THE AWAY END
BRISTOL CITY v MIDDLESBROUGH
John Powls, 1 Sep 2009
The Build Up To The Game
In what is likely to be a common refrain this season, this was the first time for Phil and I at Ashton Gate. But I know enough about the Westbound M4 on an August Bank Holiday Saturday and traffic in the centre of Bristol anytime to know that the car was not a sensible option.
That left us at the mercy of Great Western Trains on a Reading Festival weekend and 'sensible option' isn't my usual epithet for their service either! But it gave Phil and I plenty of time to chew over Boro's form and that of The Robins' but mainly the delights of the closing weekend of the transfer window.
Column Continues Below...
The transfers of Huth and Tuncay to Stoke had proved cathartic to posters on the websites. As 1 September got nearer the always unrealistic hopes that Boro could hang on to these two - or at least the big German - had risen.
But the denouement of the 'Lescott to Citeh' saga cleared the logjam and opened the way for a flood of transfer activity and flooded the Boro websites and blog message boards too.
Amongst the 'chickens home to roost' concerns exposed and forcibly expressed in the tirades were:- 'Look at where Boro are now when Stoke are seen as superior'; 'Why weren't the fees higher when worse players have gone for more?'; 'Will the fees join the Stewie cash in debt relief and defraying running costs?'; 'Can Gate actually pay a transfer fee instead of chasing only out of contract, non-scoring misfits like Webber?'; 'How does the squad now left fit the Gibbo 'blind faith' prospectus we were promised'; 'Gate says he knows his targets but is there time to get re-inforcements in - even if there is the money?; 'Why can't Alves - and the other forgotten man, Shawky - be shifted?'; and, 'Who's next out of the door? Wheats? Gary O'Neil? Johnno? Mozza Mk II, Josh Walker?'
More questions than answers as yet - and it was the same for Phil and I. We'll know more come Tuesday tea time.
But there were more pressing issues that we wouldn't need to wait for so long for answers to. What sort of side would Gate put out against Bristol City with Huth gone and no Tuncay to call on from the bench, if not the start?
And, if one measure of management, coaches and squad is how they react to setbacks - like they suffered after energy-sapping extra time at the City Ground in midweek and from the transfer departures - how would Boro tackle this latest Championship challenge at Bristol City? The Robins had also suffered a midweek cup exit and were comprehensively thrashed by league leaders, Cardiff last weekend.
Talking over 'chewing over', as we were above, one thing has become obvious as a differentiator between The Prem and The Championship - the availability of the ritual gristleburger with cheese and onion at some greasy caravan in the streets round the grounds. But City have one - just one - in the car park outside The Away End.
The Game
Phil and I chose our places in unreserved seating in The Ashton Gate Away End to avoid the sizeable girders that support the roof in this corner of the stand at the end of the ground.
We found that none of the flip down seats had backs to them. This made sitting on them a little like enforced pilates - probably good for the posture.
We also found that Gate had gone with Jon Grounds, square pegged at centre back and brought in Tayls at left back. We wondered quite how sensible doubling the changes you needed to make to what had been a settled back four was.
The bench looked even more lightweight than usual both in terms of physical stature and quality to change a game. David Wheater inherited the Captain's armband.
In the goalies warm up kick in Stephen Pears had hit a young girl in The Away End with a wayward shot. Although she wasn't really hurt the goalkeeper coach returned before kick off with a shirt and a plaque for her. Nice touch.
The afternoon was bright and breezy and that could also have described Boro's start in front of the thousand plus Away End that made up by far the noisiest part of a fourteen and a half thousand crowd for this table top clash.
But that was about as good as it got for The Tee-Tee-Teessiders. The performance and result against The Robins confirmed all their shortcomings. Boro were toothless up front throughout and naïve at the back when it counted.
In the first half they played some reasonable stuff across the midfield - across being the operative word - and approach play. But without the cutting edge up front and with the back door wide open the rest is just pretty and pointless - in both senses.
The nearest that The Cyans got before the break was a shot from Lita after a decent turn from such an acute angle that he'd have been better being less greedy with and finding a colleague better placed.
Gerken parried that effort easily for a corner but was left stranded right at the end of the half when a looping Wheats header from a Johnno free kick that bounced over off the top of he bar.
In The Away End at the break Phil and I discussed how, as in the old nostrum, 'if you don't score whilst you're on top' you're likely to suffer.
We also reflected on how pleased we were with the great mix of Boro fans in The Away End. All ages, plenty of women and girls, different racial backgrounds and - for once - the disabled section right next to us all.
But just then an ignorant person somewhere behind us aimed disgusting racist comments at some of their fellow Boro fans. We could all do with this stuff being cut out. Despite the 'Kick It Out' campaign it's not all stamped out yet.
In the scrappy second half, what little coherence Boro's midfield had just disintegrated. They had nothing on the bench to change things so when Aliadiere came on to replace the totally ineffective Emnes it changed nothing up front. This must have been the easiest afternoon Bristol's defence have had in ages.
The Huthless defence showed signs of their lack of familiarity several times before they conceded. Balls over the top lead to confusion between Danny Coyne and his defenders as to who would take charge, the result was no-one did and City's attackers were almost presented with chances in the ensuing scrambles.
That was before Nicky Maynard showed what a real striker can do for you, just as Ian Gill had predicted in 'Talking Tactics'. The service to him hadn't been that clever for the first hour in which Boro's goal wasn't threatened, but then he picked up a ball, one on one with Grounds.
He rolled the square pegged, full-back at centre back with ease. No other Boro defender got near as he power-curled a great finish past the despairing Coyne and high into the corner of the net.
In a week that has caused many to be concerned for how little surface has got to be scraped off to expose the inner lout, the Bristol fans' reaction to taking the lead was to start fighting amongst themselves in their 'kop' just along from us. Sadly, many of The Away End rubber-necked like people do at road accidents and goaded.
As the half went on Boro pushed up to try to get back into the game. Aliadiere showed his striking yin to Maynard's yang, thrashing a similar opportunity to the one the Bristol striker had netted high, wide and ugly.
Minutes later, the Frenchman headed aimlessly into the City area and the ball hit Louis Carey's arm - and it was that way. The ref ignored it but the lino handed Boro a 'get out of jail' card when he put his flag across his chest.
Johnno stepped up and this time didn't need two attempts to net, putting his penalty straight down the middle as Gerken dived left.
Boro's naivety - so familiar from last season - surfaced again. They forgot the nostrum that Gate reminded them of, too late, after the game:- 'if you can't win, don't lose'. He might have added 'especially if you've just been gifted a let off'.
In the first of two minutes of injury time, Boro's defenders were caught too far upfield. Hartley launched the kind of sixty yard ball towards Maynard that, for those of my Away End vintage, Bobby Murdoch used to launch at 'The Flying Pig', Alan Foggon in Jack Charlton's team. And it got the same treatment from its receiver.
The ball cleared the naïve defenders and dropped into Maynard's stride. He needed no second invitation and only one touch as he steered the ball wide of the stranded Coyne and into the corner for a last ditch winner.
That just left Gate to voice the 'bitter disappointment' that all Boro's fans felt. But then, we also had yet to digest the rest of his post match comments.
Later
Gate's post-match comments which we read on the BBC website on the train on the way home - after second best Boro had come second to a team that is a good benchmark in a second rate league - were revealing, chilling and threatening.
"I'm bitterly disappointed. As we had come back into it with a penalty, this result is very hard to take. We came here for a result ahead of the transfer deadline, which could see players leaving. I've lost Robert Huth and Tuncay to Stoke City and more could be going, and it doesn't look as if I'll have money to spend."
Let's be clear, we now know from experience that The Championship is nothing special in terms of quality. But we also know that Boro are short of numbers in the squad, experience, the leader on the pitch and most importantly quality with the right qualities in key forward and midfield positions - and in defence with Riggs and want-away Pogi out.
But just who else does Gate think could go - apart from Alves and Shawky, who don't count since they've played no part in team, squad or plans so far and have been clear that they haven't wanted to.
And just why - despite the Gibbo 'Blind Faith' prospectus - did he say that he may have no money from the transfers done or to come to strengthen a squad that isn't up to the job without that?
Apparently, in an unpublished addition to his remarks, Southgate went on to admit, when asked specifically about Danny Webber, that he could not even afford to bring in a free transfer unless Alves could be moved to free up space in the wage bill. Just what kind of financial trouble is MFC in?
With some sensible investment in two or three of the right new faces (i.e. not Webber) and hanging on to all that Boro now have - bar Alves and Shawky - then The Teessiders can have this Championship, if that actually is the ambition.
Without it they - and we - will just be frustrated also-rans, just like yesterday.
And, surely, Gibbo will have questions to answer as to why his plea for 'blind faith' has so quickly turned into 'blind alley'.
BBC's Football League Review has now got Boro's game coverage into Sunday morning, albeit only by thirty minutes. Steve Claridge's questions were the same ones that Boro fans have and he rightly pointed out that Boro's defence with Huth in it would surely not have conceded such a sloppy second goal.
The Sunday's coverage continues to shrink by the week. The Monday's does the same and confined their coverage to Gate's 'no money' remarks tied to the possible exit of Alves to Quatari side Al Sadd(o) - how appropriate.
The Away End will return after the Sheffield Wednesday game on 15 September.
