[themaclad]

Middlesbrough v Preston North End

A visit to an area were we rarely win, if memory serves me right the last time we had success was a cup victory in 1986 when Ronnie Hildersley hammered one in from 30 yards to win the game when John McGrath was manager, we did get a point in a 2 all draw a few years ago with a late goal by Billy Jiones but wins on Teeside are as rare as hen's teeth.
Boro freshly relegated have had a patchy start in the league under Gary Monk losing both away games whilst winning both homes games they also put paid to Scunthorpe in the cup on Tuesday, interesting to note they have gone 1-0, 2-0, 3-0 which could be omninous for us.
They have spent a fortune this close season, obviously making a very determined bid to get back to the top division at the first attempt, with the likes of Assombalonga from Forest for 15 million, Braithwaite from Toulouse for 7 million, Baker on loan from Chelsea and they were reported of trying to bringing in Shotton from Birmingham, the Monk man is estabishing a very decent squad.
They have some forward power as well with the aforementiioned Assombalonga, they also have Gstede and Bamford who seems to be regaining some semblence of form. Does mean it going to be a tough afternoon for North End.
Apart from long term injuries to Clarke and Cunningham we have a virtually full strength side to chose from, get anything from this will be considered a bonus.

Stat Attack: Middlesbrough



We once again look at some of the stats connecting the two clubs and the date of this weekend’s game at the Riverside.

Middlesbrough are not the only club from the town we have faced in our long history, as they had a short-lived local rival in Middlesbrough Ironopolis. Known as the Nops, 1893/94 was their only season as a league club, but we did face each other in successive seasons in the FA Cup. In January 1892, we won 6-0 at Deepdale, but the following season, the Nops surprisingly gained a replay with a battling 2-2 draw at Deepdale. Order was restored in the north east when we overran our hosts with a 7-0 victory that included a hat-trick from Frank Becton.
Today’s game is only our fifth at the Riverside Stadium, where we are seeking our first win. Our first two games with Boro were at their original Linthorpe Road ground, the first ever being an FA Cup tie in 1892 after we had beaten the ‘Nops’, whilst our first league game in the town was in November 1901.
The majority of league games took place at Ayresome Park where we only managed six wins in 37 attempts. Since a 4-0 win in 1953, we have only won once more in 14 attempts on Teesside, that coming in 1971 thanks to the only goal of the match by Alan Tarbuck. Our biggest victory saw us win 5-2 in 1951, whilst we were on the wrong end of a 5-1 scoreline in 1925.


On This Date

Former players born today include Wayne Brown (1977), Ken Horton (1922), Tony Morley (1954) and Jeff Wealands (1951).
The most recent player to make his debut on this date was Marlon Broomes in 2002. Prior to that, our first ever loan player Roger Davies played the first of his two games in a North End shirt in a 1-1 home draw with QPR in 1972. Other debutants include Simon Snow, Eric Potts and Emlyn Williams. Emlyn is one of only seven players to appear in the first team both before and after the Second World War, having first played in 1939.
Matt Hill played his last game for North End on this date in 2008, before moving to Wolves in a deal that saw Stephen Elliott come to Deepdale. Gareth Ainsworth ended his second spell as a Lilywhite in 1995 before later spending a short loan period back at his spiritual home in 2002.
Jim Baxter scored a hat-trick against this season’s opening day opponents Sheffield Wednesday in a 6-0 romp on this day in 1954.


Last time out for Boro interestingly they list their team in squad number order
3 Friend
6 Gibson © 83'89'
8 Clayton 39'77'
9 Assombalonga 76'
11 Bamford 62'
16 Howson
20 Fry 63'
22 Christie
25 Randolph
34 Forshaw 45'
39 Gestede
Substitutes
1 Konstantopoulos
2 Fabio
7 Leadbitter
18 Fletcher 77'
23 Roberts
30 Baker 62'
37 Traoré 45'

The Bar Steward in the Black is

For our final game before the international break we have a match official who was recently promoted to the Elite Group Two list.

The referee for the clash at the Riverside will be Darren England – the second time he has taken charge of a Preston North End game, both of them away from Deepdale.

His first game was the final match of the 2016/17 season, and it was his first Championship game, in the fixture against Wolverhampton Wanderers at Molineux.

Last year, in total, he took charge of charge of 42 games, including the one in the Black Country, issuing 121 cautions and nine red cards in those fixtures and was chosen to referee the League Two Play-Off Final involving Blackpool at Wembley.

So far this season, he has officiated at the four ‘cities’ of Coventry, Hull, Birmingham and Bristol and this weekend will be assisted by James Mainwaring and Nick Hopton, with Andy Haines acting at fourth official.

[themaclad]

Did make a goof in the pre match thing we won in the cup in 87 not 86 as stated

T'other matches and a bit of guff from the management

Fri

Brizzle v Vanilla
Dull v Notlob

Sat
Toby Tyke v Graysonland
Harry v Jaap
Bees v Portugal
Brewers v Owlers
Colin v Ollie
Tractors v River Thames
Lions v Delia
Trees v Marching All Together
Blunts v Direby

Neil Hoping To Cement Solid Start
Alex Neil is hoping his side can get a positive result at Middlesbrough on Saturday to end the first month of the season on a high.

Alex Neil is hoping his side can get a positive result at Middlesbrough on Saturday to end the first month of the season on a high.

The gaffer is pleased with the start his team have made to the Championship campaign and although he feels it's a good start regardless of Saturday's result, the PNE boss knows the trip to the Riverside is a chance to show everyone that North End mean business this year.

Speaking to iFollow PNE ahead of the game, Neil said: "I think regardless of the result this weekend I think we've had a good start. I think having seven points at this stage, certainly having played teams who are fancied to be around the top six and even for promotion, we've done extremely well.

"Middlesbrough is another opportunity for us to go and cement that good start and show everybody that we are tailored and ready to have a good season this year.

Neil also spoke of the importance of picking up points early in the season, something that North End have struggled with in the past two seasons.

"I think it's important to get points on the board early doors, it sort of takes the pressure off you having to have a good run at some stage.

"If we can get the points on the board, then we can keep that momentum going and get the confidence of the lads up then you never know what can happen from there.
"I think we've shown all of the signs at the moment that we're going to be competitive and we are capable of beating anybody on our day.

On this weekend's opposition, Neil is expecting a tough test against Garry Monk's side who return to the Championship after a year in the top flight, but the 36-year-old isn't expecting it to be easy for Boro this season.

"It's difficult when you come down from the Premier League because if you come down from the Premier League you aren't used to winning games, trying to change the mentality as much as anything else can prove to be challenging.

"I think Garry has brought in quite a few players which I think helps the turnover of the group but he's also got a lot of players to try and keep happy which can prove to be difficult.

"I think the last time I checked they had five out and out centre forwards so it can prove to be challenging but they will be a decent side, there's no question about it.

"On their day they are going to be a good team and we are going to have to make sure we play well.
The manager is hoping to have the backing of a strong away following again on Saturday, and wants his players to make the travelling fans proud by full-time at the weekend.

"It's great to go to big stadiums with lots of fans and different things, our away fans have been excellent so hopefully we can take quite a few to the Riverside to back the lads and hopefully the lads can give them another good performance that they can be proud of."

North End make the trip to Teeside at the weekend, looking to end Middlesbrough's 100 per cent home start this season, where they have so far won three out of three at the Riverside.

Home wins over Sheffield United, Burton Albion and Graham Alexander's Scunthorpe United in the Carabao Cup earlier this week have given Garry Monk a positive start to life with Boro, but he acknowledged to his local paper, so have the Lilywhites.

“They’ve had a very good start,” he told the Northern Echo.

“I know Alex [Neil] very well, and he’s a very good manager. They’ve started really well, and like every game, we know it’s going to be difficult, very competitive.
“We had a good result on Tuesday, which was a good response to losing against Forest. We want to take the positives from that and finish with a good result before the international break.”


In terms of team selections, there are plenty of options for the former Leeds United boss, however, summer recruit Martin Braithwaite will not be involved on Saturday as he continues to recover from injury, the former Toulouse man not set to be available until after the international break.

Lewis Baker, Ashley Fletcher, Grant Leadbitter and Fabio staked claims to be involved against North end with impressive dsplays against the Iron in midweek, but Monk is likely to revert to the bulk of the side beaten 2-1 at Forest last weekend.

Meanwhile, the former team-mate of the PNE boss still has a 'couple of bits of work' to do ahead of Thursday’s closure of the August transfer window, adding: “We’ve done the bulk of our work, we’ve been very good with it.

“I think we’ve had a successful window. We’ve had more outgoings than we’ve had incomings. We’ve done that smartly and brought a lot of money in and moved a lot of players out, as well as recruiting new players.

“We’ve got a couple of bits of work we’d like to do, but that’s with the club and there is a lot of hard work going on behind the scenes. There are a couple of positions where we’d like to try to strengthen the squad. But it’s in the club’s hands and things are being worked

[themaclad]

Middlesbrough 0 Preston North End 0

Middlesbrough line-up: Randolph, Fabio, Friend (Bamford, 55), Gibson ©, Clayton, Assombalonga, Howson, Fry, Christie, Baker (Downing, 68), Gestede. Subs not used: Dimi, Ayala, Leadbitter, Gletcher, Roberts.

PNE line-up: Maxwell, Fisher, Earl, Pearson (Harrop, 70), Huntington ©, Davies, Barkhuizen (Mavididi, 75), Browne, Hugill, Johnson, Maguire (Robinson, 90). Subs not used: Hudson, Vermijl, Horgan, Spurr.

Attendance: 25,295 (961 PNE fans)

The only disappointment with the result is probably we dropped two points, because they were there for the taking against a Boro side that are still trying to get to terms with what Monk wants from them. Seriously though thuis was a cracking performance by the Whites at the Riverside.
No complaints over the last four years how Grayson set the side up to lose which did the job but Neil's philosophy is attack and what has been noticeable is that the games have been far more entertaining.
From the off North End took the game to the home side, a couple of corners caused panic in the Boro defence however with their first real attack think Assombalonga should probably have done better after running at the disappearing North End defence before just pushing the ball to far as he got into the area with Maxwell saving.
Barkuizen was unlucky when racing past the Boro defence his shot seemed to hit the post, Bororeplied with Fabio also hitting the post after some less than convincing keeping by Maxwell. North End were dominant although couldn't get the ball inthe net with Huntington nd Barkuizhen both going close. Maxwell was bailed out by a great header by Davies and Gestede had an header pushed round the post by Maxwell.
On the stroke of half time Huntington's header was tipped round the post by Randolp.
At half time Pearson spent most of the time warming up which seemed to indicate he had an injury. Early pressure from Boro but North End were soon on the attack Barkuizhen had an effort cleared from the line and a shot was also well saved by Randoph from Johnson?
Pearson picked up his traditional booking but also picked up an injury so off he went to be replaced by Harrop.
Boro brought on Downing who in the short period he was on was Boro's most dangerous player forcing a good save from Maxwell with the only shot on target Boro had in the second half.
The game ended with North End pressing for the winner just a pity we couldn't get it because we really did deserve to win.
Hard to pick anyone as top man today it was just a very good team effort.

Preston North End manager Alex Neil:

"If any team deserved to win it was us. We had the best chances in the game and we deserved a goal.

"It is really frustrating not to get a goal. It was a lack of decision-making in the final side, and Darren Randolph has made a few good saves.

"We actually had more possession and dominated. I thought we had enough in the game to win it."

Middlesbrough manager Garry Monk:

"That was not the performance we wanted. We are trying to set a high standard for the players and the club - and we feel disappointment.

"We need to take a lesson from today and we never came out on top of them in any instance. They were first to every header, every tackle.

"The positive is that we still take a point and got a clean sheet. The point could be valuable, but we wanted three. But I think we were probably lucky to get the result we did."


Referee: Mr D England