[sloppyattheback]

Powell showed a blind loyalty to pelts by playing him as captain when in truth he should have been on the bench, Butterfield needs to play in the middle as we need 1 of Ward/Hammill/Scanz/Lolley's pace on at least one wing.
JV well he jumped for a header he had no chance of winning fell awkward and knackd again being sat level to his lunge on their keeper was very lucky to stay on, just shows mentally he's not on his game and seems to have some baggage when things aren't going as he hoped. Not convinced by Robinson, never rated him at Bogpool last year, only ever so slightly better than Dicko, got a few mistakes and lapses in his locker.
2nd half was shocking until Pelts limped off, had we threatened up till the equaliser?
Boro looked strong and organised should have tested Smithies much more but that perhaps is down to our defensive set up with a back 4 and 2 defensive midfielders protecting in Coady and Pelts which is why we offered bugger all offensively.
Massive week, I was hoping for 5 points 4 would be fantastic now but think 2 might be all we get if we sort ourselves out at the very best.
Was gutted last night thought Steady had nicked one for us till Smiths crazy moment, wouldn't be surprised if Pelts (if fit) replaces him at right back Tuesday just to teach him a harsh lesson.

[WakeyTerrier]

So disappointed with yesterday's performance. I understand why Powell went that starting line up, he was trying to make it hard for Boro to score against us. Unfortunately that came at a cost...attacking football.
We restricted Boro to few chances but I can only think of 3 that we had, 1) Wells overhead kick, 2) Vaughans bad touch when through (literally on the keeper) and 3) Steads goal

From the moment Boro scored they looked comfortable defending the lead and disciplined, we however looked pretty clueless going forward and obviously not helped by having Peltier and Coady as holding midfielders. Gutted we threw a point away at the end in the manner that we did but in all fairness the 3 points is what Boro deserved

[Lord Snooty]

I don't know why people write Dixon off. He's not bad defensively and offers us options going forward. I thought Robinson looked out of his depth yesterday.

[WakeyTerrier]

Just seen the crowd reported as nearly 18000!

Now I know Boro fetched 3500 but surely that is about 2500 out on the actual attendance

[Terrier1987cas]

I don't know why people write Dixon off. He's not bad defensively and offers us options going forward. I thought Robinson looked out of his depth yesterday.

Dire defensively is Dixon, we can't afford to have him costing us if we go with 4 at the back. 352 he can start every week but shouldn't be anywhere near the team if we go with a back 4. Robinson looked very good at Watford, shaky yesterday but miles better than Dixon when defending

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Butterfield has to play in the middle, it's clear what Powell was trying & it makes sense to an extent, but we sacrificed our only creative midfielder in the process. Pelts to right back as he's much better than Smith, then Butters & Coady in the middle with Scanz & someone else (not Bunn) on the wings.

[Denners]

Is a full back made to look poor when he has no 'out ball' when playing the ball from the back. If you're always defending then you're going to give the ball away on occasion. I thought Robinson offered nothing in attack yesterday but is that because he had no-one to pass to moving forward? I also thought he was marking their most skillful player.

Wakey is right, only 3 chances yesterday.
If we'd have snatched a draw it would have been daylight robbery.

Like I said in my earlier post, only my 1st game of the season y'day so hard to be too critical.

I would have put Scannell on for Vaughan. We lacked any pace whatsoever yesterday until Lolley appeared. Scannell could have at least carried the game to them. The introduction of Stead only served for Lynch to punt 40 yard lofted passes. What use is that when he wins no flick ons? Not that there was anyone to collect the knock downs.

Powell set up not to lose, he'd have been better going for it.

[JUSTASILLYOLDGIT]

Christ !!! Seen some soft penalties over the years.............

[Lord Snooty]

Soft yes, but the correct decision. It reminded me of the penalty the Welsh gave away against Andorra this week. The so called experts were saying it wasn't a penalty because those kind of things don't get given in the Premier League. Which just goes to show how bad the referees are in the Premier League. It was a definite penalty, as was the one Smith gave away yesterday.

[JimboHTFC]

What a way to start!

It seems that these 'mangers' all read from the same book and like playing people out of position! Pelts in CM and Buts RM??? Asking for trouble against a decent side in Boro and let's face it, we were outplayed.

Smith is an idiot and I think he realises this, but the replay seems to show that it was a soft pen. Nevertheless, don't think we could argue with dropping all 3 points and taking a point would have papered over the cracks.

I'm not going to go into how Powell wasn't my choice and wasn't the man for the job etc, BUT, he needs to get this right and fast! It reminded me of the old days of Lee Clark with this 'we must not lose' at the expense of playing any sort of football and trying to win! Play to win at home no matter what; where is Mark Lillis when you need him!

[ARTERRIER]

It seems to me Powell was more concerned about making us compact trying to make it hard for Middlesbrough to break us down. This in turn made us totally ineffective as an attacking force, although Powell acknowledged that we only started carrying any attacking threat when Ward was introduced.