see us going back to the change the manager every year or so and hope that stops the slide days and changing dougie now would in my opinion be a retrograde step reminiscent of the early to mid 1980's. I think we should reserve judgement and give the man the rest of this season at least then decide his fate. That's how I see it and what I've already decided to do myself. I understand if you feel that's wrong and respect your opinion but as you well know white, changing the manager is always a gamble. Changing one the players are clearly trying their best for is a dangerous and unwarranted gamble in my opinion and the players clearly back him right now so I would not change it.

I agree entirely with the above. Don't know how long his contract is but you'd be sacking for sacking's sake at this moment in time.
Furthermore we've done well in the past few weeks results wise, we'd look right dicks binning him now and more importantly it ain't going to happen!!

I think this result accurately reflects where we are as a team.
We've come a long way since the beginning of the season, but we have a lot of improvement yet to come.
Our recent run has seen us stay solid at the back, however this has been at the expense of having enough bodies and/or talent further up the park to retain possession when we get it away.
We haven't been dominating teams so there are very fine lines between defeat and victory. The games have been close and sooner or later we were going to get an unlucky break or make a mistake and it finally happened yesterday.

Dougie's tactics weren't too far off the mark. If he was going to play for a point, he might have brought Knight on before they scored rather than Moritz - or possibly have done both.
Overall I'd say it's nothing to panic about and equally we shouldn't be getting over-excited about the playoffs. We are still a work in progress and probably will be for a couple of seasons yet, but we should at least be more confident about avoiding relegation which was a genuine concern only a few weeks ago.

Dougie Freedman wrote:Moritz has so much quality, I can't wait for the Bolton fans to see it.

So Dougie, after 17 matches you still haven't given this "quality" player a start, but the fucking useless Pratley gets picked every week.

Explain.

Playing away from home so wanted legs in midfield to give us more protection defensively, the logic was obvious. I'll bet you anything Pratley starts neither of the up coming home games.