2014/15 Championship Thread

[Dolphin Ziggler]

First topic message reminder :

Well, it's all decided now.

Birmingham City
Blackburn Rovers
Blackpool
Bolton Wanderers
Bournemouth
Brentford
Brighton & Hove Underdogs
Cardiff City
Charlton Athletic
Derby County
Fulham
Huddersfield Town
Ipswich Town
Leeds United
Middlesbrough
Millwall
Norwich City
Nottingham Forest
Reading
Rotherham United
Sheffield Wednesday
Watford
Wigan Athletic
Wolverhampton Wanderers

Forest have Pearce, Leeds may have investment, Olly has reasons to be cheerful and Wigan don't have European distractions.

[Dolphin Ziggler]

Adams will be great, didnt you say that Olly? Should have come in earlier last season, would have kept you up?

[Good Golly I'm Olly]

Well excuse me for having a bit of optimism

Although I probably should be learnt by now not to get optimistic with Norwich...always find a way to shoot ourselves in the foot!

[Good Golly I'm Olly]

Least we've been involved in some cracking games this season, which for me personally means I can be satisfied

[TopoftheChops]

Say we are going up, we are going up! Great win at charlton, lovely finish from noel hunt

[NickisBHAFC]

Ipswich 2nd. Brentford 3rd. Kinda makes you feel a little bit depressed.

[GSC]

Nah, it reminds me its still November

[NickisBHAFC]

December tomorrow.

[Good Golly I'm Olly]

The Norwich team makes literally zero sense whatsoever. We've dropped Turner, who's been our best defender and kept Martin at centre half, and Whittaker right back who have both been pants there.

And don't even get me started on Redmond on the bench, I mean just how

[Good Golly I'm Olly]

Its so mind numbingly stupid it might just work

Logic says we're gonna get smashed

[FootballLight]

Come on Royals!!

We aren't great at home and we have only won 3 of our last 12 in the league, but after a solid win at Norwich last week, we need the same today to turn over a solid Bolton side that have picked it up recently.

Reading 2-2 Bolton - Not optimistic, but I don't think we'll lose to Bolton.

[Good Golly I'm Olly]

Jonny howson is god

[NickisBHAFC]

1-0 down. Chris Martin. In other news Taylor Swift is hot and the pope is catholic.

[NickisBHAFC]

2-0 down. This is going to get ugly. Now maybe we might do what we should of done in October.

[NickisBHAFC]

3-0.

[NickisBHAFC]

Shame it wasn't 5 or 6. Might of got that idiot sacked tonight.

[Good Golly I'm Olly]

That was a proper dig in performance from Nodge. Wins a wins a win tho

[TopoftheChops]

Another game, another 3 points, up the town!!!

[FootballLight]

I have a friend who is an Ipswich fan. We share some good banter when Reading play Ipswich, pure friendly as well. It's nice. But we'll make sure we do the double over you, like we do most seasons.

[TopoftheChops]

You were lucky to win at the start of the season, we have the best home record in the league so can't see it happening unfortunately for you.

[owen10ozzy]

Come on Boro;

Excellent performance; 5-1 regardless of opponent is a great results especially away from home. Looking like real contenders at the moment...can only hope we don't have our usual Dec/Jan/Feb slump which we have had for 4 of the last 5 years.

Vossen looks a class above in this league and with his first goals I fully expect him to go on a bit of a run now. Jose Mourinho has also said we can keep Bamford until the end of the season, which is a fantastic result!

[dyrewolfe]

Agreed!

Bam-Bam has been a goal machine just lately and it was fantastic to see Vossen finally get the kind of haul his performances have deserved.

Not sure whether we really were that good or if Millwall were just utterly pants, but either way it was great to see us thrash someone, as we have threatened to do a few times.

Guess we're going to find out just how good Boro are with the upcoming fixtures. Gonna be some tough going from now on:

13 Dec: Boro - Derby
20 Dec: Ipswich - Boro
26 Dec: Boro - N Forest
28 Dec: Blackburn - Boro

Won't be easy getting points from any of those. Still, we're in good form, so I'm moderately hopeful.

[owen10ozzy]

Yeh Vossen has looked great so far; I would like to see AK revert to two out and out up front on a more regular basis because whilst we have been getting results without it, we have usually only lost games where we have dominated but not done much in the final third. I don't think this will happen...certainly not over the next few key fixtures...which may turn out to be a mistake I think. Against the likes of Derby and Ipswich etc we have to ensure we give them something to worry about and that in my eyes means fielding Vossen/Kike with Bamford.

I would happily take 5 or more points from the next 4 games; would be a decent enough return. Just hope to god we don't lose the first two because as we have seen in the past...if Boro lose two on the bounce in December it often results in a stretch of 4/5 points from the next 15 odd games!

[Good Golly I'm Olly]

What's up with the crowds at the Riverside? Always looks half empty, surely it's not that bad!

[GSC]

It was half empty in the PL.

Boro never had nearly the fanbase to fill it

[owen10ozzy]

Disagree; there were a couple of seasons where Riverside was regularly hitting 30,000 per home game and filling it for the big teams. Our European nights were also always busy!

The problem now is twofold; we have a stadium which is a premiership stadium thus endures Premiership costs to run it; ticket prices haven't come down in the manner many fans believe/expected them to during our hiatus and what with the recession as well (Middlesbrough one of the hardest hit places in the UK) people simply don't have the money to go.

Part of the low crowds to have to be attributed to some pretty awful football being played also...but as a Boro fan I know that if they play the right kind of football(don't even have to be doing well) then our fans would go back in their droves if they could; economics currently ensures they can't.

[dyrewolfe]

What's up with the crowds at the Riverside? Always looks half empty, surely it's not that bad!.

Teesside was one of the hardest-hit areas after the 2008 crash...still hasn't really recovered.

Attendances have been disappointing, averaging around 13,000 - 14,000 the last few seasons, but then the football has been equally disappointing.

Just lately though they have increased to around 18,000, so things are definitely on the up...assuming Boro can maintain their momentum.

We're far from the worst for attendances though. There were only around 10,500 at the Millwall game...and 1,500 of those were Boro fans!

It was half empty in the PL.

Boro never had nearly the fanbase to fill it .

Think you might want to do some research before making statements like that. We averaged well over 20,000 even during our worst period in the Premier League and for the big European and domestic Cup games the Riverside was usually sold out (stadium capacity is 35,000).

True we seem to have quite a large number of fairweather fans, but Teesside has more excuses for that than most.

[owen10ozzy]

Also can I just state, we probably have one of the best away support in the Championship and quite possibly in the country! Believe we had close to 5,000 fans at Wigan the other week and were averaging close to 2,000 per away game this season.

[TopoftheChops]

The true test will be how many you take to ipswich? 5 days before Christmas as well!

[GSC]

Visiting Ipswich is a test for any sane person

[dyrewolfe]

Visiting Ipswich is a test for any sane person

A lot of people have said that about Boro!

Last time we went to Natalie Portman Road we got thumped 4-0. Not sure I could take that again.

[Derbymanc]

http://www.parentdish.co.uk/2014/12/11/college-plans-trip-to-millwall-football-match-to-observe-working-class-culture/?icid=maing-grid7%7Cuk%7Cdl12%7Csec1_lnk2%26pLid%3D314459

[GSC]

BAMford

[Good Golly I'm Olly]

Three former Norwich players for huddersfield today

Not feeling confident purely based off that

[Good Golly I'm Olly]

Oh and Redmond is bizarrely on the bench again despite being our best attacking player this season *cries*

[Derbymanc]

Well done Boro,

We were garbage today, pinging passes all over the pitch to noone and looked like we had no ideas at all. If it weren't for Grant it could have been a proper embarassment.

[owen10ozzy]

Derby - don't take all the credit away from us. Think you were poor because of Boro. Whilst we didn't play much exciting stuff, massive props to Karanka who once again got his tactics spot on. Had that been Mourinho people would be lauding him. Set the players out to stifle Derby and they harassed and harried and stopped them getting any momentum.

As a Boro fan I am delighted with that win and the performance to boot. Big game next week now, bring on Ipswich. Leadbitter seems like a great leader for us, keeping everyones feet firmly planted and mind on the next game. We just need a couple of teams around us to drop some points and give us some breathing room in the Top 6.

[NickisBHAFC]

Boro one of 7 clubs to be hit with FFP sanctions don't forget. That being said fully expect Derby and Boro to be premiership clubs next season.

[NickisBHAFC]

Watford 2-1 Wigan. Could do with Forest getting a goal at Rotherham now.

[GSC]

Don't hold your breath

[Derbymanc]

Didn't mean it to come across like that Owen, thought you played us off the park. Every 50/50 ball was yours and your players just never stopped (I was hoping you'd tire out in the second half.)

Thought we looked a bit tired though and Martin really needs to stop throwing himself on the floor.

Bamford shown some class as well by not throwing himself to the floor when Shotton brushed his head.

There's still a long way to go yet and hopefully we'll start to sort our away form out.

[Good Golly I'm Olly]

Well that went well

Their left back will be haunted by Redmond

[Dolphin Ziggler]

Good to see Demarai Grey arrive. Could be a very good player

[FootballLight]

I was absolutely disgusted by today's performance. All be it, we were playing a strong and improving Birmingham side but it is no means acceptable to lose away from home like that. 6-1. It's just an awful performance from a team that is very much out of form. We have only won 4 out of our last 19 games. That is just woeful.

Although, I do like Adkins. Maybe his club just isn't Reading and maybe he does need to leave in the near future, especially with all of these games to be played over this festive time of the year. Tomorrow would be the perfect time to see him leave, appoint someone through the week, give him a chance to prepare and restart with a new manager.

I am concerned of any available candidates out there though. I don't like these foreign managers like Stankovic or Oscar Garcia really, just doesn't suit me. Unless we get someone from Thailand for our owner, who knows. But Uwe Rosler, Owen Coyle or maybe Alan Curbishley are the only real managers I can think of, off the top of my head.

[Fernando]

Leeds,Forest & Blackburn placed under transfer embargo

Brighton to sack Sami according to Daily Mail (so probably not)

[Fernando]

BBC's Football League highlights are set to move to Channel 5. 9pm Saturday's next season

[NickisBHAFC]

Channel 5?!!!!

Bloom has confirmed Hyypia is staying. Love the bloke but has he gone mental or something!

[GSC]

Great news

[NickisBHAFC]

Nigel Adkins sacked. 3 wins in 8 gets him out. Sami Hyypia 1 in 17 keeps him in charge.

[Duty281]

BBC's Football League highlights are set to move to Channel 5. 9pm Saturday's next season

And whispers that the Premiership highlights will end up on ITV again!

[NickisBHAFC]

That will be the death of football.

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