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WEST HAM v MIDDLESBROUGH, FA CUP SEMI-FINAL, 23rd APRIL 2006
You don't need superlatives for an FA Cup semi-final and the atmosphere at Villa Park was absolutely unbelievable.
Gareth Southgate made it for the match but Mark Viduka didn't, as we reported earlier. Steve McClaren went with a 5-3-2 formation for possibly the most important match of hs Boro career. But I'll probably say exactly the same thing next Thursday as well...
Schwarzer (Jones 38), Riggott, Southgate, Queudrue, Parnaby, Taylor (Maccarone 79), Rochemback (Parlour 68), Boateng, Downing, Hasselbaink, Yakubu
Ehiogu, Bates
A minute's silence was held for John Lyall before the match kicked off. It was a fitting tribute for a great man who sadly died last week aged 66.
Thanks to Graham Frankland for the pic, taken five minutes before kick-off.
THE FIRST HALF
The first ten minutes of play was franctic and furious with Boro creating several chances. Stewart Downing looked especiallly sharp on the wing and Fabio Rochemback had two powerful shots saved, as did Yakubu. Boro were on top and starting to dominate already.
But the period of play could have ended very badly for Middlesbrough as Downing took a very heavy knock and almost had to be stretchered off. Gareth Southgate 'encouraged' Stewey to carry on and he managed to run the injury off. Meanwhile, West Ham switched to a wing-back system in an effort to counter the increasing Boro threat.
On seventeen minutes, a fully recovered Stewey Downing collected the ball and started a run, only to be taken out with a disgraceful tackle by Nigel Reo-Coker. Coker was deservedly booked and Fabio Rochemback did little with the resulting free-kick.
The Hammers were starting to come more into the game now and were clearly much more comfortable with the wing-back formation. But Boro had a great chance to open the scoring on twenty-two minutes when Andrew Taylor took the ball down the left wing and played a fantastic pass to The Yak whose touch deserted him.
Taylor was instrumental in the play again as he cleared a dangerous ball that had been sent in from a West Ham break. The Hammers hit the bar from the resulting corner but Mike Riley had spotted an infrimgement and the goal would not have stood.
Both sides attacked in the next few minutes but both defences were seemingly water tight and kept any chances to a minimal threat. Boro began to have the better of the play again as the half-hour mark approached and a shot from Downing and three consecutive corners led to three chances from Boro, all of which went begging.
Boro's midfield were bossing the game by the thirty-five minute stage, having cut out several potential West Ham breaks and looking very adept at finding the front men or supplying Stewey Downing on the flank. All that was missing was a goal.
The Hammers did break past our midfield line on thirty-six minutes but Skippy had no trouble collecting the cross. But there was a collision with Dean Ashton which floored the keeper and rendered him unconscious for some minutes. Play was held up for some time and Schwarzer didn't make it back on to the field and was replaced by Brad Jones.
Skippy had not had one serious save to make during the match and it was now down to Jones to guard the Boro net. Jones was in goal when Boro's FA Cup campaign started at Nuneaton and the last (only) time we got to the final, we had a reserve goalkeeper as well. It transpired that Skippy had broken his cheekbone and we wish him well for a very speedy recovery.
The first thing that happened after play restarted was Geroge Boateng being felled by an elbow from Reo-Coker. George recovered quckly but West Ham's tactics were now being called into question. The first-half ended with out further goalmouth action, apart from a crashing Rochemback effort that went over. Boro were easily the better side and the game is there for us in the second-half.
FIRST-HALF FAN REACTION
"Ashton deliberately took Skippy out there but we have battered them in the first-half..."
Mark The Boro Fan
"We are definitely the better team and will have this closed dwon by sixty minutes."
Lillibet M
THE SECOND-HALF
The second-half started with a booking for Fabio Rochemback when he caught Konchesky with a totally innocuous challenge that was not in the same league as the Ashton foul that had put Skippy out of the game. A minute later, Rochemback had the perfect opportunity to put Jimmy Floyd clean through on goal but he completely fluffed his pass.
West Ham spent the next ten minutes in the ascendancy and really went for Boro with frenzied all-out attack but they managed just one dangerous shot when Ashton hit the bar with a header from a corner kick.
But The Hammers continued to press and Boro were beginning to lose possession far too easily on the rare occasions that we actualy had it. With nine minutes of the half gone, Reo-Coker gathered the ball on the left wing and skipped past Franck Queudrue to send a shot in from an angle that only just went wide.
Two minutes later Marlon Harewood clattered Gareth Southgate. The elbows were flying in from the West Ham players and Gareth refused to accept Harewood's 'apology', such was the unsporting nature of that particular challenge. Mike Riley was letting everything go which made Rochemback's earlier booking seem even more unjust.
But finally and thankfully Riley did act when Dean Ashton lunged in on Brad Jones and clattered the goalie with a high foot. A yellow was the very least that he deserved for that particular challenge and it was just a pity that he had got away with so much before.
Something seemed to disappear from West Ham's game after that booking and Boro clawed their way back into it after a torrid first part of the second-half. Boro were beginning to win the midfield battle again and were looking as though they were about to start creating chances, like they had done all through the first-half.
A change was made on sixty-eight minutes as Ray Parlour replaced Fabio Rochemback and took up exactly the same position that Rocky had played in.
On seventy-eight minutes West Ham started another attack and Harewood found himself in space with only two of Boro's three central defenders back. Harewood picked up the ball on the right side from Ashton's header and crashed it into the top of the net, giving Brad Jones no chance at all.
MIDDLESBROUGH 0 WEST HAM 1 (Harewood 78)
Harewood was booked for his goal celebration and Boro replaced Andrew Taylor with Hail Massimo and switched to 4-4-2 formation.
INTO THE RED ZONE
Jimmy Floyd Hasselbaink collected the ball half way up the field and went on a surging run through the West Ham midfield but he was fouled on the edge of the box, just as was about to pull the trigger. The free-kick was blocked and Boro were left needing a late equaliser.
Dirty Dean Ashton was replaced by Bobby Zamora with seven minutes to go and Boro created another chance through Hasselbaink but Yakubu put the final shot over the bar.
Boro tried to get the ball forward as West Ham ran the clock down by substituting Etherington for Newton. Boro were unfluid now and struggling to put a good move together, although we were having the better of the attacking play in the very final minutes of normal time, without making much of them.
Hope was in the air as five minutes of injury time were added on but West Ham stifled any Boro attempts to break forward and Boro's final chance of the game signalled that it was not to our day. We won a throw-in on the left side and the ball was worked in to Chris Riggott who had a glorious chance to send the game into extra-time.
The whistle went just seconds after Chris had shot wide and that was it - the dream was over. No more to be said really other than it would be nice to congratulate West Ham properly but their dirty tactics make defeat taste even more bitter.
FULL-TIME FAN REACTION
"At least we still have the Uefa Cup to go for..."
Collective
Final Whistle: 1756 - Report Online: 1803
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