MIDDLESBROUGH ................................................ 2 Dan’s the man to keep Boro in running for play-off spot
WHERE would Boro be without Daniel Ayala?
In need of snookers in the playoff race, undoubtedly.
Or perhaps even out of it, into a stage of end-of-season purgatory with nothing to play for and with attention having already turned to yet another summer rebuild.
You really can’t overstate the importance of the towering Spaniard, the centre-half who keeps strikers quiet at one end and shows them how it’s done at the other.
In heading home the winner against Bristol City, Ayala took his goal tally to seven since Pulis took charge. That’s as many as Bristol City’s Bobby Reid, the second-top scorer in the league, has managed in the same time period.
This, though, was undoubtedly the most important of Ayala’s goals. This was so needed. And celebrated.
This could have been the day when things took a turn for the worse. It felt very possible when the Robins snatched a scruffy lead after 12 minutes.
And again when Patrick Bamford needed 11 minutes of treatment for an injury that plunged the Riverside into concerned silence, the striker eventually being stretchered off to applause. It was an incident that overshadowed the first half.
But come full-time there was good news on the pitch and off it.
Boro had confirmed that Bamford was conscious and talking, and while taken to hospital as a precaution, that news was much more positive than what was feared when he was stretchered off in a neck brace and on oxygen.
And on the pitch, the league table confirmed that Boro had bounced back from their Bramall Lane disappointment.
George Friend’s equaliser and Ayala’s winner not only moved Boro back into the top six but surely eliminated the Robins from the race.
Had things gone badly, Boro could have ended the day in 10th. Instead, they’re fifth
No wonder, then, the Riverside erupted when referee Andy Madley put the whistle to his mouth and brought this game to a close. There hasn’t been a louder full-time roar this season.
The players basked in the delight as well, embracing each other at the end of a week in which Pulis had called on them to embrace the challenge and relish the run-in. These games, he said, the games that matter, that’s what being a professional footballer is all about.
Pulis had also billed the game as the biggest of the season.
That might have had something to do with his decision to go with what he knows and trusts.
The manager’s team selection was telling, making only one change – and that was forced – bringing in Adam Clayton for Grant Leadbitter.
If the first-half performance against Sheffield United on Tuesday night doesn’t prompt Pulis into changes, then you wonder what would.
But his selections were ultimately justified.
What a time to put an end to some rotten runs. What a time to subject Bristol City to their firstever defeat at the Riverside on their seventh visit. And what a time to finally show up against rivals and prove that it isn’t just bottom half fodder Boro can beat.
What a time to set about answering that question that’s niggled all season. Now to do it again next week at Derby and at home to Millwall the following week.
Seasons can turn in a split second and if Boro do go on to make the top six this season, George Friend’s equaliser should be highlighted as a major moment.
With it came belief, volume and improvement.
Cheers turned to chants of “Come on Boro” before Friend had even finished his celebration and then came a roar, a roar designed to wake Boro from the slumber that had allowed City to get their noses in front in scruffy fashion when Milan Djuric took advantage of uncertainty in the home box and saw his effort creep past Darren Randolph at a snail’s pace.
Within seconds of the restart after the equaliser, Friend, no doubt fuelled by adrenaline, thumped into a tackle and was booked. The tackle was mistimed but it helped to set the tone.
A Traore charge followed, then a Downing cross that had Ayala rising and Bristol panicking. Boro belatedly meant business, but with their added urgency they now needed to find the added quality to take complete control of the game.
The roar was replaced by anxious silence when Bamford hit the deck.
Both sets of players looked