Andy Munro gets misty-eyed over Blues at Middlesbrough. Blame the smog…

It’s the hope that kills you and mine was based on our demolition of Kidderminster, which I suppose was about on a par with Manchester City beating Crewe Alexandra.

Certainly if Lee Clark ever leaves football management then he’s definitely got a career in selling double glazing because, after reading his statements in the Mail, I was convinced that a new dawn was about to break. Unfortunately, we got clinically taken apart by a Middlesbrough side who are unlikely to feature in the play-offs but, worse still, we didn’t get a shot on goal all match.

So why am I looking to predictably blame Clark when he’s had to shop at the footballing equivalent of charity shops and signed players who’ll being earning a wage that they could probably get doing a spot of window cleaning?

Well, first of all take the choice of right back and the preference of Neil Eardley over Bolton hero Caddis. Now we all know that Caddis generally had an iffy season but the one-paced Eardley certainly isn’t a better bet in my book. At the back, LC prefers Robbo to the far younger, impressive Gunning (admittedly only tested in friendlies) and much as I respect Robbo, has he really got the legs to deal with quick forwards like Adomah?

However the biggest faux pas has to be the decision to play the ineffective Shinnie. Ask 99.9% of us and it’s only the 0.1% of ill-advised fans who had ‘Shinniesta’ printed on their replica shirt that would disagree that he’s just a load of flim flam. To compound the problem, the one-paced Novak plays alongside the talented but lightweight Gray who for the next couple of years needs to play the role of impact sub. No wonder the massive(?) frame of 5′ 11″ Thomas ploughed a lonely and ineffective furrow up front.

It just didn’t make sense but, to me, Clark’s selections rarely do. Certainly at two-nil down, I’d have gone 4-4-2 and brought on Donaldson alongside Thomas or even the Celtic kid. If the raison d’etre for playing 4-4-2 at home is to attack then when we’re two down you would think a switch of tactical formation was obvious. Incidentally, we may be the Championship paupers but I note that the Boro forward, Lee Tomlin, that Tom Ross was describing in Messi-like terms was at Rushden & Diamonds and Peterborough before joining Boro. Hardly a Galactico.