Boro take a deserved three points back up north but both gaffers are shown the exit door!
To kick the game into to life Boro saw their first chance stopped due to basic but great goalkeeping from young Joe Wildsmith. Downing sent Braithwaite through into the box, he ran to the byline and flashed a low and hard cross in the middle where Assombalonga would have surely tapped home but Wildsmith got down quickly and held onto the ball.
On the twenty minute mark Middlesbrough should have certainly took the lead when right-back Cyrus Christie crossed a ball into the middle for an unmarked Patrick Bamford who disappointingly headed wide.
Wednesday opened the scoring on the half hour mark through Scotsman Ross Wallace. Adam Reach latched onto Daniel Pudil’s forward pass. The Ex-Boro winger cut the ball back into the middle where Gary Hooper superbly rolled two defenders and laid the ball on a plate for Wallace to tuck home.
There was a goal mouth scramble five minutes before halftime. Firstly Martin Braithwaite took the ball around an outrushing Wildsmith, his pass was cleared by Pudil poorly into the path of the reds dangerman Assombalonga but Pudil made up for his mistake by putting his body on the line and threw himself in front of the shot.
Assombalonga had a host of chances to score on the day and again he failed to net when his run was picked out by Downing, he cut in on his left and curled his effort across goal.
The final action of a frantic first 45 went Wednesday’s way when Liam Palmer’s fierce volley was brilliantly kept out by Randolph the Red Nose Reindeer (I had to include a Christmas joke sorry!)
Wildsmith was stepping in again for the injured Keiren Westwood and he proved his quality on his chance when he made a tremendous save to keep out Braithwaite. Fabio’s cross was headed down to Bamford by Assombalonga. Bamford teed up Braithwaite who smashed a shot towards goal but the Wednesday keeper saved.
Middlesbrough thought they had equalised on the hour mark. Christie picked out Assombalonga at the back post, Britt slid and poached the ball into the net however the linesman raised his flag to put a stop to their celebrations.
Ten minutes later Boro were awarded a penalty when Butterfield brought down forward Patrick Bamford in the box. Grant Leadbitter stepped up to take the penalty but again Wildsmith pulled another great save off by saving the penalty heading for the bottom left corner. However a minute later things went badly for the Owls as Boro equalised. Howson hit an inviting ball on the edge of the box and saw his effort rifle through a load of bodies and into the net.
Things went from bad to worse for Wednesday as Boro scored to complete their second half turnaround. Ryan Shotton headed home Stewart Downing’s corner.
Wednesday showed little fight to conjure up an equaliser. Their only chance coming from Jordan Rhodes who skied his effort from outside the box meaning Middlesbrough took home all the points back to the Riverside Stadium.
FT: Sheffield Wednesday 1-2 Middlesbrough; Both Gaffers gone by the morning!
However the win wasn’t enough as after the game Gary Monk was relieved of his duties. Then on Christmas Eve it was announced the Carlos Carvahal had left Sheffield Wednesday by mutual consent. I was saddened by this but also knew it was the right decision. He was a lovely bloke every time I had the pleasure of talking to him. His personal passion and love for Sheffield Wednesday was brilliant, it’s just a shame he couldn’t transfer it into his players this season and a lot of last season.
Thank you Carlos for the memories such as Brighton in the playoff semi-finals, a 3-0 victory of Arsenal in the League Cup, a two incredible victories over Newcastle United and many more.
So who’ll take over? The bookies favourite is Spaniard Aitor Karanka but there are also names such as Nigel Pearson, Gary Megson, Paulo Fonseca and Paul Hurst. We’ll see who’ll be the next to take over the reign of the club. I’m just hoping for someone who’ll instigate the passion in the players, use the players to their best (i.e. play to Jordan Rhodes’ strengths) and play exciting attacking football.
Come on Chansiri, choose carefully
SWFC: Joe Wildsmith; Liam Palmer, Joost van Aken, Frederico Venancio, Daniel Pudil (Lucas Joao); Ross Wallace (Jacob Butterfield), Sam Hutchinson, David Jones, Adam Reach; Atdhe Nuhiu (Jordan Rhodes), Gary Hooper
Unused Subs: Cameron Dawson, Marco Matias, Ash Baker, Almen Abdi
MFC: Darren Randolph; Cyrus Christie, Ryan Shotton, Ben Gibson, Fabio; Stewart Downing (Marcus Tavernier), Grant Leadbitter, Jonny Howson; Patrick Bamford (Rudy Gustede), Britt Assombalonga, Martin Braithwaite (Marvin Johnson
Unused Subs: Dimi Konstantopoulos, Daniel Ayala, George Friend, Ashley Fletcher
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