Ian Holloway brought his Millwall side to town to pitch their brace of away wins against Boro’s four wins on the trot and it was the London Lions that bested the Teesside variety and extended their record with a deserved two one win.
For Ollie’s Men, now out of the bottom three, this was a significant step towards survival in The Championship but for Karanka and his team it was ‘game’s up’ for this season in the most frustrating and disappointing way.
Much though it pains me to say so, Ollie got the better of Boro’s Head Coach in his selections, set out and in-game management and their players wanted it more. As a result, Millwall turned up and The Reds didn’t.
You can only imagine that George Friend’s injury wasn’t recovered enough for him to start as Karanka’s starting eleven were unchanged from last Saturday’s.
Friend joined his usual full back partner, Joe Varga on the bench and The Reds went 3-5-2 again when Karanka could have fielded three quarters of a proper back four without risking Gorgeous George and gone with a strong 4-2-3-1 through the rest of the side.
You can get away with or even get the benefit from a ‘virtue from necessity’ enforced change of selection by a novel set out and approach that gets you one off heightened concentration and energy from those who do play.
The ‘out of character’ character worked at Burnley last time out but, with a limited squad like Boro’s drilled in the way they have to be, it will only work once.
I was sufficiently concerned that this was the way things might go to address it in my pre-match piece but I didn’t actually believe that Karanka would fall for it.
Asking for the reprise this week was misguided, as the outcome underlined - it simply exposed the character flaws the squad still has.
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Boro v Millwall match action
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Millwall were prepared for the tactic and confident and consistent in their positive response throughout and Holloway managed his resources well during the game.
Unlike at Turf Moor, Karanka’s subs and in-game changes of approach were puzzling in their nature and timing, never looked like working and proved just as ineffective as what he’d started with.
Given what’s brought success for Karanka and his coaching team with Boro, this reverse and, particularly, the manner of it in front of an expectant Easter crowd at The Riverside, just before the season card deadline, was as old school ‘Typical Boro’ as it was deflating.
Post-match, Karanka declared himself surprised at the performance and result but I’m surprised he’s surprised.
He blamed the mentality of the players for the inconsistency from last week to this and the lack of ‘want it’ intensity but I think it would have been fairer if he’d placed some of the blame even closer to home.
He did admit to breaking one of his own cardinal rules by having Tuesday’s game at Reading in mind when he was planning for this game instead of sticking by the ‘one game at a time’ mantra.
It’s odd that a bloke who has got it so right often enough, especially in recent weeks, got it so wrong yesterday – but worse that he didn’t admit it with early in-game changes or in his post-match interviews.
In contrast, Woody’s view that he would have booed himself and his team-mates if he’d been in the stands showed he understood the home fans reaction and that he and his team-mates, at least, should take their responsibility.
He couldn’t understand or explain the ‘not good enough’ team performance, except to say that The Teessiders might have returned to an old fault in believing their own publicity and taking their foot off the gas against a team from the basement battle zone after a run against several at the other end of The Championship.
Whatever, we can only hope that this was a strange aberration and that forward momentum can be resumed with ‘normal service’ against The Royals tomorrow evening.
On Saturday, though Boro had the first decent chance when Graham forced Forde to push his shot onto the post it was Millwall who took the lead.
The visitors’ opener came by dint of Millwall succeeding in taking advantage of Boro’s 3-5-2 in the way that Burnley hadn’t been able to last week at Turf Moor.
As The Clarets did, they did the textbook thing and pushed their wingers at the space behind Ledesma and Adomah but this week it worked.
Crosses started to come in, aimed at the giant Maierhofer and the challenges forced a couple of corners. From the second, the big lad got up with precious little challenge to nod home on sixteen for his debut Lions’ goal – and it had been coming.
Karanka responded immediately by reverting to his favoured 4-2-3-1 but that meant Chalobah at centre-back, Omeruo to right back, Ledesma at left back and Tomlin wide left.
With so many out of position, the careless carnage that had replaced Boro’s usual organisation took hold and ‘headless chicken’ replaced resolve.
It was no surprise when ‘wanting it more’ Millwall took advantage again by finding the big Austrian striker who had, unsurprisingly, pulled on to Ledesma at the back stick for an easy second with a unmarked, straightforward header on the half hour.
Getting one back before the break would have been the target but it was Ollie’s uncomplicated but positive side that continued to look the most likely and doing a number on messily out of sorts Boro.
I guess Karanka and Higgy would have been itching to get their side into the dressing room to address their own selection and set out errors and the many that resulted from their team.
This was the home side’s worst first half performance in weeks and it drew booing from some of the frustrated fifteen thousand home crowd as the teams left the field.
In the concourses, many were hoping that at least one of Boro’s two regular full backs would be introduced from the bench at the break to get a better back four and midfield shape, much more grip of the game and some basis for attacking.
Unfortunately, despite George Friend warming up through the whole half-time break, Karanka made no changes for the start of the second half, preferring to try to one on one coach Ledesma through from the technical area.
Unsurprisingly, Holloway kept things unchanged too and both coaches would know that the next goal could either be ‘game over’ or ‘game on’.
Boro were brighter in search of it without being a threat on Forde’s goal, so Karanka brought on Luke Williams for Jacob Butterfield on the hour and Holloway responded by bringing on Morison for Williams.
Holloway replaced the scorer of the brace, Maierhofer with midfielder, Jimmy Abdou on seventy-three and Karanka responded by subbing Leadbitter for Curtis Main and went for a sort of 4-4-2, though it rarely looked that organised.
Morison should have finished matters straight after the changes but his tame effort when clean through was no test for Konstantopoulos but the Greek did have to work to deny Woolford moments later.
Danny Graham drew a free kick in the Millwall ‘D’ with ten to go and Ledesma and Tomlin debated who would take it.
The Argentinian won the argument and struck a superb effort up and over the wall and into the top corner.
Game on!
But was there time and momentum enough for Boro to equalise? No.
Holloway played the ‘returning player’ card, bringing on Scott McDonald for Garvan with five to go and Karanka made George Friend his last sub rather than his first as many would have thought and went three at the back again.
Despite the huff and puff by those in red, it was Millwall that came closest in added time when Konstantopoulos had saves to make and Martin’s netted effort was denied by the lino’s flag.
Those Boro fans who hadn’t already headed for the car parks or the underpasses made their feelings known again at the final whistle whilst the visiting East Londoners in the South East corner celebrated.
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