Please show us you care
You know it’s been a bad day when the texts start coming in from home mocking you for having wasted the time, money and energy in going to the game. Ipswich Town 4-0 Middlesbrough tells everyone who wasn’t at the match as much as they need to know.
Unfortunately, it was worse than that. Boro weren’t steamrollered by the Tractor Boys. We weren’t battered to a pulp. It was WORSE than that. If you examined the players this morning, they would barely have a scratch on them. The fans probably sweated more in the stands watching through their gnawed fingernails.
4-0 yet the signs were there at 0-0. We were yelling at them to “wake up”, “get started” and wondered whether the alarm had gone off. We’d left Middlesbrough at 7am but Boro haven’t even grasped the concept of 2013 yet.
Four times Boro shrugged their shoulders and wandered a walk of surrender back to the half way line. No one took responsibility. Not one leader emerged. All 11 players should be embarrassed this morning. The problem is, I doubt half of them will be.
Rhys Williams wears the armband. Sadly for us, he hasn’t been a captain since returning from injury. Instead he’s been unrecognisable from the player that had a Premier League buzz around him last season. If the scouts were coming, it’s fairly obvious they will have put their notebooks away by now.
Why didn’t anyone take the game by the scruff of its neck and tell a few home truths at 0-0, 1-0. 2-0. 3-0. 4-0? They should have been motivated by shame.
At the start of the game a good friend of mine suggested we get behind Marvin Emnes after he was booed off at The Riverside last weekend. We serenaded him, he gave us a wave then reverted to dead man walking mode. We shouldn’t have wasted our breath.
I haven’t got any coaching badges, I’ve never stood in a technical area or handed the bibs out but feel confident I understand the basics. Boro didn’t do the basics yesterday. Not even at 0-0. No one puffed their chest out or put their neck on the line.
Even playing 5-aside most of the 600 in the stand yesterday will have fell out with friends or being dragged off a mate for the cause after a weak tackle or failure to track back. We didn’t see any shrieking or screaming yesterday. Perhaps they didn’t want to upset one another.
To some, that will seem a simplistic way of looking at the game. Sadly for them, they don’t understand.
I am sick, fed up and on the point of no return at seeing vastly overpaid “professionals” look like they care more for their hair gel, flashy boots and expert strut than the badge they wear on their jersey.
I am sick of hearing the likes of Jonathan Woodgate dismiss talk of a blip and swear blind that we’re going up ignoring warning signs of a blistering depression that has been present since half time at Peterborough on December 8th. I’ve got a message for Woodgate, Steele and whoever gets wheeled out in the Gazette this week: you’ve got the fight of your lives on your hands. Not to get promoted, but to cling on to sixth spot.
It’s probably even more pressing than that. They’re facing a battle to regain our trust. On the way back last night I heard some of the most loyal fans I know contemplating giving Crystal Palace a miss. Supporters who would rather be hauled over the coals than duck out of a match. It’s got that bad over the last eight weeks. The money, time and effort doesn’t feel worth it at the moment.
The players need to show us they care. Do the basics. Do the time-honoured things to get a crowd onside. Fly into a tackle. Berate one another after conceding. They don’t even have to do any of the things they see on Sky Sports. Please just show us you are worthy of the shirt we would die to wear.
Questions, naturally, are being asked of the manager now. For some, the dream is beginning to die. But for all selections are baffling, (please never leave Josh McEachran, Richie Smallwood or Nicky Bailey out ever again to accommodate Kieron Dyer) Mogga is being let down by the players he settles on.
They aren’t giving him enough. We’re just not seeing enough. Even in cup ties against part timers and no hopers, Boro struggled over the line. We’re not even getting a smidgen of heart when we need a truck full.
Mogga is being let down and so are the fans. It’s time to stop strutting, stop tossing hair about like they’re on a first date and start willing to bleed for the cause. At the moment it’s all pain. The players need to show us they care. That is all we ask.
This is not an overreaction.
Ayresome Gates 
Mowbray’s time is up for me. His tactics are befuddled and over-complicated for a simple game and the players are plainly confused or too stupid to understand what’s required. His team selection must be done with a pin; he obviously has favourites but I’m starting to believe there is no will to get promotion looking at the way Mogga sets his team up. Mark my words, there will be no promotion this or any other season with the current set-up, Gibson included.
Thanks for your comment Andy but I don’t agree that the answer to our current problems lies in removing the manager. He has performed a minor miracle to get us into the position we are in and deserves our support as we try and cling on to a playoff spot. Finishing in the top six this season would represent progress and that is all I ask for as a minimum year on year.
The current malaise is more down to the players and the way they are applying themselves in games. While I agree that the tinkering with formations and selections is often baffling, the manager can’t make the tackles or convert the chances once the players go over the white line.
As for your Gibson remark, I haven’t seen the queue of people waiting to take over.