Deep In My Heart, Middlesbrough v Wigan Athletic || Middlesbrough F.C. news, reviews and comment

DEEP IN MY HEART
Middlesbrough vs. Wigan Athletic, 29th January 2008, Riverside Stadium, Premier League
James Keen

It wasn't pretty, it wasn't impressive and it wasn't enjoyable but Boro booked their place in the last sixteen of the FA Cup, away to Sheffield United, taking their place as sixth favourites for the competition at the expense of Mansfield Town.

We never expected to lose and we didn't think there'd be a shock, unlike the BBC and the rest of the media. But I had hoped for a better performance.

Mansfield made it difficult for us. They pressed and harried and contained Boro's "front man" - Dong-Gook Lee - for most of the game.

I was actually really looking forward to this game until I heard the team news. Why?

Tuncay would have benefitted from a game up top against a team like this, as would Aliadiere. So why play the Korean up top on his own when all he was going to prove was that he could score against another League Two side?

He got outclassed by one of the worse professional sides in England, no disrespect meant.

Let's pray that he doesn't line up against Wigan.

Well, that's enough anti-Gook talk for now and I know he is trying. But let's face it, he's not cutting it at Boro and the sooner we admit it the better.

We face Wigan with a full first eleven available to us, barring Andrew Taylor of course, and so should be at our best.

Mido made a promising return. Twenty minutes of composure and finesse against Mansfield should only add to his fitness and push him closer to his first start in fifteen games.

Oh how we need him.

Tuncay and Aliadiere have endeavoured as forwards, and Dong-Gook has appeared a few times, but what we've lacked is a target man. We need a forward to hold the ball up and relieve pressure; and a greedy one at that.

Against a team like Wigan we need a physical presence, Without one, Scharner and Bramble will have an easy day at the office.

Sadly for Boro, Titus Bramble has already made his howler of the month so he should be fairly solid against us.

Another sorry sight for Boro is that former Skunks front man Antoine Sibierski has started scoring again, albeit from off the bench.

Steve Bruce has Wigan playing well. They've become difficult to beat again and have a new work ethic about them. This is the type of ethic they had when they first came up.

It's not a good time to be playing Wigan but it is a good game to have at this juncture of the season. A victory for Boro should drag us out of the dogfight, or at least give us a bit of space, and importantly, prevent Wigan from leapfrogging us.

With the Mackems playing the Blues of Birmingham as well, there will be some points shared around the bottom eight clubs this week.

What we now need to do is to beat Wigan and emerge from that group, turning it into a bottom seven. At the very least, we need to catch up with Newcastle and make it a bottom nine. This is easily doable when you consider the Skunks play Arsenal this week.

But Boro's record against the Latics in the Premiership isn't the best and a 1-1 draw last season was only rescued by a lazy Nigerian named Yakubu.

Of course, the corresponding fixture at the JJB back in August ended in a 1-0 defeat, signalling the end of the Yak's stay. It was also one of the most gutless starts to the season from a Boro team for a long time.

A lot has changed since that game, although I'm not sure if it has changed for the better or worse.

I'd like to see us take a positive approach against Wigan and play with two up top and a forward thinking midfield of Downing, O'Neil, Rochemback and Arca.

This, coupled with our firm but slightly fair backline, should give us a solid base from which to build an attacking momentum.

This is a game we can win and we need to win.

Our home form has been poor and our fans deserve more than they've had from this season. It's time we pushed for goals and time our strikers proved that they are worth a place alongside whoever our new striker will be.

We've got exciting potential in the FA Cup, it's now time for our players to show Premier League form and give us something else to cheer.

My fingers are crossed, this is a big three points for us.

Up the Boro!

The Outcome: My heart tells me we'll beat last season's 1-1 draw with a 2-1 win but the head says a 1-1 draw is about par for the course.

Last time in the FA Cup: Middlesbrough 1-1 Wigan Athletic (Yakubu 67)

Boro Form (most recent result first): WDDWLW
Wigan Form: LLWWDL

Probable Teams:

Boro: Schwarzer, Young, Pogatetz, Wheater, Huth, Boateng, Arca, Rochemback, Downing, Tuncay, Aliadiere

Wigan: Kirkland, Melchiot, Bramble, Scharner, Taylor, Kilbane, Palacios, Brown, Valencia, Heskey, Bent

Man to Watch: Emile Heskey

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