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Post by Panda on Aug 1, 2007 12:53:53 GMT 1
Carlisle 0-2 Middlesbrough
A comfortable win for a young Boro side last night. Jason Kennedy scored in the first half, Ben Hutchinson getting a deflected second goal shortly before the end. Fabio Rochemback played the full 90 minutes to help him stay fit before he starts a 3-match ban. Luke Young played the first half. We are yet to concede a goal when he's been on the pitch. Jason Euell captained the side.
Team: Jones (Knight 46), Young (J Johnson 46), Williams (Thompson 60), Hines, Grounds, Rochemback, Kennedy, Goulon (Hutchinson 60), Walker, Craddock, Euell
Our final friendly is at home to Dutch side AZ Alkmaar on Saturday. Gareth Southgate is expecting to name his strongest possible starting XI (the key word being "possible" as our top 5 central defenders all have some sort of injury) and could give an indication of what formation we will play for the season-opener against Blackburn.
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Post by Maximo Mark on Aug 1, 2007 21:04:52 GMT 1
Saw that you have your four regonised centre-halfs out. Though had no idea where Bates plays...
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Post by Panda on Aug 1, 2007 21:09:52 GMT 1
Saw that you have your four regonised centre-halfs out. Though had no idea where Bates plays... Really unlucky for Bates. He went on loan last season (to Ipswich, I think) but suffered a serious knee injury in his second game. Now he's injured his other knee. David Wheater will almost certainly start the opening game, with Andrew Davies possibly partnering him. I wonder if Southgate might take a gamble on putting Boateng back there and starting with Cattermole in the centre of midfield.
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Post by Panda on Aug 4, 2007 14:58:41 GMT 1
Final pre-season friendly at home to AZ Alkmaar today.
AZ were held to a 1-1 draw by Hartlepool the other night.
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Post by Panda on Aug 4, 2007 15:01:20 GMT 1
Downing scores in the 3rd minute!
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Post by Panda on Aug 4, 2007 15:03:00 GMT 1
Today's team:
Schwarzer, Young, Davies, Wheater, Taylor, Tuncay, Arca, Boateng, Downing, Yakubu, Aliadiere
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Post by Panda on Aug 4, 2007 15:15:07 GMT 1
Yakubu makes it 2-0!
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Post by Panda on Aug 5, 2007 15:15:42 GMT 1
Middlesbrough 2-0 AZ Alkmaar
Nice finish to the pre-season with a comfortable win.
Blackburn at home to start the league season. We don't have a good recent record against them but they're certainly beatable. It's so important for us to get a good start this season because we have a lot of winnable games early on. In 2 months time, we could be a lot higher than people thought we would be. If we have a bad start, it's only going to get harder.
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Post by Panda on Aug 5, 2007 15:20:15 GMT 1
Also, West Brom have agreed a fee for James Morrison and are in talks with him.
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Post by Panda on Aug 10, 2007 14:12:43 GMT 1
Speculation is growing over Yakubu's future after Everton made a £10m bid.
Personally, I feel they've left it too late and we'd be stupid to sell him this close to the start of the season. If they'd made a proper bid a month ago, we may have gone for it but not now.
That said, the fact we've joined the race for Mido is somewhat worrying (on several fronts).
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Post by Panda on Aug 11, 2007 16:59:29 GMT 1
Middlesbrough 1-2 Blackburn
It shouldn't really be a surprise because we've only ever won our opening game in the Premier League once but it's so annoying that yet again we've seemingly started well, then let the game slip away.
The turning point seemed to come in the second half when Benni McCarthy got knocked out and was receiving treatment on the pitch for at least 6 minutes. He went off and his replacement, Roque Santa Cruz scored almost straight away. Matt Derbyshire then scored straight after coming on to make it 2-1.
Team: Schwarzer, Davies, Riggott, Wheater, Taylor, Tuncay (Johnson 85), Arca (Cattermole 88), Boateng, Downing, Aliadiere (Lee 84), Yakubu
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Post by o on Aug 14, 2007 12:37:13 GMT 1
Signing Mido is a bad move in my opinion, maybe he will prove me wrong, but he's done nothing at Spurs except sulk and look overweight, worth around 6 mill, no way!
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Post by Panda on Aug 17, 2007 13:08:30 GMT 1
Signing Mido is a bad move in my opinion, maybe he will prove me wrong, but he's done nothing at Spurs except sulk and look overweight, worth around 6 mill, no way! I'm not totally sure about him but you can't say he did nothing at Spurs. He had a great season 2 years ago and just didn't get a look in last season due to Berbatov's awesomeness. Wednesday against Wigan was a poor result and we've had the worst possible start. That said, we've only lost by the odd goal in 2 games where we've had our entire defence missing. We didn't deserve anything against Wigan but we dominated against Blackburn and should have won the game. Tomorrow against Fulham will be difficult just because we've been poor away from home for so long now but it's another winnable game and we've got to go out there believing that we can win. Maybe Mido's arrival will give us that little boost in confidence we need...
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Matt Aloud
Member
Buy Girls Aloud! Bye McFly!!
Posts: 2,389
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Post by Matt Aloud on Aug 17, 2007 14:59:30 GMT 1
seems Yakubu is definitely on his way out the door. Not in the squad for Fulham
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Post by o on Aug 17, 2007 15:20:36 GMT 1
Crap, he's my striker on fantasyfooty!
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Post by Panda on Aug 17, 2007 15:36:12 GMT 1
The musclebound t**t.
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Post by Maximo Mark on Aug 18, 2007 14:01:42 GMT 1
Crap, he's my striker on fantasyfooty! I'd hardly say it's crap. He's surely going to score more for Everton than Boro?
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Post by Panda on Aug 18, 2007 16:38:50 GMT 1
Crap, he's my striker on fantasyfooty! I'd hardly say it's crap. He's surely going to score more for Everton than Boro? He scored more for Boro last season than Johnson did for Everton and that was with Viduka in the team as well... Still, it doesn't look like he can be arsed with Boro anymore so he can f**k off.
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Post by Maximo Mark on Aug 18, 2007 16:55:24 GMT 1
Everton in Europe this season though. Could add a few more.
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Post by Panda on Aug 18, 2007 17:00:58 GMT 1
Fulham 1-2 Middlesbrough
Woah, where did that come from? What sounded like a fortunate 3 points but hey, it's 3 points. We'll take it.
Team: Schwarzer, Davies, Riggott, Wheater, Taylor, Cattermole, Arca, Boateng, Tuncay (Aliadiere 45), Downing, Mido (Lee 69) (Hines 90)
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