Boro boy Bam is on a roll
PATRICK BAMFORD has scored more goals in the past three weeks than in the previous three years.
The reborn Middlesbrough hotshot has bagged seven since February 20, including the midweek winner at Birmingham and first hat-trick of his career against Leeds four days earlier.
Before finding the net against Hull four games ago, he’d scored just one league goal all season.
That equalled his tally for the entire 2016-17 campaign.
It was one more than he managed the previous year during ill-fated stints at Crystal Palace and Norwich, where he failed to score.
Bamford was a hot property when he scored 19 for Boro during a season-long loan spell from Chelsea.
But his fortunes nosedived and the 24-year-old looked a spent force until his amazing revival. Boro chief Tony Pulis was so underwhelmed by Bamford’s goalscoring abilities, he stuck him out wide when he arrived.
Now he feels he owes Bamford an apology.
“I’m still learning about all my players,” said Pulis ahead of today’s home game against struggling Barnsley.
“I hadn’t really seen Patrick up front but when we put him up there at Sunderland, he scored a couple of goals and looked good.
“He can blame me and say, ‘Well, the gaffer didn’t play me in the right position’, and I’d have to take responsibility for that.
“Looking at the team when I arrived, I liked the idea of him playing off the left-hand side and having Stewart Downing tucked in a little bit. But with a twist of fate, Patrick starts up front and at the moment he’s on fire.
“Things are dropping for him, which wasn’t happening when I first came in, but he scored a couple of goals and has gone from strength to strength.
“Every time he sees the goal now, he most probably thinks that he can’t miss.”
Since losing at Cardiff a month ago, Boro have picked up 10 points out of 12, scoring 10 goals in the process to edge themselves into the play-off spots.
Pulis added: “We’re in the top six now so it’s going to be interesting to see how the players react to that.
“Hopefully the experience a few of them had of the play-offs a few years ago will be a factor and give us that little bit of an edge.”