" Player ratings and thoughts v Boro "

The run had to come to an end at some point but personally i felt we gave boro a good game today. Other than moments of poor defensive play I would say we had the much better of the game and that touch more composure from a few players and we certainly could have had a few more.


Marshall 6 – felt he was a little hesitant today with the crosses and a few of the goals
McNaughton 6 – Solid self, still not at his best but gave his all
Hudson 7 – thought he had a very good game, strong in the air, good on the ground
Turner 6 – some great tackles but far to many mistakes and no idea what he was doing for the third goal
Taylor 6 – solid but another who made a few mistakes today.
Witts 8 A touch of class in the middle, kept things going and unlucky not to score today
Gunnarrson 7 – worked hard, got a goal and felt he could make things happen
Ralls n/a Looked bright while on
Conway 6 – put a few good balls into the box which were missed and worked hard, seems to be lacking in confidence.
Cowie 6- Worked hard but seen little of his if im honest
Miller 7 – does the lone role well and a great flick for our equaliser. On another day his air shot at the end would have been an equalising goal

SUBS
Kiss 7 – Put himself about well, very competitive.
Mason 6 – few good touches but little impact
Rudy 3 – poor

MM
Subs last season were far to late in games and it cost us, today I felt the opposite. Wrong subs and at the wrong time. Personally I felt we were in control before the subs but the subs came, we went far to narrow and there fullbacks had a field day on us. Live and learn though, its one defeat in 13 against a strong Boro team.

REF
I thought he was shocking, we could/should have had at least 3 pens, the first one was there for all to see. Generally he got most things wrong though and the linesmen didn’t seem to sure what was happening either.

The run had to come to an end at some point but personally i felt we gave boro a good game today. Other than moments of poor defensive play I would say we had the much better of the game and that touch more composure from a few players and we certainly could have had a few more.


Marshall 6 – felt he was a little hesitant today with the crosses and a few of the goals
McNaughton 6 – Solid self, still not at his best but gave his all
Hudson 7 – thought he had a very good game, strong in the air, good on the ground
Turner 6 – some great tackles but far to many mistakes and no idea what he was doing for the third goal
Taylor 6 – solid but another who made a few mistakes today.
Witts 8 A touch of class in the middle, kept things going and unlucky not to score today
Gunnarrson 7 – worked hard, got a goal and felt he could make things happen
Ralls n/a Looked bright while on
Conway 6 – put a few good balls into the box which were missed and worked hard, seems to be lacking in confidence.
Cowie 6- Worked hard but seen little of his if im honest
Miller 7 – does the lone role well and a great flick for our equaliser. On another day his air shot at the end would have been an equalising goal

SUBS
Kiss 7 – Put himself about well, very competitive.
Mason 6 – few good touches but little impact
Rudy 3 – poor

MM
Subs last season were far to late in games and it cost us, today I felt the opposite. Wrong subs and at the wrong time. Personally I felt we were in control before the subs but the subs came, we went far to narrow and there fullbacks had a field day on us. Live and learn though, its one defeat in 13 against a strong Boro team.

REF
I thought he was shocking, we could/should have had at least 3 pens, the first one was there for all to see. Generally he got most things wrong though and the linesmen didn’t seem to sure what was happening either.

I thought we put it a good performance but for 2 terrible pieces of defending in the 2nd half. However I have to say I still cannot get over how no penalty was given for the clear foul on MacNaughton in the first half. Apparently the ref told MM after the game he felt it was a penalty but because the lino didn't flag he didn't award the penalty.

But we kept going again for the full duration and we were inches away from scoring on at least 3 occasions in the first half. We had to lose at sometime and at least we didn't lose on the back of a poor performance just poor defending.

I thought Boro were a very strong and uncomprising side who will be up there at the end of the season but we stood up to a strong physical test well today. Lets move on to Watford and look for a win there.

Yeah just seen that in the MM interview and its shocking, its up to the ref to decide so that's a cop out.

I agree, we have played a lot worse than that this season and won games. At 2-2 I felt someone was going to win it, sadly it wasnt to be us.

Would give Taylor a 4, felt he bottled it against a former team a little. Ref was shocking, beyond shocking. But at least we didn't roll over and die we were in it all the way through.

Marshall 6 - not a lot to do except pick the ball out of the net
Kev 6 - Ok, but still poor distribution
Hudson 7 - the best of our back 4 today
Turner 5 - poor game today at fault for 1 maybe 2 goals
Taylor 3 - dire, skinned constantly, wrong side of his man for 2 of the goals, made Naylor look like Pele
Cwie - 6 bit quiet
Gunnarrson 8 -MOM, excellent game
Ralls - 5 had the runaround before coming off
Whitts 6 - passed well again, but was too deep to hutrt them
Conway 6 - no end product, worked hard
Miller 7 -quality touches and ran his nuts off

Kiss - 6 worked hard, but lacks a bit of finesse.

i agree that hudson was our best defender today. I thought taylor had a bad day at the office but i thought our man of the match was kenny miller by a long way, he worked his bollocks off and he's probably the most intelligent centre forward i've seen down the city.

On another (possibly controversial note) i think we'd be a far better team if we had hoyte instead of mcnaughton in our team. Like i've said before i'm a big fan of kev just not in this formation. He's a willing runner but he hasnt got a clue in the final third though should have had a penalty. But i thought hoyte was exceptional for them

Marshall - 6 - wasn't his usual self and slow distributing still

McNaughton - 6 - very average for Kev hasnt been the same for a while
Hudson - 8 - our best defender by far
Turner - 5 - very poor and our weak link in our defence today but put some good tackles in
Taylor - 6 - vacant throughout the game

Whitts - 8 - usuall Whitts good freekicks, 110% but passing wasnt all there
Conway - 6 - poor IMO, but still tried 100%
Gunnarsson - 8 - another good performance great at winning the ball
Ralls - 7 - looked good whilst on
Cowie - 7 - was average looked tired

Miller - 9 - best player on the pitch and 2 assists proved it

Subs
Mason - 5 - had very little impact
Gestede - 4 - was very poor and looked rusty and wrong substitution imo
Kiss - 6 - some good tackles but lacking that final pass

Referee - 1 - was very poor throughout and the decision not to give any of the penalties was just shocking. Needs to get sacked tomorrow

They did their home work and at times doubled up on our flanks making the fullbacks who have been excellent this season look ordinary. But there was a lot of space in the middle of the park which we never exploited.I can't see what Kiss gives us.

Did we really stand up well to a strong physical test today? We lost and conceded 3 goals at home. And to a top 6 rival to boot. Struggling to find positives there.

Did we really stand up well to a strong physical test today? We lost and conceded 3 goals at home. And to a top 6 rival to boot. Struggling to find positives there.

Humans make mistakes and we made a few, it's happens.

Did we really stand up well to a strong physical test today? We lost and conceded 3 goals at home. And to a top 6 rival to boot. Struggling to find positives there.

Humans make mistakes and we made a few, it's happens.

Oh yeah totally agree. Anyone of us would have taken 5th place in touch of the leaders Dec 16 at the start of the season.

Marshall - 6 - Not much could've been done about the goals. Did ok.

Kevin - 6 - Had a hard time from Ogbeche first half and couldn't get forward second half. Still solid though.
Hudson - 7 - Strong in the air and good distribution
Turner - 5 - Scored & made some good blocks but the mistakes cost us big time.
Taylor - 5 - Not his self today. No composure and Boro got behind him second half.

Whitts - 6 - Played too deep. Works sometimes but yesterday Malky should've pushed him up the pitch in my opinion.
Still kept the ball almost curled in that free kick at the end.

Cowie - 5 - Quiet for him. Gave the ball away for the first goal.
Gunnar - 8 - Gave everything, scored and got in Boro's faces.
Ralls - 5 - Don't think he should've started today, Not strong enough for this type of game.
(Kiss - 6 - Got stuck into Boro and did the ugly stuff in the middle well)

Conway - 5 - Looks short of confidence. Another unconvincing game.

Miller - 6 - Classy back heel for Gunnar's goal and looked dangerous up top.

Rudy - 5 - Doesnt look fit but nearly set up a goal at the end with a flick.
Mason - 6 - Looked lively but didn't have enough of the ball.

Both Boro's second half goals were from our mistakes and on another day (although we were not ourselves today) I think we could've got a point at least.

Bring on Watford.

Quality v Endeavour. Thankfully we wo'nt play many teams as good as Boro. My concerns about yesterday were the performances of Taylor, Conway and Cowie. Is Cowie finally suffering burnout? Is Conway ever going to deliver? Is Taylor a defender?