Boro V Barnsley (A)

[boro-unger]

Details

Teams – Barnsley V Middlesbrough
Location – Oakwell Stadium (Barnsley)
Competition – The npower Championship
Date – Sat 18th August 2012
Kick off – 3.00 pm
Referee - James Adcock, Nottinghamshire.


Odds
from William Hill:

Barnsley (3.00) Draw (3.10) Boro (2.15)


First Goal Scorer odds
from William Hill:

Boro:
Emnes 6.00 (FGS) 2.25 (Anytime)
McDonald 7.00 (FGS) 2.75 (Anytime)
Ledesma 8.00 (FGS) 3.00 (Anytime)
Leadbitter 15.00 (FGS) 6.50 (Anytime)
Woodgate 41.00 (FGS) 17.00 (Anytime)

Barnsley:
Craig Davies 7.00 (FGS) 2.75 (Anytime)
Marlon Harewood 7.50 (FGS) 2.87 (Anytime)
Chris Dagnall 8.00 (FGS) 3.00 (Anytime)
Tomasz Cywka 8.50 (FGS) 3.25 (Anytime)
Kelvin Etuhu 9.00 (FGS) 3.75 (Anytime)


The Last Games

Boro:
Bury 1 – 2 Boro

Boro generally bossed the first round COC game to ensure safe passage through to the second round of the cup competition. A Marvin Emnes screamer opened the scoring in the 33rd minute before ledesma doubled the scoreline in the 61st minute. All was not rosy however, Bury exploited Boro’s Achilles heel of defending set pieces to score from a corner in the 64th minute. Bury defender Efi Sodje was given a red card late on in the game for deliberately clattering the ginger ninja Luke Williams.

Barnsley:
Rochdale 3 – 4 Barnsley (after extra time)

A midoless Barnsley also progressed through to the second round of the competition after coming out on top in a high scoring and even match. The game was 2-1 to Barnsley at 90 minutes, however Barnsley goalkeeper Ben Alnwick was sent off in the 90th minute for needlessly headbutting a Rochdale player. Rochdale then scored from the resulting penalty, taking the game to extra time.


Recent Form
(Most recent result last)

Boro -
Overall Form - W
Away form - W

Barnsley -
Overall Form - W
Home Form - NA


Injury/Availability News

Boro -

- Scott McDonald and Seb Hines were not in the squad for the COC match against bury, however there have been no reports of injuries to either player, therefore both should be available to play against Barnsley if selected.
- Zemmama is due to end his religiously-induced hunger strike until the 18th august and therefore may be involved.

- Mustapha Carayol only played half of the Bury game due to a tight hamstring. It is not thought to be a serious injury however he may be rested for the league opener.
- Lukas Jutkiewicz will miss the game and is not expected back until mid-September following surgery on medial knee ligament damage last month.
Julio Arca has a hip flexor problem and will be assessed ahead of the game at Oakwell
- The trio of Faris Haroun (hamstring), Seb Hines (ankle) and Joe Bennett (knee) have all recently returned to training and checks will be made ahead of the game. (from MFC site)


Barnsley:

- Mido - as was forseen by pretty much everyone – is injured already after obtaining a hamstring injury in a pre-season game. He is likely to be out (at KFC most likely) for about 3-4 months.
- Goalkeeper Ben Alnwick was given a straight red card in Barnsley’s COC game against Rochdale and is therefore unavailable for selection in this game. Barnsley have therefore drafted in goalkeeper David Gonzales on a non contract basis to play barnsley's first three games.
- Luke Steele, and winger Jim O'Brien, but both are injured, with the latter out for 12 weeks. (info from WhiteyBFC)


The Un(ger)-Official Match Preview

After a moral-boosting performance and result against a battling bury team, I think Boro should have enough about them to get 3 points on Saturday. However, as we all know, the games on the first day of a new season always throw up some odd results. Taking all that into account, and the fact that barnsleys goalkeeper will not be available, I think another 2-1 victory to Boro is on the cards – with barnsley’s goal being scored from a corner and ours by emnes and leadbitter


Official Match Preview

http://www.mfc.co.uk/page/matches/previe...54,00.html

key points:
- This will be the 49th league meeting between the two, Boro winning 24 of these, with Barnsley being victorious in 13.

- This will be the first time in 6 seasons that boro begin their season with an away game!

- The Tykes were relegated from the Premier League in 1997/98, the season Boro won promotion back to the top-flight

- Barnsley were relegated to league 1 in 2001/2, but regained Championship status in 2005/06 after a league 1 play-off final penalty win over Swansea City.

- They finished in 21st place last season, compared to Boro's 7th.

- Marlon Harewood (recent barnsley aquisition) scored his first career goal at the Riverside for Nottingham Forest in 1998. He has not played since February - at the Riverside. He has not scored since April 2011 - at the Riverside.

- Boro have only won twice on the opening day of the league campaign in the last 12 seasons.

- A 2-0 home win over Swindon Town on August 6 2005 in League One was the last first day victory for the Tykes. Since then, they've lost four and drawn two

- Boro are unbeaten in their last three against Barnsley

- Mowbray's men did the double over the Tykes last season, with a 2-0 home win following an early season 3-1 victory at Oakwell.


The View From The Other Side
opposition fan's forum threads and comments! This week, courtesy of 'WhiteyBFC', whose Barnsley blog can be found at http://tarnreview.blogspot.co.uk/

"(Keith hill) Likes to play proper football, and his recruitment policy is brave. The way he takes 'broken toys' and fixes them (see Vaz Te) goes to back to his Rochdale tenure. And Keith has recruited a hell of a lot of broken toys again this summer."

"David Perkins (you can't miss him, he's albino) is quite possibly the most underrated footballer I've ever known."

"New signings Tomasz Cywka and Jacob Mellis look to have the creative skills we lacked from February onwards.
But, keep your eye out for our latest Academy product - 18 year old defender John Stones. The lad is destined for much bigger things."

"I'd take a point now. But I expect a comfortable 3-0 victory.... for you lot."

and whiteyBFC's predicted team (from his blog):

--------------Gonzales---------------
-Hassell--Stones--McNulty--Wiseman-
---------------Perkins---------------
--------Mellis-----------Cywka------
--Etuhu------------------------Done
----------------Davies--------------


Possible Boro Team (my stab in the dark anyway…)

--------------Steele---------------
-Hoyte—Williams-Woodgate—Friend--
---Carayol--Lbitter--Thomson--Bailey-
-----------Ledesma—Emnes----------


Talking Points

- What team do you reckon the Boro will put out?

- What team would you like to see?

- With 7 subs now allowed again, how many youngsters will we see on the bench? Or maybe even starting?

- What result will we see?

- Will we make a good start to the season, or will the first game (as is so often the case) bring us down to earth with a great big bump!?

[SmogOnTheTyne]

Going down to the Riverside tomorrow to get about 10 tickets for this game, so will be keeping an eye on this thread for places to park etc last time I went to Oakwell, when Justin Hoyte scored that "wonder" goal, I parked in the ground but won't be doing that again as it took me about an hour to get out.

Hopefully see a similar line up to the Bury game possibly with Haroun in for Bailey and McDonald back in the squad at least.

I am really confident about the Barnsley game, I think it's possibly one of the best fixtures for us to start up against, as I believe Barnsley will struggle this year.

2-0 Boro, Emnes and Friend.

[Barticus]

I'm so glad its back, cant wait UTB

[Alves car salesman]

Not going to be at the game this weekend, the atmosphere shall be a good one, think you will see a similar team to what started against Bury maybe with Bennett on the bench if he is fit. Think the formation we play is 4-3-3 which give the front three the freedom to swap around and rotate, Think Skippy will make the bench too. Maybe some business done this week will change my views

[BoroG]

Can't wait for this, let's hope we get off to another good start!

Interesting to see that the most successful sailor in Olympic history also does a bit of goalkeeping for Barnsley on the side too

[boro-unger]

(12-08-2012 05:14 PM)BoroG Wrote:  Can't wait for this, let's hope we get off to another good start!

Interesting to see that the most successful sailor in Olympic history also does a bit of goalkeeping for Barnsley on the side too

bugger!

i do have a hangover though - thats my excuse...

[Alves car salesman]

*Ben Alnwick

[VectorBoro]

Boro -Unger ... Your match day thread has made todays issue of the PR Teesside website

http://paper.li/PR_Teesside/1316266429

[boksicdink]

i could be wrong, but isnt Luke Steele (not the Luke Steele that sometimes replaces Jason Steele in goal for us) injured too? so both first and second choice keepers are unavailable?

[boro-unger]

you are indeed correct about luke steele boksicdink! completely forgot about him (can i use the hangover excuse again?!)

(12-08-2012 05:32 PM)vectorboro Wrote:  Boro -Unger ... Your match day thread has made todays issue of the PR Teesside website

http://paper.li/PR_Teesside/1316266429

woo, front page news out of interest, how do they decide what goes on there?