r00fie1
Well-known member
Its that time again>>>>>
Saturday 9th March 2024. Loftus Road Stadium. KO 15:00 hrs.
[Sam Field scored a late equaliser in the "R"s 2-2 draw against West Brom on Wednesday]
Michael Carrick said on Friday, before the team departed to London:
Saturday 9th March 2024. Loftus Road Stadium. KO 15:00 hrs.
What a difference three goals and a home win makes! The first since the turn of the new year. When it all seemed over, Boro pulled out a deserved victory in front of the lowest league crowd of the season [23,545]. For a mid-week game at this time of year, that's pretty good. A look round at most other attendances shows our crowd are still well up there. The lads know they can rely on us to back them home and away. Tomorrow is no different. Those travelling to QPR will be hoping we can take that momentum forward and bring back three more valuable points.
We owe them, not least because we have beaten the "R"s only twice in ten games since 2019! We beat them last season in February [3-1], but we have to go back to February 2019 for our previous victory: 2-0 at The Riverside with goals from Ashley Fletcher and Jonny Howson. That result pushed us up into 5th place after 33 games on 57 points. Four points clear of Bristol City in the last play-off place and, three points behind West Brom in fourth. Rangers were 18th at the time. Nine points clear of the drop zone.
This QPR side have hit a rich vein of form since January, having had a dreadful start to the season. Gareth Ainsworth, sacked at the end of October, hadn't managed to turn the team's fortunes around and Spaniard, Marti Cifuentes was appointed at the end of November. Since then, Rangers have got their self-belief back. On 20th January, they beat Millwall [2-0], and have lost only one to Stoke City [1-0] in nine games! Their wins have included a thrilling 2-1 at Leicester's King Power Stadium, Rotherham [2-1], Bristol City [1-0] and Blackburn Rovers [2-1]. The remaining draws include West Brom [2-2], Norwich City [2-2] and Huddersfield [1-1]. Now in 19th place and only a point off the drop, they have hauled themselves out of the swamp, where they were relegation "certainties" before Christmas.
[Sam Field scored a late equaliser in the "R"s 2-2 draw against West Brom on Wednesday]
Michael Carrick said on Friday, before the team departed to London:
[Norwich]... was a big win for us. It gives the lads a boost and something to build on, really. Some of the good performances haven't got rewarded [and] we needed a little something to go away with. Kind of...the boys have done a lot of work and a lot of effort, showed a lot of character really in recent times, so it was nice for them to get a reward, and capitalise what came to us really with ten men. So, the boys took it really well and, finished really strongly.
It was certainly impressive, the way we shook off the first nervy ten minutes and upped our game. It was pleasing to see Latte Lath enjoying his game and Forss powering that goal from inside a packed area. Perhaps the best goal of the night and the best confidence-booster was that superb effort by Lucas Engel. He deserved all the plaudits after that. He worked hard, as did the whole team.
Perhaps two important factors in the run in are the presence of Jonny Howson and Isaiah Jones. Back in the squad, Howson has been sorely missed and Carrick explained Jones hadn't done much training up until Wednesday, so didn't risk him in the starting line up:
Jonny's obviously a big part of the group, he's the Captain, and he leads by example, and he has a big presence within the group. So, it's great to have him back. We thought he'd be out a lot longer, so it was a big boost. Having Izzy back and around it again was good. He hadn't really trained much, so it wasn't worth pushing it that little bit with Izzy [as] the game was really done by then. Nevertheless, he's back around it and looking to get involved, which is great.
Tuesday is going to be another test against Birmingham at St Andrews, followed by the home game on Saturday 16th March against Blackburn Rovers. It's a quick turn around, and it's going to be good if we can build on that Norwich victory. With nine points available in this week, we can hope to make a fist of it and fight to win each game. Carrick acknowledges that lack of consistency has been our problem thus far, but it sounds like we can expect the spine of the team to remain the same, at least for this week:
For loads of different reasons, we haven't been able to pick consistent teams over the course of the season, so it's always finding a balance. [With] three games coming up in a short space of time, we'll make the best of it now we've got a few bodies back.
I've said it for a while, consistency is the key, it's massive, putting them runs together and the [teams] that have done that are the ones higher up the league. We've shown we can beat anyone, we can produce [good] results and performances. We just got to do it on a regular basis.
Their Gaffa appears a bit worried about us. His team is on the rise, but one defeat could knock them back, especially with the amazing change in fortunes of Sheffield Wednesday after four straight wins, although they lost to Leeds on Friday night. It's still tight at the bottom, where two out of a possible eight will be joining already relegated Rotherham. We won't be amongst that number, for sure. We still look up the table and hope. It's never over until it's over.
Come On Boro!
r00fie1 08/03/2024
It was certainly impressive, the way we shook off the first nervy ten minutes and upped our game. It was pleasing to see Latte Lath enjoying his game and Forss powering that goal from inside a packed area. Perhaps the best goal of the night and the best confidence-booster was that superb effort by Lucas Engel. He deserved all the plaudits after that. He worked hard, as did the whole team.
Perhaps two important factors in the run in are the presence of Jonny Howson and Isaiah Jones. Back in the squad, Howson has been sorely missed and Carrick explained Jones hadn't done much training up until Wednesday, so didn't risk him in the starting line up:
Jonny's obviously a big part of the group, he's the Captain, and he leads by example, and he has a big presence within the group. So, it's great to have him back. We thought he'd be out a lot longer, so it was a big boost. Having Izzy back and around it again was good. He hadn't really trained much, so it wasn't worth pushing it that little bit with Izzy [as] the game was really done by then. Nevertheless, he's back around it and looking to get involved, which is great.
Tuesday is going to be another test against Birmingham at St Andrews, followed by the home game on Saturday 16th March against Blackburn Rovers. It's a quick turn around, and it's going to be good if we can build on that Norwich victory. With nine points available in this week, we can hope to make a fist of it and fight to win each game. Carrick acknowledges that lack of consistency has been our problem thus far, but it sounds like we can expect the spine of the team to remain the same, at least for this week:
For loads of different reasons, we haven't been able to pick consistent teams over the course of the season, so it's always finding a balance. [With] three games coming up in a short space of time, we'll make the best of it now we've got a few bodies back.
I've said it for a while, consistency is the key, it's massive, putting them runs together and the [teams] that have done that are the ones higher up the league. We've shown we can beat anyone, we can produce [good] results and performances. We just got to do it on a regular basis.
Their Gaffa appears a bit worried about us. His team is on the rise, but one defeat could knock them back, especially with the amazing change in fortunes of Sheffield Wednesday after four straight wins, although they lost to Leeds on Friday night. It's still tight at the bottom, where two out of a possible eight will be joining already relegated Rotherham. We won't be amongst that number, for sure. We still look up the table and hope. It's never over until it's over.
Come On Boro!
r00fie1 08/03/2024
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I’m wrong but we’ve got to be realistic with ourselves.
boro can actually surprise us from time to time.
