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Boro's Unbeaten Run Hits Five

Monday, 17 November 08, 06:25 AM

Hello Peeps and Boro fans,

Another great weekend of football has come and gone. United kicked into gear for the first time this season and Arsenal showed their frailties once again whilst Chelsea are powering on at the top of the league.

Attentions then turned to Boro yesterday afternoon. Southgate made one change to the side that beat Villa seven days prior to the Goodison Park trip. Julio Arca came in for Aliadiere who missed out through illness. Get well soon Ali!

The game started brightly for both teams and soon it was evident that this was going to be end-to-end action.

Gary O'Neil started on the right of midfield and caused problems from the first minute. Lescott was troubled by Boro's movement on the right resulting in O'Neil having the first shot of the match which narrowly missed Howard's upright.

Middlesbrough continued to press in the early stages and got their reward on eight minutes when Downing picked out O'Neil with a cleverly disguised pass, which the midfielder raced onto and calmly slotted past the American goalkeeper at his near post.

I thought to myself 'that was a calm finish'. The finish by O'Neil was top class and I take back what I have said in the past about his lack of goals from midfield. That goal instantly doubled his tally of goals for the season. Let's hope there are more to come now he has the goal scoring bug.

We almost scored at the wrong time in the game though because from then on we were on the back foot. Everton pushed forward at every chance and put the Boro back four under a lot of pressure which resulted in a few near misses and wood-work activity. Lescott's sliced cross clipped the top of the upright and fortunately rebounded to a red shirt and we were able to clear.

I was impressed with our defence because they were comfortably withstanding all of Everton's pressure even though there was a lot of it which must have been pleasing for Southgate.

The second half started the same as the first and Boro came out pushing forward. Downing and Tuncay were linking up well, but with Alves on his own up top we were unable to create any decent goal scoring chances.

Everton then had a spell of pressure which resulted in the leveller. Yakubu was the luckiest person in the ground yesterday as he turned the ball into the back of the net after a fortuitous rebound off his back. There should be a new saying for Yakubu - Yakety-yak turn your back!

We responded very well to the Everton goal and almost immediately went back ahead through our Frenchman, Didier Digard. He curled a low shot from the edge of the box which caught Howard flat footed, but the Everton goalkeeper somehow produced the save of the game and parried the shot onto the post. So close!

Everton applied late pressure, but I wasn't too nervous because big Wheats was on to soak up all the pressure. A good result in the end for Boro. They continue to impress me.

Bolton at the Riverside next. Keep that unbeaten run going.

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Posted by BigBoro | Comments (4)