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All Alan Smith posts on WhoScored.com Articles RSS

Team Focus: Middlesbrough's Promotion Push Built on Solid Defence

by Alan Smith at Thursday, Jan 21 2016 16:20
Team Focus: Middlesbrough's Promotion Push Built on Solid Defence It had to end at some point, but the manner was terribly cruel. Middlesbrough must have felt awfully sore to concede that injury-time goal to managerless Bristol City last weekend, which left them seconds from breaking an 88-year-old record for 10 consecutive clean sheets. There is plenty of consola...
Categories: Team Focus

Team Focus: Patience Needed For New QPR Boss Hasselbaink

by Alan Smith at Wednesday, Dec 9 2015 15:30
Team Focus: Patience Needed For New QPR Boss Hasselbaink When Jimmy Floyd Hasselbaink was unveiled as news Queens Park Rangers manager on Monday, there was plenty of talk about change. A certain degree is inevitable when a new coach takes over, but the scale in which the Dutchman, after a successful start in management at Burton Albion, is planning on ove...
Categories: Team Focus

League Focus: Premier League Core has Helped Hull to Championship Summit

by Alan Smith at Wednesday, Nov 11 2015 10:30
League Focus: Premier League Core has Helped Hull to Championship Summit For all the Championship's promise of the unpredictable, the expected names are sitting near the top of the table and those predicted to suffer are finding things difficult. The pair of financially-stable teams relegated from last season's Premier League occupy two of the top three places, but Brigh...
Categories: League Focus

League Focus: Reading the Championship's Surprise Package So Far

by Alan Smith at Wednesday, Oct 7 2015 10:45
League Focus: Reading the Championship's Surprise Package So Far Embryonic stages these may still be, but if there is a major surprise package this season; then Reading appear the most likely. They have won five of their last six games and Steve Clarke, courtesy of 13 summer signings, has brought the Berkshire side from mid-table obscurity last campaign to a genu...
Categories: League Focus

League Focus: Brighton Lead Way in Typically Unpredictable Championship Start

by Alan Smith at Wednesday, Sep 2 2015 14:18
League Focus: Brighton Lead Way in Typically Unpredictable Championship Start Five games in and already the Championship has shown its inherent dislike for predictors and tipsters, vainly attempting to figure out the most unpredictable division of all. Everybody laughed on 3 August when Brighton tweeted that vine of Bobby Zamora saying “I’m back” while clutc...
Categories: League Focus

Match Focus: Norwich Worthy Winners of Play-Off Final Against Lacklustre Boro

by Alan Smith at Tuesday, May 26 2015 12:48
Match Focus: Norwich Worthy Winners of Play-Off Final Against Lacklustre Boro The play-off final did not turn into an overdue classic despite much promise after a blistering opening 15 minutes. Instead it was decided by a breathtaking early blitz from Norwich and Middlesbrough did not know how to respond. In many ways it was a tale of two strikers on contrasting trajectories ...
Categories: Match Focus

Match Focus: Championship Play-offs - Second Leg Previews

by Alan Smith at Monday, May 11 2015 15:26
Match Focus: Championship Play-offs - Second Leg Previews Middlesbrough (2) vs Brentford (1) – Friday 7.45pmMark Warburton has insisted this tie is not over and considering the unpredictable season Brentford have endured, you would not put it past them to overturn the deficit at the most difficult Championship ground to get a result this season but i...
Categories: Match Focus

League Focus: Watford and Bournemouth Seal Promotion But Who Will Join Them?

by Alan Smith at Tuesday, Apr 28 2015 15:50
League Focus: Watford and Bournemouth Seal Promotion But Who Will Join Them? After a season that had captured the imagination like no other, the Championship’s final day is going to be something of an anticlimax. Only the final playoff place and, possibly depending on Rotherham’s result against Reading tonight, the last relegation spot will be left to play for. T...
Categories: League Focus

Team Focus: Wigan Hoping Caldwell Can Steady the Ship with Great Escape Unlikely

by Alan Smith at Tuesday, Apr 14 2015 09:56
Team Focus: Wigan Hoping Caldwell Can Steady the Ship with Great Escape Unlikely Gary Caldwell does not yet look like a manager burdened by stress but it should not take too long for the first grey hairs to appear. Malky Mackay’s replacement at Wigan, who are almost certain to be relegated from the Championship, turned 33 on Sunday, making him the youngest manager in Engli...
Categories: Team Focus

Team Focus: Multi-Talented Bamford Leading Organised Boro Towards Promotion

by Alan Smith at Monday, Mar 30 2015 15:57
Team Focus: Multi-Talented Bamford Leading Organised Boro Towards Promotion There was a story earlier in the season about Patrick Bamford, Middlesbrough’s star performer on-loan from Chelsea, turning down a Harvard scholarship. Privately educated, fluent in French, German and currently learning Spanish on the side, the 21-year-old recently stated his ambition to move ...
Categories: Team Focus