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MIDDLESBROUGH v COVENTRY - FULL TIME MATCH REPORT
A respite from the tribulations of the Premier League tonight but a massively important game nonetheless. A good FA Cup run could rescue our disastrous season and restore lost confidence. Did you get a feeling of deja-vu there?
5-3-2 tonight with Rochemback returning, Viduka sensibly rested and Mendieta playing out of position again. What should have been a formality was actually a major challenge.
Schwarzer, Taylor, Pogatetz, Riggott, Southgate, Parnaby, Mendieta (Bates 80), Doriva, Rochemback, Yakubu (Maccarone 71), Hasselbaink
Jones, Johnson, Viduka
THE FIRST HALF
Coventry certainly started with confidence and on the back of three league wins, they had every right to. The Boro defence was stretched early on when Adebola went on a run down the left and exposed a potential Boro weakness. At the other end, Boro tried to forge an early attack but the movement was too bitty and disjointed.
Adebola should have made more of an eighth minute chance but failed to properly connect with his shot. The Coventry fans had even more to shout about two minutes later as Rochemback was forced into making a horrendous mistake that gifted Coventry possession and a scoring chance. It went wide for a corner but there was a major worry here that Boro were being pushed back far too easily.
Gary McSheffrey, one of Boro's tormentors from the original match showed why he is being watched when he produced a terrific burst of pace and got himself into the Boro box only to see his shot fail. The only chance for Boro in the first nineteen minutes came when a Yakubu effort was stopped by a clumsy challenge that may have seen a penalty awarded on another day but in reality, it would have been unjustified.
Things can turn around quickly in football though, especially with a man like Jimmy Floyd Hasselbaink who can keep his head when all is going mad around him. Jimmy picked up a brilliant Yakubu ball halfway inside Coventry's half, took it forward and placed the ball superbly to relieve the tension and put Boro on their way.
MIDDLESBROUGH 1 COVENTRY CITY 0 (Hasselbaink 20)
What a difference a goal makes! Boro went on the attack straight away and almost got another when Jimmy sent in a stinging shot that Fulop did well to save. Boro managed to maintain their new found control on the game from then on in and could have possibly made another when Yakubu rescued a bad wall and broke, only to be dispossessed in the box.
Boro continued to hold their own and were actually starting to look like the better side on thirty minutes. Gareth Southgate showed real leadership on thirty-three when he made a tremendous tackle on Gary McSheffrey when the busy midfielder had beaten the Boro midfielder on what was Coventry's first attack since the goal.
Perhaps that was the catalyst for Coventry to resume hostiities as that man McSheffrey again broke clear and got in a piercing cross for Adebola who forced an excellent save from Mark Schwarzer, who also saved the rebound.
As half-time approached, Coventry were coming back into the game and Boro's control on the game was starting to slip. Doriva took a heavy knock on his left knee after a fifty-fifty with Doyle and it was touch and go whether he would continue. He made it to the end of the half and Boro went in for the break with a deserved lead but knowing that it was far from over.
FIRST HALF FAN REACTION
"Steve Mc will get them motivated for the second half!"
Smog Eat Smog
THE SECOND HALF
The second half did not start in a fluid sort of way as tempers threatened to boil over but the end result of the scrappy beginning was a Boro attack that led to a Jimmy opportunity that he couldn't quite slot home. And a booking for Andrew Taylor.
Even so, the half took a long time to settle down and Boro were not really in it at all over the next ten minutes. Stern John would have equalised had he got his head to the ball when six-yards out and they continued with the pressure after that as well.
Boro were backing off badly now and the Sky Blues were quite happy to accept the open invitation to attack but they didn't manage to make anything of their opportunities.
Finally, Boro broke free on sixty-seven minutes and Mendieta took a speculative shot that only just went over. It was Boro's first real chance of the half and a change was made a couple of minutes later.
When Massimo Maccarone came on as a sub in the Uefa Cup games earlier this season, he managed to find the net but since then, Boro have picked up the annoying habit of conceding immediately after a substitution. Hail Massimo replaced Yakubu and twenty seconds later, Marcus Hall had arguably Coventry's best chance of the night as he sent a shot only just wide.
Good combination play between Hail Massimo and Mendieta almost resulted in a clear cut chance for the former but he was dispossessed by a hard challenge from Hutchison as the second penalty appeal of the night was waved away.
That was cue for Coventry to once again make a big effort to drag themselves right back into it and once again try to expose the gaps in the Boro formation. Matthew Bates replaced Gaizka Mendieta on eighty minutes, an obvious ploy to sit back and hang on to the lead, a tactic that has proved so costly too often this last couple of seasons.
INTO THE RED ZONE
Boro went to a flat back four formation and it was our turn to nearly score after a substitution this time as Stuart Parnaby unleashed a piledriver that Fulop would have done extremely well to hang onto if he had needed to.
For all Coventry's pressure and possession in the second half, Mark Schwarzer had remained unemployed for the most part. Micky Adams gambled with just five minutes to play as he brought on another striker, Morrell and urged his players to just go for it.
But Coventry never really found the cutting edge to break through the Boro resistance, although Mark Schwarzer was needed in the dying minutes as he kept Boro in it with a great save that spared us extra time and penalties. Coventry threw everything into it in the three minutes of added on time and had every man forward which allowed Boro a clear break when they won the ball back and Hail Massimo was left with a one-on-one with the keeper which he disappointingly fluffed.
It was a relief when the final whistle went, signalling Boro's safe passage into the fifth round but it is obvious that we are going to struggle for the rest of the season with tactics that still seem experimental at best and naive if you want to be cruel
It will be nothing short of a miracle if Boro do lift the cup this year but the cup run will be a nice distraction from a league campaign that will get no easier. If we can keep Chelsea down to single figures on Saturday, maybe that can be seen as some sort of achievement but for now we can enjoy this and we can still keep dreaming. As long as we remember that the nightmare of relegation could easily turn into reality.
FULL TIME FAN REACTION
"A bit shaky but we got the result and that's the most important thing. Maybe we can push on from here...?"
Boro_Dave
Final Whistle: 2155 - Report Online: 2200
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