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Just like when we’ve played other ‘big’ clubs you know they’re in town when you’re driving in and the pubs are full of away shirts…the car parks are full of cars with away flags and scarves…and when you walk down to the ground, they’re there in numbers and singing as they go…

I love this…it reminds me of so long ago when we were feeding at the top table…

When you walk into the ground and you see a decent away following in the Leppings Lane end….and they’re making plenty of noise…..you’ve got to love it…no matter who it is you’re playing.

Varney away down the left beat his man and twatted it…keeper absolutely no chance as it hurtled past him at a rate of knotts… ...we couldn’t believe it… ...neither could the Boro fans who shut up straight away…Now the Wednesday fans were giving it some, spurred on by the band who were back for the first time this season as resident chant mongers…

Even at 1-0 up I said, if we get ANYTHING out of this game I’ll consider it a job well done…you could see the class in this Boro side right from the off and being a goal up, whilst be all luvverly and that, didn’t ease the feeling that Boro would be back in this very soon.

They’d gone behind and they didn’t let it phase them, they just stuck to their task and their game plan, which basically involved them playing football….moving the ball about quickly and making sure we didn’t have time to do the same when we had it.

Every time we had an attack, our players couldn’t afford to saunter back into position, if they did it was too late anhd they were out of position because the ball was zipped up the other end in a matter of seconds and they were attacking us straight away…every time they defended, they didn’t piss about…they closed us down, often two players to one….then when they inevitably got the ball, in a flash it was being moved goalward….lovely to watch if I’m honest.
                                           

Anyway, it wasn’t long before the very impressive, and quick as fook, Adam Johnson shot down the right and put a fizzing ball across the box... It may have been curling away from goal, towards Boro players but Purse had other ideas and helped it on it's way towards the net and past Granty...Unlucky for us but... It was no less than they deserved TBH as we were struggling to keep up with the game by now.

We’d started brightly and tried to play passing football after scoring but we lacked any sort of cutting edge…Boro had it in spades though…

If that wasn’t bad enough a player I thought we’d have no trouble sorting out, Aliadi-hair (Yes, he’s gone all Chris Eagles and gone for the headbanded girly look that was popliar a few years ago) was put through with a lovely ball that he really should have done better with, instead he headed straight at Granty….I was thinking…hmmm…I was right about him…he’s shit. Just like he was at Wolves when I thought he was vastly overrated.

I was wrong…this was just a warning.
He’s improved a bit, or Southgate knows how to get the best out of him whereas Mad Mick didn’t….he was a menace all night.

Just before half time a ball came into the box and there was a bit of a mix up between Grant and Beevers about who was going to get it and with Aliadiere lurking SOMEONE needed to make a decision… In the end they both went for it and both came out of it knacked…though Beevers was the worst of the pair as he was stretchered off. Bellsview was convinced he’d heard a CRACK! As they collided and the look on Beevewrs’ face looked to confirm it was a bad injury. A great pity for Beevers as he’d played well.

Fair play to the Boro fans, they joined with Wednesday fans in standing and applauding Beevers from the pitch.

The whistle for half time went shortly after that….Grant was back out pretty sharpish though to test his kicking out with his injury and see if he could manage…he could….thankfully.

              
During half time Stan got the message from a mate of his who is a paramedic at the ground that ‘Beevers had broken his leg and was in bits, crying’

Of course we all fired off texts passing on the sad news about the youngster and how cruel it was that he’d got his chance and had it snatched away like this…

No sooner ahd the texts been sent when Stand medic mate returned with a tray of pies and shouted ‘Oh, he’s OK is Beevers, no damage done’

WTF?!? 

           
If it wasn’t bad enough that we’d lost Beevers and Granty was still limping, Aliadiere piled it on and showed that he HAS indeed improved and is NOT a pile of shite, as thought by me….by giving Boro the lead just after the restart.

We lost the ball on the halfway line with a sloppy pass and they were quick away…it’s not like they hadn’t served notice about their intentions once they get the ball and Emnes put a lovely ball through for Aliadiere to hammer home and lift the already noisy Boro fans. Yes, we were poor to lose the ball in the first place but just couldn’t fail to be impressed by the speed and purpose Boro have when they take possession… ...they had one moment where they took a cracking shot and it was only a superb save from Granty that kept them out.

We got back into the game after that TBF…we played some nice stuff ourselves, good passing moves and players working for each other but you always got the feeling that Boro could flip up a gear if and when they needed to and even with our good possession we didn’t create enough decent chances in front of goal and when we did, we couldn’t take them.

JJ was lively and most of our good stuff involved him including a couple or three mazy runs, taking on one or two players, often one or two too many but it was lovely to see from our man…on one of them as he danced in and out there was lunge at him that had ‘intent’ written all over it, fortunately the Boro player didn’t get near him but it was a swipe that had only one thing behind it, to bring him down….

Another not long after, on the opposite wing, where the Boro player came out with the ball but the two footed lunge itself could have broken both ankles and several bones of the first few rows in the South Stand…Fortunately, the ref pulled play back…eventually.

Middlesborough subbed Tony McMahon and it was a smashing moment for the lad as again all four sides of the ground applauded…Wednesday fans showing their gratitude for his effrorts when he was with us…he applauded back, all four sides…lovely stuff.

We brought on Sean McAllister and Leon and both played very well I thought but as hard as we tried and as much as we DID get back into this game and give it our all, we couldn’t find a way through and Boro delivered the killer blow with a few minutes to go as one of our chief tormentors Adam Johnson turned Lewis again down left and rifled home a proper goal this time…cue the Boro fans chanting ‘We are top of the League’.

Fair play to em…They aren’t there by default.

The final whistle went shortly after and even though we had a few more chances, Purse with headers, Miller snap shot just wide, Varney unlucky…we can’t have too many complaints. The best team easily won the game.

We probably flattered to deceive a little but we were no match for this Boro side.

Sometimes you have to hold your hand up and admit you were well beaten and beaten by a much better side…and tonight that’s exactly what happened…it was a privilege to watch a good game of football and watch a team play quick, snappy, precise, entertaining football.

Don’t get me wrong, I think we played our part in this game and at times we showed we can play a bit but overall the gulf in class was massive. All over the pitch they had class, not just Adam Johnson, or Aliadiere or Emnes…it was everywhere, quality…they had skill by the bucket full and the general ability of all the Boro team was much higher than ours.

Fortunately, we aren’t going to play Boro every week and even more fortunately, other teams will struggle as well and there’ll be some teams that take a much bigger beating than our 3-1.
This is one of the better teams we’ve seen at Hillsborough for a long, long while now and I include against Premier League opposition in the cups, the Boro fans are in for a treat this season and I’m uber confident they’ll be back in the loving arms of the premier League next season.

At times I thought the band did OK if I’m honest and it wasn’t the distraction I thought it would be.

              
As we’re driving out of the car park a lad was asking every car if they were going to Boro and could he have a lift, he was absolutely shit faced…finding it difficult to lift his feet so hopefully he wasn’t walking….

I've got a right headache I have

Now they’re carried off with ‘a numb leg’? What next? Chapped lips? We took him off as a precaution with Nipple rash? Oh yeah, he’s gone straight to hospital for a scan as he had a bit of chafing?

Listening to some of the comments on the radio from Wednesday fans was daft…as it often is…there were calls about Laws being too comfortable and that the players aren’t good enough and his tactics are wrong…all sorts of stuff.

Not one of them gave any credit at all to the opposition.
Not one said that we’d been given a lesson by a better side, with strength in depth and a bit of brass behind them.

We have to put things into perspective here, this was a team recently relegated from the top tier and one that will rejoin it very soon.

We know we’re not the greatest team in the division but we gave a decent account of ourselves IMO…it just wasn’t good enough this time.

I enjoyed this game...yeah, yeah, shoot me...we lost and I still enjoyed it...it was a good entertaining game of football and at times, with the crowd behind both teams, it was loud and pulsating...the result was shit, true enough, but It’s not the end of the world….not yet anyway.

Cheers

Steve:Beastie
Owls Alive