Middlesbrough win in Manchester

Middlesbrough kicked off their title defence with a 4-3 away win over bogey team Manchester on Sunday at the Sugden Sports Centre, recording their first win over Manchester in five attempts. Despite only one training session in the month leading up to the match, and three new faces in the team, Boro came out on top in a game that could have gone either way.

Playing in unfamiliar black and white hoops, kindly donated by Darlington Football Club, while a new sponsor is sought, Middlesbrough started with a more familiar line-up of Prosser, Rashid, Kilbride and Bettson, backed up by Bulmer in goal.

Manchester took the lead after Boro’s positive start but a mistake from former Boro player Nick Hamblin allowed Prosser to create a goal for Boro vice-captain Robbie Bettson who slotted in at the far post. He could have doubled his tally minutes later as Manchester were reduced to four players as Bahzuri handled on the line to prevent a goal. Bettson missed the six metre penalty, but within two minutes Boro had the lead through Ben Everson. Everson scored his second before half-time and Manchester got one back to keep in the game at the interval.

A dominant second half performance by Manchester, who had the majority of possession, saw them equalise through Martinez, but it was shortlived as Paul Smith squared for Ben Everson to complete his hattrick with a sublime finish over the grounded ‘keeper. Boro held on while Manchester tried to probe and were guilty of missing a few clear cut chances and Middlesbrough will be more than happy with three points that could easily have been a defeat.

Manager Damon Shaw was full of praise for the fight his team put in. “We weren’t favourites to win today, and with our record against Manchester we might have settled for a draw so to come away with all three points is great for us. The players battled until the final whistle and didn’t allow Manchester to get the breakthrough. The goals we did concede were three individual errors that could really have cost us, but Ben Everson was fantastic with three quality goals.”

“We’ve got a lot of work to do but it will give the boys confidence and it’s something to build on for the next few weeks, starting with Leeds at home on Sunday.”

Middlesbrough are at home on Sunday against Leeds Futsal Club and are urging people to come and watch. It kicks off at 2pm at Thornaby Pavilion and entry on the door is £2 adults, £1 kids and £4 for a family ticket (2 adults, 2 kids). With the club still without a sponsor home support is vital to help keep the club running.

Club Secretary Neil Greaves wants to see local people supporting a local team. “Boro are one of the best futsal teams in England so the quality on show will be very high and at only £1 for kids it is excellent value. Thornaby can hold almost 400 spectators so if we were to get a decent crowd we could have a great atmosphere for our home games!”

For more information on Boro and all news and fixtures go to www.borofutsal.com.







Posted by Luca Ranocchiari --> luca.ranocchiari@futsalplanet.com