No win in five for Middlesbrough as season heads for poor ending
MIDDLESBROUGH have lost four of their last five as their season continues to falter to a disappointing end.
A poor start saw Boro 2-0 down after just 18 minutes but they at least fought back in the game to the point where they had more chances and deserved at least a point, if not all three.
Here’s the game at a glance.
The goals
15 mins: QPR 1-0, Dickie – Boro behind to an absolute thunderbolt from Dickie. You don’t see many centre-backs scoring goals like that. Archer no chance. Boro did give him the freedom of Teesside to hit it though
18 mins: QPR 2-0, Wallace – Willock’s initial cross too deep but collected by Dykes beyond the back post, he plays it back in and Wallace runs off Spence for a free, close-range header
28 mins: Boro 1-2, Bolasie – Boro pull one back. Kebano with a lovely floated cross and a brilliant header from Bolasie powers past Dieng
The tactics
After patchy form throughout the season, Warnock made the change in between the sticks and brought Jordan Archer in ahead of Marcus Bettinelli in one of two changes from the Barnsley defeat. Yannick Bolasie in for Chuba Akpom was the second change.
In terms of formation, Warnock matched QPR’S three at the back, playing Darnell Fisher in an unfamiliar right-sided centre-back role.
Neeskens Kebano played in the ten role and Yannick Bolasie and Duncan Watmore were the strikers.
The game-changing moment
We should be talking about the red card to Seny Dieng in the 58th minute.
A man advantage for over 30 minutes should have been the encouragement Boro needed to grab the equaliser they’d long been pushing for anyway.
Instead, that moment caused QPR to become more conservative in the game as they looked to see it out.
Boro managed just one shot on target after that – one gifted to George Saville by QPR too.
Joe Lumley produced a superb stop to claw that one round the post and he did so again when a free-kick was fizzed in and deflected goalwards by a Hoops defender. Typically, the red
card probably worked against Boro rather than for. The game-changing moment has to be QPR’S quickfire second goal.
A shell-shocked Boro, still dumbfounded by Robert Dickie’s earlier thunderbolt, fell asleep as Lee Wallace ghosted in and headed home from close range.
The key player
There wasn’t really a truly stand-out player for Boro.
Grant Hall received this reporter’s man of the match award as his excellent form continued.
He had a great battle with Lyndon Dykes and kept the big centre-forward quiet.
His only two moments in the game came when he peeled off and was being looked after by other players.
On top of his usual commanding performance, he was ever so composed at times in possession too.
Yannick Bolasie was probably Boro’s brightest player on the day.
He scored a wonderful goal with a bullet header and was a threat before tiring towards the end.
That was understandable after he worked hard up top and pressed well, setting off his own counters on more than a few occasions by catching QPR’S defence in possession.
But as well as his goal he also squandered Boro’s best chance when a Duncan Watmore break ended with him being teed up by his strike partner, only for his first touch to allow Dieng to smother the ball at his feet.
The positive
Hard to take many positives out of the game. They at least showed there was still some battle left in them despite being little to play for as they made a game of it after their dreadful start. But given they still came up short, it’s hardly encouraging.
Perhaps the biggest positive is that, according to Warnock after, he learned a lot from the game in terms of the work that needs to be done in the summer rebuild.
As he said himself, we’re just ticking over now, really, with all attention on next season and building a squad capable of promotion.
The focus for that has been all on the work done to bring players into the club, but in a strong and damning post-match press conference, Warnock compared the situation to last season when he arrived and bombed a couple of players who didn’t want to be at the club. He said he knows who he needs to ‘get out’ this summer now, and got answers to one or two questions he still had over certain individuals too.
The negative
The learning Warnock did could be
bad news for Djed Spence. Spence showed much promise when he broke into the first team last season but has regressed at an alarming rate this term.
For the second home game in a row he was culpable for a goal Boro conceded – in this one going to sleep and allowing Lee Wallace to run unchallenged and head home from close range.
It was telling that shortly after talking about questions being answered Warnock then moved onto Spence’s error which he described as irresponsible.
Yes, he’s still young at 20 and was fast-tracked into the side during a poor season for the club, but that’s no excuse for continuously falling to sleep in games and costing the side goals.
Spence could still have a bright future and maybe isn’t in the category of player Warnock needs to ‘get out’ of the club. But his form this season suggests he perhaps does need a season out on loan next term to learn the game more.
A quote on Spence from Warnock earlier in the season rings ever more true as the season goes on. Warnock said: “There are not many players where you can say it’s all up to them personally how far they go – it’s what’s between the ears. He could be playing at a top club in England or in non-league in five years, I don’t know.
“Application, dedication, all these things come into it. He’s got the tools, there’s no doubt about that.”
The verdict
No win in five for Boro as sloppy mistakes cost them again against QPR who leapfrogged them in the Championship table and into tenth.
But this season means very now with four games remaining.
The players should still play with pride, and the nucleus at least showed spirit to make a game of this one after a bad start.
The focus has to be on next season now though, where seemingly Warnock’s rebuilding job just keeps getting bigger and bigger.
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