Black mark for Boro'
12 August 2007
Middlesbrough 1 Blackburn 2
It is only one game into the season granted. But the other two North-East teams win and optimism is ridiculously high, Boro lose at home and suddenly Wigan on Wednesday becomes very important. Silly but subconscious.
To be fair this game could have gone either way but when Stewart Downing hit home a free-kick after half-an-hour then the home side must be favourites. There were a couple of scrambles in the Blackburn area and, had one of these resulted in a goal, then it could all have been so different!
However one thing you can never question about any Mark Hughes team is their resilience and, true to form, they battled on.
The game could have become secondary when Benni McCarthy suffered an injury that required him to leave the pitch on a stretcher wearing a neck brace thus fearing the worst. However, initial fears subsided when information came through that it looks like he will be ok. The enforced substitution worked against Boro because Roque Santa Cruz capped his debut with a fine headed goal within minutes of his arrival with Schwarzer caught a bit flat-footed.
Worse was to follow when the other sub Matt Derbyshire controlled the ball with his first real touch and curled an absolute beauty into the top corner from the left corner of the box.
So now for Wigan and a win would allay all fears and then we can get on with it. Easy in theory isn't it!?
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