Middlesbrough boss Tony Mowbray admitted his thread-bare squad were relieved to escape with a point after a 0-0 draw with Crystal Palace at the Riverside.
Palace had the best of the chances against a makeshift Boro side. Midweek injuries to key men Barry Robson and Scott McDonalded added to the Boro casualty list - and midfielder Faris Haroun limped off after just seven minutes.
"We are down to the bare bones," said Mowbray after a third successive draw. "I think we are just glad to get a point.
"It has been a difficult week for us. We only had four in training on Thursday and that makes it difficult to get the strong team out.
"We had a few players out there that perhaps in normal circumstances wouldn't have played but that's football and you have to get on with it.
"But that said, we did well. I'm proud of them. We kept digging in, we stayed in the game and we got a clean sheet."
Comment 1 - 3 of 3
we keep on about buying players but as i said two years ago we are in this division for the long haul,i am afraid you will have to get used to it.there is no more money, we will have to become a training club for the bigger clubs to come and buy our talent and hopefully when we have enough in the kitty we can go on another run hopefully with steve gibson still on board,. am i being morose, no,truthful yes.
All clubs have injuries, why does it always seem to affect Boro so much.? We have let experienced players go, yet cannot find a team to beat even some of the poorer performers in the Championship. There has been a variety of excuses for not scoring goals and the remedy for this has been written about repeatedly by contributers to this column. We ended OK up until Christmas despite too many drawn matches and now it looks to be a struggle to make the "play offs" A month ago Gibson was preparing for an automatic promotion place. We have bought another striker who no doubt will be another good investment for the future whereas Mowbray needs help now with more experience as David S indicates. One of the key players this season has been Barry Robson and Boro seem to struggle when he is injured or suspended.
Well that was what you call a dogged performance and with the injuries we have I'm amazed we got away with a point. Steve Gibson will have to open the cheque book and get some loan signings in or those who have been released by they previous clubs becasue we are now seriously in trouble regarding squad numbers.
Mogga needs help and he needs it now otherwise we can say goodbye to promotion and we have a great chance the others are stumbling, look at West Ham big Stan was given the funds and got some good players why didn't we try for Morrison and Maynard.
Please login to post a comment
Not already a Yahoo! user ? Sign up to get a free Yahoo! Account