Rhodes caps win over Boro as Huddersfield promotion push continues
There was a time when clubs queued up to sign Jordan Rhodes but he is now a bit-part striker at Huddersfield and this was only his fourth Championship start of the season.
Unfortunately for Middlesbrough, one of his old clubs, the much travelled 32-year-old forward made the very most of it, rolling back the years by scoring one goal and creating the other as Carlos Corberán’s side consolidated their grip on third place.
If Huddersfield seem set fair for the playoffs – and, should second placed Bournemouth stumble, possibly even automatic promotion – Middlesbrough appear in acute peril of missing out on the top six.
Chris Wilder’s team were booed off at the end of a game which served to confirm that, after taking one point from their last four league fixtures in which they have failed to score a single goal, their once promising season is rapidly falling apart in the spring sunshine. It hardly helped the Teesside mood that, during 18 months on Boro’s books, Rhodes never scored at the Riverside.
“Jordan’s contribution today was massive,” said Corberán, applying salt to the wound. “We showed such strong mentality.”
Wilder did not emerge from the dressing room until more than an hour after the final whistle. “We’re deeply disappointed,” he said. “They came to sit in and counter attack and we just couldn’t break them down.”
Perhaps significantly he once again refused to be drawn on speculation linking him to Burnley’s managerial vacancy, merely saying “nobody knows what’s round the corner”. If Wilder is being political he could be playing with fire as perceived disloyalty never goes down well with Steve Gibson, Boro’s owner.
With chances from open play disappointingly rare, set pieces initially seemed the likeliest source of goals and, with half-time beckoning, Huddersfield made the most of a freekick awarded following Sol Bamba’s handball.
When Sorba Thomas drove a dipping delivery deep into the penalty area Rhodes out-leapt Bamba and flicked on for Naby Sarr to rise imperiously above all comers. As Sarr powered an unstoppable header beyond Luke Daniels, Wilder looked suitably unimpressed with the marking. Sarr, incidentally,
is Corberán’s fourth-choice centre-half but, like Rhodes, he delighted in proving a point.
Thomas – later withdrawn with a potentially serious knee injury -specialises in dead-ball party pieces and the latest example of his craft left Boro cursing a failure to translate abundant possession into cutting-edge attacking.
As much as Isaiah Jones, their gifted right wing-back, troubled Huddersfield and as agitated as the increasingly hyperactive Corberán’s technical area pacing became, Wilder’s team struggled to produce the incisive final balls required to test Lee Nicholls.
Hats off to Huddersfield, though, for retaining their out-of-possession shape superbly and, as Boro’s frustration turned to desperation, conjuring menacing counter-attacking opportunities.
When, in the 60th minute, the visitors broke fast following yet another Boro attacking breakdown concluding with Riley McGree’s concession of possession, Rhodes gleefully accepted the invitation.
Having taken Lewis O’Brien’s through pass in his stride and been played onside by Marc Bola he swept the crispest of shots unerringly past Daniels. Whoever said he was yesterday’s man?
It could have been worse for Wilder had Darren England not given Bamba, already on a yellow card, the benefit of the doubt after he fouled Rhodes.
Although Josh Coburn swiftly, and sensibly, replaced Bamba it made little difference. Despite McGree’s curling shot striking the underside of the crossbar, Huddersfield – with Ollie Turton shining in the back three and Rhodes defending from the front – proved magnificently resilient, restricting Boro to only two shots on target.