Manchester City 1 Boro 0 - Match Report

By Andy Morgan
November 7 2006

Boro came into this game looking to take their home form on their travels having beaten both Everton and Newcastle United at the Riverside.

They would have to do it without Mark Viduka however, the influential striker being sidelined for six weeks with a broken toe.

This saw a 4-4-1-1 formation being deployed with Jason Euell sitting just behind Yakubu in attack. Cattermole was once again on the right of midfield whilst all three star defenders, Jonathan Woodgate, Robert Huth and Emannuel Pogatetz featured, with the latter on the left. Has Southgate accommodated the Austrian in the side in the fear of dropping him?

Battling talisman George Boateng made his 150th appearance for the Boro in a combative central midfield that also featured a return for Fabio Rochemback.

Man City manager Stuart Pearce was under a pressure similar to that which Southgate was enduring two weeks ago. After being thumped 4-0 at Wigan in their last outing, City were looking to prove to their fans that they were fit to wear the shirt.

The Boro meanwhile were full of confidence and determined to keep their run going. Expectation was high. But who would deliver?

Schwarzer, Parnaby (Bates 20), Woodgate, Huth, Pogatetz, Cattermole (Morrison 65), Boateng, Rochemback (Maccarone 73), Downing, Euell, Yakubu, Turnbull, Arca

THE FIRST HALF

The game started positively for Boro, with Stewart Downing taking on the Man City defence and whipping a confident ball in. It was saved by Nicky Weaver but he did not look assured in the air, fumbling the ball before eventually catching it. The Boro rebuilt however and although there was little incision in the opening ten minutes, the away side played some good possession football and looked the more promising side.

The home side started to come into the game however and won a succession of free-kicks in dangerous positions. Nothing came of these however as the Boro defence held firm (although it must be said that the free-kicks were poorer than Newcastle's attacking options).

The watchword was attrition at this point, and in fact watching small pebbles being transported downstream in the similarly named geological process would have been more interesting than this damp squib.

The only event in the opening twenty minutes was the unfortunate substitution of Matthew Bates for Stewart Parnaby. The Boro right-back suffered a knock and was forced to retire, just after he had returned to the side.

Both teams were evenly matched however but there was a scare on twenty minutes when Paul Dickov flicked the ball over his head and volleyed a shot towards goal. Mark Schwarzer came off his line and Dickov dinked it cleverly over the onrushing keeper. Fortunately for Boro it went wide but unfortunately for Dickov he was lamped by eighty-five kilos of galloping keeper.

The game was now starting to heat up and City had a second attempt in the space of two minutes. Georgios Samaras' pace beat the Boro backline and he launched a shot at Schwarzer from six yards out. The keeper was up to it however, tipping the ball around the post.

From the resulting corner City captain Richard Dunne led by example and leaped above the scattered Boro defence. There was no mistake with his bullet header. Woodgate had tried to get it and Huth completely missed it as Boro's defence conceded from yet another set piece.

Manchester City 1 (Dunne, 23) Middlesbrough 0

City now had their tails up and were launching wave after wave of attacks towards the Boro goal. Middlesbrough conceded a range of corners but thankfully these were impotent, with Boro's defence more resilient than it had been a couple of minutes earlier.

The Boro were trying but City were having all of the best chances. Samaras curled a right-footed shot from twenty yards out but Schwarzer comfortably saved both sides. In reply the Boro could offer nothing.

City were exploiting Boro's weakness - Emmanuel Pogatetz. Great centre-back, average right-back, should have been left-back in the changing room instead of being played in that position.

At the other end Fabio Rochemback and Jason Euell were doing little creatively, so much so that Boro had not threatened Nicky Weaver since the very first minute of the game.

On thirty-five Joey Barton got the ball from out under his feet and launched a fierce drive at Schwarzer that narrowly went wide. Three minutes later Claudo Reyna attempted another shot at the Boro goal but it was blasted over the bar.

Paul Dickov was murdering our midfield, just like Martins and Sibierski had done for Newcastle last week. The Boro were as static as a Bernard Manning act, their ability to deal with pace being the major problem that Southgate was going to have to address at half time.

If City had not been so wasteful in attack, the Boro should have been dead and buried by now. Boro were dreadful, in fact this was probably the worst Boro performance of the season so far. Impotent, and dare I say incompetent, as Middlesbrough offered their travelling army of supporters absolutely nothing in the first half. It was going to have to improve in the second half as the City fans applauded their team off whilst the Boro faithful questioned once more the motivation of the team.

FIRST HALF FAN REACTION
"Who has been the most lively side in this yawnfest?"
LillibetM

"yyyyyyyaaaaawwwwwnnnnn"
Deeno

THE SECOND HALF

Twenty seconds in and Man City had a penalty appeal as Robert Huth appeared to handle the ball after a shot was blasted towards his right arm. It was actually outside the area but the referee waved the appeals away.

Boro's first attack of the game involved a wonderful ball by Lee Cattermole that was fed into Yakubu's path. With the Man City defence tested they conceded a corner, which Stewart Downing whipped into the City box with venom. The Boro could not take advantage, with Pogatetz heading the ball over the bar from six yards out.

Boro were also being sucked in too deep, which has been another one of our problems this season. The centre-halves and wing-backs were rarely venturing beyond the halfway line, allowing City to attack and meaning the Boro were always on the back foot. We may have been away from home but this was Man City not Man United!

More Man City pressure was on the cards, with Boro giving away poor free-kicks that were only matched by the poverty of City's shooting. In other events Pogatetz got a yellow card for obstruction and Paul Dickov got a caution for back-chat in a game that still wasn't threatening to explode into life.

Robert Huth got booked for a clattering challenge on Samaras as Boro kept conceding free-kick after free-kick. Man City were not immune however, with Joey Barton fouling Pogatetz and earning himself a place in the book. The match was fragmented because of this with no opportunity to get any form of tempo going.

But from the bench came Boro's hope with James Morrison replacing Cattermole on the right side of midfield. At least now Middlesbrough had a player playing in his natural position on that side of midfield. And his presence started to tell immediately with a burst of pace that left the City defence for dead. His final ball was lacking but this was only the second incisive move Boro had made all game. Things had started to look up for the away side.

But Joey Barton had other ideas. A superb run resulted in a ball being placed into the Boro box. Dickov latched on to it but Schwarzer comfortably saved. Had the City striker been more assured he could have caused serious problems for the Boro keeper.

On seventy a deep cross from Downing caused problems for Weaver, who had not looked certain all game. It was true he had little to do but it was to the Boro's shame that they had not tested a keeper who seemed to be lacking in confidence so much. Euell blasted the ball wide from Downing's cross.

Three minutes later Southgate made his last move, by bringing on Massimo Maccarone for Fabio Rochemback. He resorted to a simple 4-4-2 system, with Jason Euell dropping back into the midfield, in the hope that a side that had not yet registered one shot on target could somehow score a goal.

On seventy-four, substitute Darius Vassell burst through the Boro defence and forced the concession of a corner by Jonathan Woodgate. Nothing resulted of it, nor from the Boro attack which followed in a state of play that reflected so accurately the game as a whole.

The best Boro could manage was a Robert Huth free-kick that did nothing. Fortunately for Middlesbrough Trevor Sinclair could not get the ball out from under his feet as a four against one Manchester City attack threatened to ensue.

The excitement in the next ten minutes was a George Boateng booking for fouling Hatem Trabelsi. This ensured that the Boro's poor disciplinary record this season (second worst only to Blackburn) was alive and strong. It also ensured that there was something that could be said about this tedious game.

INTO THE RED ZONE

Boro's first real cross came in the eighty-third minute when Downing whipped a ball into the City area. Huth powerfully met the ball but he headed it over the bar from around twelve yards out.

The Boro, albeit tentatively, were starting to come into the game. They had started to string a few passes together but the feeling of too little to late was endemic in the Boro fans.

A great ball over the City defence fed Maccarone who controlled it with one accomplished touch. His left footed shot cannoned off the post, much to the frustration of the Boro fans. But just as they thought their team could get something out of the game, City fired another warning shot across the Boro bows.

In our attacking fervour, George Boateng granted Darius Vassell a free-run at the Boro goal. His left foot shot went wide from about twelve yards much to the relief of all wearing red in the stadium.

Vassell was doing his best to give the Boro a point, his inability to bury the game the source of much annoyance from the home fans. From a similar position to where he had been a mere minute earlier, he conspired to blast the ball over the bar, much to the cheers of the travelling contingent.

And suddenly the game became end-to-end. At the other end the industrious Maccarone flicked the ball over Nicky Weaver and conspired to hit the same post he had hit three minutes earlier. The game was in the balance but with wasteful play from both sides, City's 1-0 win looked likely to remain in tact.

As befits a side that was desperate for points, City tried to count the clock down to the final whistle. Boro meanwhile showed an urgency that had been so sadly lacking in the opening eighty-five minutes of the match.

Lethargic and wholly lacking in creativity, the Boro did not deserve anything from this game. After two fantastic victories all that remains is disappointment. There was an element of papering over the cracks in those two games and some serious weaknesses were evident once again at Eastlands.

A greater hunger and a greater passion, that's what City had this evening. They deserved everything they got, the Boro deserved nothing. Today's match made a mockery of the belief that the Premier League is the best league in the world.

Yet if Boro play with the desire they played with in the last ten minutes of the game, we should still do fine. It's just a shame for all those travelling fans that the Boro could not do that for the opening eighty minutes of the match.

One thing however is for sure, Saturday's game at Watford has now been made a whole lot harder.

FULL TIME FAN REACTION
"We were never in this match"
Boro1876

"Too little too late. Not good enough offensively. We definitely DID deserve to lose on our inept first half performance!! Vids is a big loss to us based on that"
Monty

"I think Boro have tried hard and did not deserve to lose"
West Ham

"We will beat Watford!"
LillibetM

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