Red-hot Boro can keep Whites on ice
PATRICK Bamford reached a personal peak when wearing the red shirt of Middlesbrough against the white of his current club Leeds United.
It was during Bamford’s second spell with Boro in March, 2018, when he recorded the first hat-trick of his career in a comfortable 3-0 derby win at the Riverside.
His goals, and his overall performance that day, must have played a big part in Leeds forking out £7m for his services at the end of the season.
Bamford is still going strong at Leeds, as no doubt Boro will discover on Monday, though hopefully there will be no repeat of his derby heroics.
Ironically, despite his achievements that day, Bamford was arguably much more effective for Boro in his first spell with the club, rather than his second.
He was brought in on loan from Chelsea shortly before his 21st birthday by the then Boro boss Aitor Karanka. At the time he was little known in the football world, though Chelsea had enough belief in his ability to pay Nottingham Forest £1.5m to sign him as a teenager.
Bamford took to life with Boro like a duck to water and was soon banging in the goals. In fact, his first season with Boro turned out to be the most productive of his career, which in part was due to the quality of the players around him who quickly picked up on his forward runs and put the ball just where he needed it.
Bamford ended the season with 19 goals in all competitions. This was the major reason for Karanka’s side finishing in the play-offs.
The play-offs were to end with a disappointing defeat at the hands of Norwich City, though Bamford was struggling with injury towards the end of the season and there’s a strong theory that Boro might have fared better had he been fully fit.
Boro’s failure to win promotion led to Bamford’s return to Chelsea. He had several unproductive loan spells before Karanka resigned him on a permanent basis in the January of 2017.
The hope was that Bamford might score enough goals to help Boro avoid relegation. Unfortunately,
Boro were a pretty uncreative side at the time and it was difficult for everybody.
Bamford fared better the following season, under the tutelage of Garry Monk and Tony Pulis, but had to settle for 13 goals in all competitions. The highlight, naturally, was his personal treble in the trouncing of Leeds, which enabled Pulis’s men to climb into a play-off position.
Bamford effectively had the game won for Boro when he scored two goals in six minutes just after the half-hour mark. He opened the scoring when flicking home a cross from Stewart Downing and doubled the score when running on to Adama Traore’s through ball. The rout was completed mid-way through the second half when Traore had a shot blocked and Bamford poked home the loose ball. Leeds, who had been recently taken over by new head coach Paul Heckingbottom, offered very little throughout the game. It was not until the 86th minute that substitute Caleb Ekuban had their first shot on target, which was comfortably saved by Darren Randolph.
Traore tormented the Leeds defence throughout. When he was in this kind of form it had us fans on the edge of our seats and we wanted the game to go on for ever.
Boro had a pretty strong Championship side at the time. Daniel Ayala and Ben Gibson were the bedrock of the defence with Jonny Howson working flat-out in front of them. Once again Boro finished the season in the play-offs, but failed to do themselves justice over two games against Aston Villa. They defended well in both games but eventually went down 1-0 on aggregate.
Another 3-0 home win against Leeds that sticks in the memory came early in the promotion season of 2015-16. This time Boro had to do the business without Bamford, who had just started what turned out to be a very frustrating loan spell with Crystal Palace.
The derby win was Boro’s seventh in a row in all competitions but was only their second over Leeds in 12 meetings at the Riverside. The victory took them to within a point of Championship leaders Brighton.
David Nugent, who was arguably signed as a replacement for Bamford, fired Boro in front after exactly two minutes’ play for his third goal in four games. He chested down a right-wing cross from Cristhian Stuani and fired past keeper Marco Silvestri from six yards.
Boro were in control from the halfhour mark when Leeds defender Giuseppe Bellusci sent the ball into his own net with a diving header from a George Friend cross.
Early in the second half Dimi Konstantopoulos made a fine save in tipping a free kick from Alex Mowatt over the bar, while Marco Antenucci had an effort ruled out by a disputed offside decision.
Boro made certain of victory with a late goal from Diego Fabbrini, who capitalised on a Sol Bamba slip to round Silvestri and then score from a tight angle.
Mowatt and Bamba were later to wear the red shirts of Boro, while Adam Forshaw, who came on as a late sub for Grant Leadbitter, was to head in the opposite direction. Fabbrini, who had been brought in by Karanka primarily to operate as a No.10, had come on against Leeds as a second half replacement for Stuani.
Fabbrini did reasonably well in helping Boro to stay close to the promotion race by the end of the year, but the manager felt he could do better and brought in Gaston Ramirez as Fabbrini’s replacement. Karanka’s judgement proved faultless. Ramirez was the guiding light that ensured that Boro eventually finished up in one of the automatic promotion positions. While these two 3-0 victories were special, as ever, the biggest and best win against Leeds came as long ago as 1992 when Boro produced arguably one of their most thrilling performances of all time.
It was the inaugural season of the Premier League campaign, Lennie Lawrence’s Boro having just joined the top flight. Leeds were reigning champions, Howard Wilkinson’s side having finished four points clear of Manchester United with just four defeats all season.
Leeds arrived to test the new boys just before the end of August and it appeared to be a toughie for Lennie’s men. Yet Boro were absolutely brilliant on the day. They took Leeds to the cleaners and won 4-1.
The scene was set in the first ten minutes when Boro powered forward relentlessly and scored two goals, both from the boot of Paul Wilkinson. First he poked home a cross from former Leeds man Tommy Wright and then scored from another Wright assist, this time with a glorious diving header. Wilkinson eventually limped off through injury to be replaced by Robbie Mustoe. Leeds brought on eventually-to-be Boro boss Gordon Strachan. Two minutes after the interval Boro were virtually home and dry when Wright rose unchallenged to head home a corner from Jimmy Phillips. Then man of the match Wright set up another former Leeds man, John Hendrie, to score the fourth. Eight minutes later Eric Cantona reduced the arrears but there was to be no way back for the champions. The final whistle brought a quite remarkable Boro win, but one that was fully deserved.
Bamford ended the season with 19 goals in all competitions. This was the major reason for Karanka’s side finishing in the play-offs.