Down And Out

Middlesbrough     0        Birmingham     1

                                                                            Zigic  81    

Where has it all gone wrong? Back at the end of December Boro were flying high, a convincing yet entertaining victory over Blackpool capped off a dazzling start to the season, which left the Teesiders one point off the automatic promotion places. Some even dared to believe in a return to the holy lands of the Premier League.

Not even three months down the line Boro sit only seven points better off than at the start of January, a 1-0 defeat at home to Birmingham was their tenth in thirteen games since the turn of the year which seems to have banished the promotion dream.    

Nikola Zigic's grabs a late goal to end Boro's playoff hopes

An endless drift away from the head of the table leaves Boro five points from the final playoff position with eight games to go. Now even the most optimistic supporter would find it hard to believe in a top flight return.

There was no hiding from the poor run of form from Tony Mowbray’s side, which clearly had an impact on the attendance. Barely 14,000 meant the empty seats visibly outnumbered the full ones; the dreary atmosphere from the second half of the season has been vastly unrelated to the buzz before Boro’s New Year freefall.

The results surely haven’t been helped by weekly changes to the Boro line up, for the visit of Birmingham the hosts showed seven changes from their trip to Bristol City last Saturday.

There were welcome returns for long injury absentees Justin Hoyte and Lukas Jutkiewitz while Adam Reach was also recalled to the side. Rhys Williams was left on the bench, as Jonathan Woodgate wore the captain’s armband partnering Andre Bikey in defence.

Faris Haroun took up the position of centre midfield despite Josh McEachran being available on the bench. In contrast the Birmingham team only showed three differences from their draw with Derby last weekend.

With the game only seconds old the visitors were forced into an early change, Jonathan Spector limped off following a challenge from Haroun, after a lengthy wait the Birmingham player was replaced by Keith Fahey.

With neither side brimming in confidence, the game stuttered into life. A cagey opening provided few goal scoring opportunities, however Andre Bikey’s careless header back to Jason Steele was nearly pounced on by Birmingham’s Wes Thomas, but the Boro keeper was alert to make a crucial save.

Boro shaded the possession but lacked a cutting edge to carve their opponents open, rarely testing Birmingham keeper Jack Butland.

But after half an hour it looked like they had cracked it, a valiant run from George Friend on the left took him into the heart of the penalty area, his low shot was pushed away by Butland into the path of Scott McDonald who tapped into an empty net. However celebrations were short lived by the waving of the linesman’s flag and it was back to square one.  

The visitors briefly threatened, but were reduced to long range shooting. First substitute Fahey dragged his effort wide from the edge of the area, before Ravel Morrison’s attempt from a similar position forced a decent save from Steele.

With the sides locked at 0-0, it certainly wasn’t the worst half of football that Boro had played this season. It was a typical tight Championship game, where taking your chances was going to be key.

After the break Boro were quick to rank up the pressure, winning five corners in the first eight minutes. But games of this nature are won by fine margins, with just under an hour played a goal kick from Steele was headered on by Jukekiewitz to release McDonald through on goal. Butland spread himself well to make a fine save; nevertheless it was a chance that went begging.

Only twenty years of age Butland has been tipped by many to one day challenge for a regular England selection. The City keeper was again called upon eighteen minutes from time when Reach’s cross looked to be heading wide but curled at the last second and could have snuck in if it wasn’t for Butland’s intervention.

Birmingham could consider themselves lucky not to be down to ten men after Nikola Zigic, who was already booked deliberately pushed the ball away with his hand, but luckily escaped a second yellow card. A decision which cost Boro dearly.

With nine minutes to go Boro began to get sloppy and were soon made to pay.  Haroun lost possession inside his own half, as the blue shirts suddenly flooded forward. A bursting run from Shane Ferguson down the left allowed him space to curl a low cross into the box which was inevitably turned in by the fortunate Zigic to steal the narrowest of game.

A victory would have lifted Boro up to seventh, two points away from the final playoff position. As it turned out a tenth defeat in thirteen leaves them five points adrift with eight games to play, surely an impossible task for a team who have scored just seven points out of a possible thirty nine. The season now appears effectively over for Mowbray and Boro.  

Player Ratings

Jason Steele   7- Good individual performance, made some decent saves but wasn’t overly worked

Justin Hoyte   7- First game in a two months, but looked like he had never been away, a cool experienced head at right back

Jonathan Woodgate   7.5- Again showed his Premier League quality to keep Birmingham strikers relatively quiet

Andre Bikey   6- Another erratic performance, caught in possession a couple of times

George Friend   6.5- Added usual spark going forward, sometimes struggled defensively due to pace of Nathan Redmond   

Adam Reach   6.5- Got a couple of crosses into the box, but struggled to regularly test the full back

Faris Haroun   5.5- Looked out of sort in centre midfield, gave too many passes away

Grant Leadbitter   7.5- Worked hard in midfield, moved the ball well with good range of passing       

Sammy Ameobi   5.5- Found it tough to get involved in the game, had little impact going forward

Scott McDonald   6- Was given little to feed off, but was a little wasteful when chances came along

Lukas Jutkiewitz   6- Worked hard getting some success in the air, but again had limited opportunities

Subs

Ishmael Miller   5.5- Replaced Jutkiewitz after sixty five minutes, had little impact on the game

Mustapha Carayol - Came on with thirteen minutes to go but offered little going forward

Josh McEachran- Surprising he never started the game came on with four minutes to go and had little chance

My Boro Man Of The Match Jonathan Woodgate