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ymakerpi8d
Guest
Heres what I see as the key talking points from yesterdays vitally important home victory over fellow relegation candidates Middlesbrough.A season-defining win?I feel that yesterdays result could be the one we look back on at the end of the season as the most important in our bid for survival. The three points is crucial and makes our position a lot stronger with eight games to go, but the fact it came over fellow strugglers, and made their relegation more Trevor Cahill Jersey likely, makes it all the more important.No wonder Shawcro s was so happy with his goalWinning uglyI planned to comment here on how good it is to see that we have found the abilityto grind out an ugly win from a game that looked like being a draw and we could have lost, but then I realised that almost everything weve done all season has been ugly. Who cares.A tactical masterstroke?All game Middlesbroughs five tall defenders had coped extremely well with all we had thrown at them in the air, until Tony Pulis brought on 64 Mamady Sidibe in the 83rd minute. A minute later, we get a throw-in, Boros best markers concentrate on the imposing Sidibe, leaving the actually more proficcient attacking header of the ball Shawcro s free to head home. Genius.Destined for great thingsAged just 21, Ryan Shawcro s has had an excellent first season at Premier League level. With many commanding defensive performances, as well as his new-found goalscoring touch, he may run Abdoulaye Faye close for our player of the season award. Already capped at Under 21 level, at this rate it cant be too long before he gets his full England call. Alex Ferguson must be gutted at letting him go to us. Maybe theres some rule he can make up to force him back?The oppositionThough Middlesbrough have a reasonable defence and talented midfielders, pa sing the ball well, they lack any sort of attacking sharpne s, and this was apparent yesterday as they failed to create a single really good chance despite having more than 60% of the po se sion. Theyre the Premier Leagues lowest scorers, with just 21 goals, and this is why I believe they will go down. If they do stay up, itll take something special over the next few weeks, as they are beginning to get cut off from most of the bottom half pack.Tuncay and Middlesbrough lacked a cutting edgeFit to referee?RefereeLee Mason had a poor game yesterday. He booked Emmanuel Pogatetz of Boro and Glenn Whelan of Stoke quite early on for first fouls, and from there had set a dangerous precedent, meaning a lot of yellow cards were shown for fouls that you would like to see let go, as Mason lost control of the game. Hes refereed us four times this season, against Tottenham, West Brom, Liverpool as well as Middlesbrough, and on most occasions Ive been quite impre sed with him. Weve taken ten points from those four games, so he must be doing something right.Player Ratings:Thomas Sorensen (gk): The Danish keeper had another solid game at the Britannia Stadium, saving the few shots Middlesbrough had well. He was slightly hesitant at times on cro ses though, causing some unnece sary confusion at the back. 7Andy Wilkinson (rb): Before he was substituted at half-time witha back injury, I though Wilkinson was our best player in a poor first half showing, winning all his tackles and most in the air. 7Ryan Shawcro s (cb): Shawcro s had another sound game defensively, despite a couple of early errors, and took his goal very well when the chance came in highly pre sured circumstances. 7Abdoulaye Faye (cb): Stokes captain was not quite at his brilliant best, but still played reasonably well as part of a defence that earned themselves a good clean sheet. 6Danny Higginbotham (lb): Higginbotham had a quiet game, as Middlesbrough attacked little down their right, but dealt solidly with all he had to. 6Liam Lawrence (rm): Last seasons player of the yearhad his best game since his return from injury, causing some problems for Boro, and almost earning aterrific a sist after James Beattie headed his cro s over the bar after an excellent winding run. 7Glenn Whelan (cm): Whelan was another who had a quiet game, with little of note done either positive of negative. 6Salif Diao (cm): After impre sing earlier in the season, Diao has been a pa sanger in recent games, and looked uncomfortable again yesterday, being bypa sed for large periods of the game, before rightly being substituted five minutes into the second half. 5Rory Delap (lm): Delap made a nuisance of himself all game, and produced another fine a sist for Shawcro ss goal. 7James Beattie (cf): Beattie had arguably his worst game in Stoke colours, struggling to get involved and squandering his chances when he did. He was unlucky not to score early on though, when he was denied by a fine save from Middlesbroughs Brad Jones. 5Ricardo Fuller (cf): The Jamaican was a handfull on his return to the starting line up, but in truth got little out of the Boro denfence despite his best efforts. 6Substitutes:Stephen Kelly (rb): Replacing Wilkinson at half-time, I was apprehensive for Kelly after his dreadful debut at Sunderland, but he played a lot better yesterday, defensively sound and getting forward well. 7Matthew Etherington (lm): Etherington did inject a degree of pace and life into the Stoke performance after his introduction, but struggled to make a huge impact on the game. 6Mamady Sidibe (cf): Coming on with just seven minutes left, Sidibe had little time to make a great contribution, but he definitely caused havoc in the box for our goal shortly after coming on, freeing up space for Shawcro s. 6My Man of the Match: Ryan Shawcro s
