We looked a bit leggy.....

  • by Gordon Thrower
  • Saturday, 15th September 2007

Alan Curbishley gives his view from the dugoout after today's 3-0 win over Boro'......

A comfortable win? I don’t know that it was comfortable. We came in at half time and we looked a bit leggy – especially my international players. I don’t know how many of Boro’s players had played but three of my back four had played.

We said we’d need a good start to the second half, to keep the tempo up and we got a great goal. It’s the type of goal that Lee has been threatening to get. It was a great goal and it settled us down.

Then when we got ourselves 2-0 up we tried to commit suicide by trying to play offside a few times. We got lucky a few times – I don’t think Greenie’s saves are lucky because they were good saves. I said to Gareth earlier it’s all about chances. We took ours and they didn’t take theirs.

What did I say to Carlton Cole at half time? Well I thought he was trying to ease himself in during the first half. It’s difficult to do that – you can’t do that.

I said to all the players – especially Carlton – that we needed a quick start. I’m pleased he’s made the goal – I wish he’d scored near the end though!

We’re in a similar position to England during the week – we’ve had injuries and people have had to step up to the plate and get on with it. It looks like we’ve got another injury today.

Bellamy? He’s been complaining about his groin and he needed a fitness test before Reading. We all knew what he did midweek and he just felt he couldn’t run. Shattered. We’ll have to assess that tomorrow. We’ll just have to get on with it.

I’m pleased for Deano. He looked stronger today. Two weeks ago he looked a bit leggy. He’s played two reserve games since then so that’s done him the world of good. He can only get stronger now.

Ferdinand? He got injured last Tuesday in training. I went to the England game on Wednesday and rushed home to catch the Wales game only to turn on and see Collins on the floor writhing around clutching his shoulder. I thought that just about sums it up – I’ve lost Ferdinand and now I’ve lost another centre-half.

I had a decision to make between the two centre-halves and Danny Gabbidon played with a bit of a head cold on Wednesday and he didn’t train yesterday. Both were a bit injured and a bit tired. We’re pleased we got through it and it was a great result for us and we’ll take it.

Ashton – well after the Reading game he played for the reserves against Reading then we arranged a friendly midweek against Colchester for Scott parker and Ashton. Parker played 80 minutes against Colchester and we have another on Tuesday and he’ll play in that. He’s not far off. Freddie has only trained this week.

As for Ashton - well he had the one major op and another to clean up the scar tissue. When I first came here I was told Deano was a month away. Obviously I soon realised that wasn’t going to happen. We sat down and agreed that it’d take as long as it takes.

The main focus of pre-season was for him to get through it. Not perhaps for him to pull up any trees but just to get through the six weeks. In all fairness I think we handled it quite well. Within two weeks he’s looked a lot sharper.

Like I said midweek about Michael Owen – look at the difference in the two weeks since we played Germany. Dean needs football – as much as he can get.

It’s difficult to give people games in the Premiership where you’ve got to get a win but I think he’s been happy with the way we’ve done it. We thought he was ready after his goal against Roma but as the training went on that week we realised he wasn’t quite there.

Most of our post-match conversations have been about sticking our hands up looking for offsides. We won’t get carried away. We had some tired legs out there – we worked ever so hard. Hopefully one or two of the others will be fit in the coming weeks and come in to give us the squad we need.

I brought Solano and Camara in. We didn’t see Solano until this afternoon and we didn’t see Camara until yesterday morning so we’ll integrate those two in. We have a tough one next weekend so we’ll enjoy this one as much as we can.

Bowyer – I told him he had a thankless task out there today. Boro’ played very similar to the way we did at Reading the other week. It was a thankless task chasing around after the break. I told him that he’d worked so hard something would give and it was a great goal. He can go home now and it’s all been worthwhile.

I’ve known Lee since he was 13 and he thrives on getting into the box like that so let’s hope there’s more to come.

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