THE AWAY END
QPR v MIDDLESBROUGH
John Powls, 7 Dec 2009
The Build Up To The Game
The websites this week had been all doom and gloom - except, predictably, the MFC site and the Gazette site and, as happens less often, this one, where they had picked up and used the various 'Allan's Law' PR opportunities from the Club.
You'll recall that 'Allan's Law' is Phil's invention. He says it holds that however well Boro are doing is in inverse proportion to the number of players and coaches who are wheeled out to make optimistic noises about - at the moment - automatic promotion still being on the cards.
If you counted them this week, you'd be afraid...very afraid - again! It probably wasn't the best environment into which to launch the 'do you feel lucky, punk?' half-season ticket offer where you get your money back if Boro win four in a row after Christmas.
Can anyone remember when Boro last won four league games, back to back?
Column Continues Below...
One other theme on the messageboards and blogs is about the perceived change to the Strachan technical area demeanour since coming to Boro. In the same vein as 'The President's Brain Is Missing', many wondered why The Boro manager's inner Ginger Nut passion and histrionics hadn't been evident on a Boro touchline yet.
It was almost as if he'd caught the mood of the Boro fans and the team rather than leading it and was sounding equally 'trial and error' in his pursuit of a winning team 'formula'.
It was ventured that he'd said to the press boys that he isn't the fiery Scot anymore; he's more chilled now. Many fans were starting to feel that a lot of things with him were turning out in ways people didn't expect...or did. He's even used the 'L' word, for goodness' sake!!
On the way to the match Phil and I felt that it was time for some of Strachan's passion to show through. The shadow of an 'almost beginning not to care' feeling had, dangerously, begun to creep across the landscape of the DiasBoro. That was bad enough without Strachan getting into a 'you look like I feel' mode. It was time for some Ginger Nuts, methinks!
And, oh yes, would Boro remember that they were away against a team that plays in blue! I guess The Count might appreciate the additional savings of him doubling up as emergency kit man, but think of the cost of more humiliation and him having to clear the cape and box full of earth out of his car boot again!
Al fresco scoffing of the ritual gristleburgers with cheese and onion in Everslie Road was helped by the rain holding off until we got into the ground.
One thing that Loftus Road has in common with its near namesake, London Road, is the lack of leg room in the seats. Presumably installed in an era when 'ducks' disease' was clearly as common as rickets and scarlet fever they give anyone normally endowed in the leg department the choice of assuming an upright foetus position or giving the person in front a not necessarily welcome pair of bony ear-muffs!
The Game
"Jingle bells, jingle bells, jingle all the way. Oh what fun it is to see Boro win away!" And what fun it was to join in this first rendition of an old Christmas favourite by another bumper section of travelling Boro fans in The Away End!
After the match, Strachan and Boro captain Gary O'Neil said that they had seen this coming. But it seemed to many in the Parmo Army that this performance and result were like the best Christmas gifts - all the better for being somewhat unexpected!
As Phil and I watched the warm up and then saw the set out at kick off I have to admit that they didn't, for us, get this Chritsmas party off with a swing. And this was despite the manager's continued 'Gingerisation' of the Boro matchday squad with the addition of sixteen year old Luke Williams to the bench!
Johnno hadn't turned up at all - a family illness, apparently - and the square-pegged twins, Yeates and Arca were playing on left and right wings respectively. And, to be fair, the festivities took a little time to get going - until about half way through the first half, in fact.
Before that, the hooped home side had the best of it, being neat, organised and constructive in midfield without really threatening the Boro goal. The nearest they got was an effort from Taarabt that made you grateful that he was a greedy guest at the party.
He shot when he should have squared for unmarked colleagues and his strike troubled the upper tier of The Away End more than it did Brad Jones in the Boro goal.
Later, The manager and Gary O'Neil said that the reason they had seen it coming was because Boro had been starting to get goals. Well, yes, but make no mistake, this win and performance was built from the back, spread through midfield and then hit the front.
To those of us sitting in the steeply raked School Stand Upper with a great overview of the game, it became apparent that the Boro back four had begun to have a confident and settled look about them for the first time since Robert Huth moved on.
Wheats and Ledge played like 'The Redcar Rock And A Hard Place', Pogi was 'nails' at left back - and probably relieved that Magilton had, for some strange reason, chosen not to torment him with Wayne Routledge who was ineffectively square pegged as a second striker.
Rhys Williams suffered a little from being out of the side through suspension last time out but eventually got into the rhythm.
Together, they snuffed out what little got past Isaiah Osbourne who broke up most things in central midfield, tackled with crunch and bite but cleanly and set Boro moving forward again.
Even with early possession, which they wouldn't enjoy in the rest of the game, QPR couldn't get through to force Brad Jones to make a save. In fact, aside from picking the ball out of the net after the Rangers' goal, the Aussie keeper had little to do - but what little he did have he sometimes did a 'Corporal' on.
Fortunately, his occasional errors of judgement didn't infect his defensive colleagues and he couldn't be blamed for the QPR goal which resulted from those in front of him switching off momentarily after the second Boro goal.
That was all Vine needed to find Agyemang, seconds after both had come on as subs, for the big striker to slot home. But, enough of the minor party pooping at the wrong end. Let's get on to unwrapping the Boro pressies!
By mid-first half, Boro were beginning to realise that they were solid at the back and had got a grip in the centre of midfield and they began to spring forward driven by the game- directing-energy and prompting of my MotM, Gary O'Neil. O'Neil was aided and abetted by a surging Mark Yeates, who had his best game by far in a Boro shirt.
Up front, Lita wasn't up for giving the Rangers' defenders a moment's piece and Kitson's movement began to make space.
The ball fell to Yeates to fire the first warning shot. He finished a twenty yard break with a left foot lash that crashed off Cerny's bar, right above the goalkeeper's head but too well hit for him to get a finger to it.
That made the the Hoops' defenders so windy, that they took to hacking the ex-Colchester winger down. One such foul got a QPR defender a booking and Gary O'Neil the chance to flight in a free kick.
As it arced into the box, Dave Kitson met it with an intelligent run and an equally deft flick that flattened the ball's trajectory and took it past Cerny's despairing dive and palm.
Before half time, Boro could have added to their lead as Gary O'Neil curved a shot from the edge of the box, but this time Cerny produced the best save of the game to tip it over the bar.
In the upper tier of The Away End at the break, the talk was of three things - the need for Boro to press on and drive home their advantage; how well the defence and central midfield were doing; and, why one steward felt the need - even with nothing untoward going on in his section - to patrol up and down the steps, blocking the view!
He could offer no explanation. Must have been more than his 'Jobsworth'.
Just like that steward, Boro picked up where they had left off in the second period and more pressure forced a corner. In the mass panic in the QPR box, Boro refusenik Ben Watson handled and then deflected Wheats' goalbound effort into his own net after it had gone through Cerny's legs.
The ref, for his own strange reasons, chose to give the defending side the advantage by not giving the goal in favour of giving a penalty and not doing what he should then have done - booking Watson. It's not the first time Boro have had poor officiating in this league and it won't be the last - the reffing is the same standard as the league.
It proved only to be delaying the inevitable as Leroy Lita strode up to lash home the penalty Hickton style - albeit off a run up that was about fifty yards shorter!
The QPR goal only served to spur Boro on and they gave a splendid display of how to play on the break away from home. We looked like scoring pretty much every time they broke away.
Lita cut in from the left, opened the angle for a shot and drove in across Cerny via the defender's studs. Then he cut in from the right and lashed a shot that threatened to snap the upright it came back off. Such was the speed of the rebound that it required no little skill for Gary O'Neil backing up to control his shot into the net for four.
It seemed fitting that Mark Yeates' efforts were rewarded with his debut Boro goal - and what a goal! He led the charge from the left and drove in on goal firing in an unstoppable right foot drive into the bottom corner.
Overall this was a pretty complete display of the craft with graft that Boro fans have been looking for. Neither the win, nor the score - it could have been eight - flattered Boro on this showing.
All the starting eleven were deserving of praise and, when Digard replaced Gary O'Neil for the last ten minutes, he slotted in seamlessly and showed the range of his passing with a couple of superb 'quarter-back' efforts to turn the Rangers' defence and find a wing man.
The only thing that didn't come off was Strachan refusing to join in The Away End's party games by not responding to the invitations of 'Gordon, Gordon, give us a wave' but that wasn't going to spoil the celebrations!
Later
On the tube back to Paddington, which had a fair sprinkle of good humoured Tee-Tee-Teessiders travelling back to Kings Cross and making their plans to go to the Blackpool game at The Riverside on Tuesday, Phil and I talked about another aspect of the Boro manager's performance.
Clearly the man-hours that the manager and the coaches have put in paid off - and we also thought that the re-appearance of some controlled 'Ginger Nut' passion on the touchline helped.
All the pointing, the shouting, the organising through Gary O'Neil as his leader on the field and his referee and fourth official 'management' had its effect - both on the team and the Boro fans who picked up the boss's determination and energy.
He deserves - as he said he would - to enjoy this, so do Boro fans and players. He has said that he used to enjoy looking at the league table on Ceefax for hours when his teams were upwardly mobile. His Saturday evening's viewing should have been good!
As ever, though, the next game comes quickly and laurel-resting won't do if Boro are to show that this long overdue result and performance were the result of finding the winning formula, not just a lovely fluke.
On the BBC Football League show, Boro were the first on, featured game. Manoj Bhasin and Steve Claridge were generally of the 'Where did that come from?' school.
The Sunday and Monday newspaper' reports took more or less the same line, but a couple featured Dave Kitson's admitted on-field advice to his strike partner Lita - not to ruin his day by getting a second yellow for goading the QPR fans after his second goal after he'd been booked for his celebration after the pen.
Mind you, Kitson also ruefully commented that such goading always seemed to be a one way street. Lita had been Hoops fans' pantomime villain for most of the game and got dog's abuse from them.
The Away End will return after the Barcodes game at Sid James's on 20 December.
