In the lead up to this game, it was easy to think that the season was done. The defeat at Swansea had halted our two-match winning streak and that poor first half performance had suggested that without the pace of Latte Lath or the creativity of Doak we’d struggle to make the play-offs.
But the gap was only five points or effectively two wins. Mind you, with just ten games remaining, winning two more games than your rivals is a tall order. There’s always hope though, until there isn’t and Harry and I set off for the Riverside thinking that a win would keep the promotion campaign alive.
When I saw the line-up I initially thought that our problem of the lack of centre-backs was going to be exacerbated by the novel approach of playing with three of them rather than two and filling the slots with a right back, a left back and a central midfielder. However, Carrick had stuck to his usual back four with Borges and Howson at centre half. It worked ok. Dijksteel remained at right back and capped his performance with a wide run where he cut inside and passed the ball into the far corner of the net.
Jonny Howson showed how badly he had been missed. He played deep, usually five or more yards beyond the QPR attacking line. He organised everything and despite not being anywhere near match-fit was our most influential player. Even if our missing centre-halves make recoveries I’d keep him in the side, either as a third centre-back or perhaps as part of a midfield three, sitting in behind Hackney and Morris.
After being two-up and cruising a late QPR goal meant a tense final few minutes. Their keeper even went up for a corner and had a header on target. We held on though to keep the play-off hopes alive for another week.
Tags: Jonny Howson, Middlesbrough FC
Trail of the Lion King 
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