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THE AWAY END - WHITE HART LANE 14-4-08
John Powls
The Build Up To The Game
Most of the discussion on The Websites This Week has focused on the ‘typical Boro’ debate - why they can play like they did against ManUre and others in the "Big Four" but so poorly against the likes of Cardiff and Reading.
Out came the thesaurus as synonyms for ‘enigma’ were sought. Even Gate joined in. His post match interview last Sunday asked if he could sum up the Boro puzzle in twenty words or less. "No" was the simple yet profound reply.
If he couldn’t, and he’s supposed to exercise some control, then where did that leave the rest of us? Exactly where we’ve always been. My Dad offered some perspective when he reminded me that this has been going on even longer than my almost half century of Boro fandom.
“With some short interludes of a season or two when it was different,” he said, “it hasn’t mattered who has been in the team, who the manager was, what division Boro were in, what ground they played on or who was in the boardroom. They keep doing the same thing to us and we keep going back. Who’s the dafter?”
This same ‘Zen’ approach populated the thinking elsewhere. I’m working on a book of haiku at present and on one blog I began a thread of Boro related haiku which developed into acrostics and ‘less than twenty word’ explanations.
And at the end of all of that we still didn’t know which Boro would get off the coach at White Hart Lane on Saturday. And, more than likely, neither did Gate or the team.
"Don’t call me Mad Dog" Pogo had said that he wanted to be captain again and to be fair, he hasn’t dipped in form with the weight of the armband like some others have.
Gate continued the Zen motif of the week by meditating on whether a club captain was necessary at all. There could be some sort of leadership collective with someone nominated to wear the armband in each game. Yeah man, right on!
But, at least we now had evidence of our own that Alves is a goalscorer. Whatever ‘it’ is, he seems to have it. Hopefully, he can deploy it regularly too. Now, if only he could learn how to head the ball…
Phil and I both sincerely hoped that our winner today would be a Woody own goal. Spurs had been in and out recently, Ramos kept talking about how many he’s going to have to buy and sell in the summer and they had little to play for but were still smarting from getting stuffed 4-1 by The Skunks in their last home game.
Our last visit here was the ignominious exit from the Carling Cup earlier in the season – undoubtedly the worst Away End this campaign for the pathetic Boro display against the eventual winners.
It was The Shawkster’s debut and he played only the first half that evening. He looked like an unfit fish on a bicycle. The team performance didn’t do him any favours either. We wondered if he would get a chance to exorcise the memory today.
As it turned out, he wasn’t even on the bench. The only change from the ManUre game was Grounds for Taylor who was still carrying a knock from that game. Rocky came back to the bench.
We debated the ritual gristleburgers with cheese and onion versus having breath for the vertiginous climb to the seats. In the usual good old English compromise, we went for both – the breath then being more of a problem for me than for Phil!
As I gasped, Phil talked about needing the points – or at least one – today. Although Boro were nine ahead of Notlob, they were home to a very poor West Ham. If they won and we lost, that would cut the gap to six.
Boro’s next game was against Notlob and if we did a Reading and lost that, the gap would be three and we would have kick-started Notlob like we did Reading. Then it would all be down to the last three games that, notoriously, produce odd results.
At least Lawro had done his best for us again and tipped us to lose - he was in a great run of form!
So, still squeaky bum time as the game kicked off on a bright, breezy and showery afternoon with The Away End full and full of noise and humour – ill humour as far as Woody was concerned.
The Game
The Away End watched ‘typical’ Boro sum up their season in ninety minutes. They were wretched in the first half and were lucky to get nil. They should have been more than one down if Spurs’ finishing had matched their approach play.
After a bollocking at half-time – according to Gate – the other Boro emerged after about an hour and finished the game well on top with enough chances to have done even better than just equalised and drawn.
With its closed, steep-sided bowl, White Hart Lane is one of the best grounds for atmosphere potential in the Premiership. But their fans were at their quietest and The Away End took full advantage ("Big club, my arse!") to create a positive atmosphere for Boro.
They looked to have responded straight away as O’Neil’s cross found Aliadiere at the edge of the box. His first time shot was too hot for Cerny to hold and Alves pounced on the rebound.
The cheers quickly died in our throats as we saw the lino’s flag up for offside. It was later confirmed by the cameras.
As it turned out, that was going to be it for Boro’s first half display. Spurs were neat and slick in their passing and Lennon was exposing young Grounds for pace. Boro’s central midfield went walkabout again, allowing Spurs unfettered access to the Teessiders’ back line.
What The Boat - and particularly Arca – lacked defensively they also lacked going forward. As ever, that meant that Boro’s only outlet was Stewie because O’Neil was drawn into the centre to try to shore up there.
Spurs – like the rest of the Premiership – knew where our threat comes from. Stewie was double teamed and had to contend with Hutton - Spurs impressive recent right back acquisition - and was mostly stifled. Aliadiere and Alves were anonymous as a result.
Fortunately for Boro, Spurs' finishing was off and Berbatov and Keane decided to vie for being the Londoners’ own Tippy Tappy Twins. But with the number of chances they got, a goal was inevitable.
It came on the half hour as the hapless Grounds deflected a Lennon cross-come-shot into his own net. It was a shame for the lad but he looked the least comfortable he has been in all the times he has filled in for Tayls.
Phil and I feared the floodgates opening but we made it through to half time. We wondered what Gate would do. Looking at out bench there weren’t that many obvious options that we thought could turn things round.
Boro started the second half unchanged – in both senses. But the turn around had brought Woody into range of The Away End and for the rest of the half he was slaughtered.
Then, on the hour, came the turning point. Gate decided to replace Grounds with Johnno. More than that – and to the left winger’s obvious disgust – he moved Stewie to left back with Johnno ahead of him.
Whether by luck or good judgement, that seemed to put Boro on the front foot.
That change was helped by replacing Arca - who had just given away yet another free kick that nearly led to a Spurs goal - with Rocky only a few minutes later.
Regular readers will know that neither the Argentinian nor Rocky are my favourites – especially when teamed in midfield. But, credit where it’s due, Rocky steadied the central midfield and started to control things with some good continuity passing.
In the face of this, Spurs, who had been just passive, got penned in their own half. They remained there for the rest of the game.
Chances started to come for Boro. From an O’Neil corner the Boro Beckenbauer rose highest and headed goalwards. Alves showed his lack of prowess with his head yet again. He could have steered it in from a yard out but missed the ball. Lennon must have seen it late and he did well not to be distracted by Alves’ lunge and cleared off the line.
Then, Stewie started a sortie from left back. He carried the ball until he was about thirty yards out and lashed a right foot shot goalwards. The unfortunate ex-Skunk, Jermaine Jenas, tried to stick his head in the way but only succeeded in deflecting it even further from the rooted Cerny and into the corner.
Stewie to the rescue – again! The Away End were in full cry – "He’ll never come to Tottenham" was a favourite.
An injury to the workaholic O’Neil saw him replaced by Tuncay. That left Boro with probably the most attacking formation we’ve seen on the field since the UEFA cavalry charges. And attack they did.
Alves picked up a long ball and broke free to create himself a chance that was similar to the two he took against ManUre but this time he steered the ball wide of the post. There were further chances for Alves, Aliadiere and Tuncay but they couldn’t make them count.
At the other end the magnificent Young, Wheats and Pogo coped with the odd breakaway comfortably. The last action resulted from Rocky’s only copybook blot when he lost the ball on halfway and left Young exposed to a break. Young took a card for the team in halting it.
The resulting free kick was pumped high into the area and Schwarz took the ball with ease. The ref. blew his whistle and a melee ensued because the Boro players thought he had given a corner and Spurs players hoped he had. It turned out that the whistle was for full time.
Special mention should be made of Mr. Halsey’s refereeing performance. It was undoubtedly one of the worst we’ve seen this season. It wasn’t that he got big decisions wrong – there weren’t any to make. He just got all the smaller decisions wrong – and always in favour of the home side – and held up the game for lots of niggling stoppages.
The Away End applauded the lads off with a special cheer for Stewie. The full time’s from other grounds came through as we left the ground. Wins for Fulham and Notlob stressed the importance of getting the point at Tottenham.
Later…
On the train home Phil and I studied the tables that showed up the importance of next week’s fixtures. The equation is now simple. Win against Notlob and, barring a mathematical freak, Boro are safe. Lose and we’re right back in the mucky stuff. At least it’s in our Boro’s hands – but which Boro will turn up?
"We were too 'end of season' in the first half," said Gate in his post-match interview. "The goal we conceded epitomised that. Not acceptable – especially for the fans that travelled. In the second half we responded brilliantly and were more positive and we asked Tottenham questions. I'm glad we got ourselves out of jail.
"Hopefully it is a lesson learned because we are a young group and if they thought they could come here and just play a nice game of football and win, we've learned the lesson very quickly that you cannot do that in this league."
On MotD the Boro game moved up to second from last, just before the Barcodes goal-less draw. Aside from the usual, they clearly feel that Boro are safe. I don’t yet share that view – I know ‘typical’ Boro. But to be fair the pundits in the Sundays and on Sky don’t agree with me.
I had the usual enjoyable time on Ali and Bernie’s Sunday show on Century. We talked about the Spurs game and then I cast my vote for Stewie as player of the year and Wheats as young player of the year.
We ponder Gate’s conundrum of what to do on the right with Gary O’Neil suspended against Notlob and The Mackems. An experiment might be okay at The Stadium Of S***e, if Boro are safe by then, but not at The Riverside next week.
‘Yerjokin’aren’ya’ Quotes of the Week
“I think he has not played as well as we might have hoped.”
Gate, the master of understatement, in a ‘taxi for Simba’ announcement that conveniently omits who brought him to Boro in the first place.
The Away End will be back after The Mackems game on 26 April.
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John Powls is a published poet with five books of his work in print. He is a regular performer of his work at major literary festivals and exhibitions in the UK and America, often working with musicians, painters with photographer Carol Ballenger.
Check out Red Shoes 250 for more of John Powls, right here.
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