Wednesday October 5th 2022
EFL Championship
At the Riverside Stadium
Middlesbrough (1) 1
Chuba Akpom 23
Birmingham City (0) 0
Attendance: 22,374
Middlesbrough:
Zack Steffen, Paddy McNair, Dael Fry, Marc Bola, Anfernee Dijksteel (Tommy Smith 82), Hayden Hackney (Riley McGree 64), Jonny Howson (C), Ryan Giles (Darragh Lenihan 69), Matt Crooks, Rodrigo Muniz (Duncan Watmore 82), Chuba Akpom (Marcus Forss 69).
Unused subs - Liam Roberts, Alex Mowatt.
Birmingham City:
John Ruddy, Maxime Colin (Jordan James 87), Dion Sanderson, Auston Trusty, Jordan Graham, Juninho Bacuna (Hannibal 46), Krystian Bielik (George Hall 79), Tahith Chong (Jobe Bellingham 87), Emmanuel Longelo, Scott Hogan, Troy Deeney (C) (Lukas Jutkiewicz 79).
Unused subs - Neil Etheridge, Jonathan Leko.
I work in the 'great outdoors'... and it's been tipping it down with rain all day. The really wet kind of stuff that gets right through to your pants and socks and chills you to the bone.
But hey! It's character building and as soon as I got home, peeled off my sopping wet clothes, had a nice warm restorative shower and dug out my winter apparel, it was time to drive north to chilly Teesside. Or should I say aquaplane, through the surface water on the A1 and A19 for a couple of hours, each way. Woo hoo! Where else would anyone want to be on a wet and grim October night? It's a rhetorical question by the way.
You're all stuck in your nice warm house, watching the game on Sky's red button service from the comfort of your settee, while I'm out late on a school night and living the dream, before that 5.30AM alarm mockingly awakes me in the morning and reminds me that: just ever so occasionally, I don't half make some unfathomably daft life-style choices.
Football is not a TV programme you light-weights, but for the most part it is most definitely a Winter sport and the seasonal climate isn't always going to be pretty. Maybe Chris Wilder, excused of his managerial duties at Middlesbrough just two days ago had a good excuse for staying in and watching the telly, but the rest of you? Pah!
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| Scott Hogan |
Michael Salisbury the match referee possibly needed to slow down and put his windscreen wipers on too, due to poor visibility badly affecting his judgement. Fifteen minutes into the game, Scott Hogan (a Republic of Ireland international) got in behind the Boro defence, where he was the last man and clear through on Zack Steffen's goal. But Paddy McNair (a Northern Ireland international) got hold of Hogan's shirt and halted his run by pulling him back.
Straight red, no backchat, no case for an appeal and a definite disadvantage to the hosts... surely!?
Hmm, apparent not! A clear goal-scoring chance denied and Mr Salisbury merely brandished a yellow card at McNair. Juninho Bacuna curled the resulting free-kick narrowly wide, once Steffen had readjusted his position and the hosts defence had reorganised.
I'll let you tell the visiting supporters who'd put the effort in to get to the Riverside Stadium in the pissing rain on a Tuesday night that these sort of decisions balance themselves out over the course of a season. Especially when less than eight minutes later, the hosts took a lead when Chuba Akpom forced the ball past John Ruddy from Rodrigo Muniz's flick on, after Blues defence had struggled to clear a corner.
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| Tahith Chong |
Steffen, rubbing salt into open wounds, denied Hogan towards the end of the first-half when he snaffled a chance to intercept and under-hit a back-pass by Anfernee Dijksteel.
And the Boro keeper continued to frustrate Blues after the break, saving efforts from Tahith Chong and Emmanuel Longelo.
Marcus Forss was in an offside position when he netted from close range when Rodrigo Muniz shot against the crossbar and the ball fell to him. The ref and his assistant both spotted that one and it was still game on as Blues stormed towards the Boro goal in stoppage time. Alas, three minutes into the five that he had allocated, that bloody Salisbury bloke blew for time, with Lukas Jutkiewicz en route to grab a late equalizer against one of his former clubs.
Look out for the match official in Argos tomorrow morning, taking his watch back for a refund because it's still under guarantee and quite obviously isn't waterproof, which caused it to malfunction tonight.
FT: Middlesbrough 1 v. Birmingham City 0
By the way, it's still not a good time to talk to those travelling Brummies about decisions balancing out over the course of a season.
Fingers crossed for the drive home... I'm on early shifts tomorrow, while Michael Salisbury will no doubt be sleeping, if his conscience allows him once he's watched a few things back tonight.
