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DEEP IN MY HEART 29-8-07
Middlesbrough v Northampton Town, 29th August 2007, The Riverside Stadium
James Keen
What could have been a comfortable victory for the lads in red turned out to be a great escape. All due respect to Newcastle, they scored a couple of crackers, but over the course of the ninety minutes we were much the better side, controlled the midfield and looked comfortable at the back. I see it as two points dropped rather than one gained.
Mido gave us more reason to love him with a goal on his home debut and, what's more, a goal in a derby - brilliant. And no matter how much those dodgy TV folk want to focus on the fact it was 'offside', it was a great goal and a deserved one, and Julio hit a cracker to rescue us a second time.
Let's try not to mention Viduka's contribution, although, did anyone notice he started running towards the Boro fans to celebrate his goal? That's why he stopped himself. So it seemed to me anyway.
The performance of our midfield four of Downing, Arca, Rochemback and Boateng was impressive, Downing looking confident and willing to get round his man for a change, Rochemback probing the Skunk backline and Arca and Boateng back to their usual grafting ways.
It was also a pleasure to see Luke Young and Jonathan Woodgate back in the fold. We had the feel of a Premiership side again, and long may it continue.
There were plenty of positives to take from the game and so I can see us going into next weekend's game against Birmingham with some added vigour and belief.
But before the Blue Noses come to town, we face the Cobblers of Northampton.
Boro will make changes from the side that drew against the Pandas. Woodgate will be rested having picked up a slight niggle and Mido will probably be rested while he still battles for full match fitness, whilst Boateng was also withdrawn from the fray towards the end of Sunday's game and could miss out tonight.
This means that Lee Dong Gook is likely to get his first full ninety of the season and Andrew Davies will get another chance for a run out, if he recovers from his knock at the weekend. It's also quite likely that we'll see Cattermole, Tuncay and Johnson start the game.
But whatever side Boro put out, we should expect victory and nothing less. Our reserves should be good enough for the Premier League and therefore should be easily good enough to beat Northampton. Our main problem is that in recent years Boro have been quite nice to lower division sides; Nuneaton, Hull, Bristol City, Notts County, we just don't make sides worry about us.
A good battering of one of these sides will start to make teams fear us; we must start to assert our stance as a big boy in these competitions. We must start to win comfortably.
Northampton come to the Riverside on the back of a 2-1 defeat at Yeovil, but will have their Carling Cup first round victory over Millwall fresh in their minds and will be hoping to see off the league's other MFC tonight.
Northampton though don't have a lot in terms of quality. New signing Hubertz scored at the weekend and looks useful, but players like Gilligan and Burnell are just not good enough to compete with Boro's stars.
Boro need to move the ball around quickly tonight, put Town under pressure and make sure that they are on the back foot from the start.
As always, the smaller side will come with thoughts of a cup shock and will go for the jugular, blazing into every tackle and launching long balls at the Boro back line all night, something I'm more than sure Davies and Wheater can deal with. In fact, I'm happier for Davies to use his head rather than his feet as it's when he tries to use his feet he gets himself into trouble.
Northampton's tactics will be very basic - long ball, battle hard, rough 'em up. Boro just need to be ready for the fight and we will overcome the latest opposition and rack up our first win of the season at the Riverside.
Let's set off on the right foot in the competition that brought me my greatest footballing memory. I'm sure that is the same for all Middlesbrough fans around the world. We need to show it the respect it deserves and aim for glory. Let's be honest, it's the easiest route into Europe you can have outside of Scotland.
The outcome: My heart says a battering of 5-1, but knowing Boro in recent years we'll probably rest a few and scrape a 2-1 win.
Last Time We Met: Middlesbrough 3-1 Northampton Town (September 2001: Boro: Murphy, Nemeth, Wilson, Town: Parkin)
Boro Form (most recent result first): DWLLWW
Northampton Form: LLWDDD
Probable Teams:
Boro: Jones, Young, Taylor, Wheater, Davies, Cattermole, Rochemback, Arca, Tuncay, Johnson, Lee.
Northampton Town: Bunn, Crowe, Hughes, Doig, Jones, Gilligan, Burnell, Johnson, Holt, Kurk, Hubertz
Man to Watch: Poul Hubertz
RETURN TO DEEP IN MY HEART INDEX HERE
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