Fortune favours Warnock’s Boro to keep play-offs bid alive
THE most famous match between these two sides occurred on the final day of Middlesbrough’s glorious 197374 promotion campaign when the Charlton brothers, Jack and Bobby, faced each other in opposing dug-outs for the second and final time.
In the here and now, Boro were concerning themselves with staying in the race to go up and their season not ebbing away.
Ahead of last weekend’s game with Stoke City, Neil Warnock spoke of a ‘hit or miss’ week ahead of the international break, indicating that the next three games would decide whether they still have a possibility of gatecrashing the top-six when the action resumes in early April.
Two successive home victories against sides who beat them earlier this season suggest that they still have a sniff, just about. You need a bit of luck at this time of year as well.
Warnock regularly signs off his programme notes with the line ‘be lucky’. After a season in which a number of hugely controversial calls have gone against his side, most notably in their games against Swansea and Blackburn in particular.
Here, fortune finally went their way here in two big firsthalf moments.
The first saw Boro handed a slice of luck quite literally when Jordan Storey, under no pressure whatsoever, horribly saw his clearance fly past the helpless Daniel Iversen into his own net following Yannick Bolaise’s routine left-wing cross.
It had been an opening 22 minutes which Preston hitherto dominated after showing a positive reaction to their wretched weekend performance
at Wycombe. But the game turned massively in Boro’s favour 13 minutes later when Alan Browne saw red after kicking out at Sam Morsy after a set-to.
Preston – and certainly Browne – were incensed that
Morsy escaped punishment after appearing to catch his rival with an elbow and replays showed that they had a point. An incensed Alex Neil was later dismissed and sent to the stands for his protestations.
Warnock brought off Morsy, no doubt mindful the numbers could easily be evened up if he was involved in another flashpoint.
The player who replaced Morsy in the fit-again Marcus Tavernier made the game safe early in the second half after staying alert to net the rebound after Chuba Akpom’s drive shuddered the woodwork.
With Boro’s strikers having not exactly walked the walk this term, plenty of onus will be on their wingers if they are to sneak into the play-offs.
In that respect, the input of Tavernier, Bolaise and Neeskens Kebano provided hope.
By contrast, it was not a night for Preston, their under-fire manager Alex Neil or Storey. Moments after his faux pas, he saw his point-blank header saved by Marcyus Bettinelli with Scott Sinclair’s rebound ruled out for offside.
The North End defender also headed a good opportunity over with the last action of a first half, which also saw Sepp van den Berg rattle the crossbar.
The game was effectively over when moments after Iversen made a brilliant close-range save to deny Paddy McNair, he was beaten by Tavernier’s rebound.
The one downer on the night was McNair’s second-half substitution with a knee injury, a potential worry for Warnock.
Ex-Rotherham United loanee Iversen saved with his legs to prevent Kebano from adding a third and Marvin Johnson went close, but two was plenty against 10 men.
Bettinelli; Fisher, Hall, Fry, Bola; Howson; Kebano (Mendez-Laing 83), Morsy (Tavernier 45), McNair (Saville 62); Bolaise (M Johnson 62); Akpom (Fletcher 63). Substitutes unused: Archer, Spence, Coulson, Watmore.
Preston: Iversen, van den Berg, Storey, Lindsay (Rafferty 78), Hughes; Gallagher (D Johnson 55), Browne; Barkhuizen (Riis 55), Potts; Sinclair (Molumby 45); Evans (Whiteman 68). Substitutes unused: Ripley, Huntington, Gordon, Maguire.
Referee: O Langford (West Midlands).