Source: Daily_Mail
Middlesbrough 1 Sheffield United 0: Kris Boyd thwarts Gary Speed
[LNB]Middlesbrough's fans voted with their feet but Gordon Strachan was grateful for Kris Boyd's left boot after he earned a first Championship win of the season. [LNB]A paltry 14,633 were there to witness Boyd's maiden strike in English football, comfortably the lowest-ever crowd for a League game in the Riverside's 15-year history. [LNB] High fives: Boyd (far left) wins the adoration of Riverside after scoring [LNB]It is a statistic which will disturbthe club's hierarchy after hefty investment. It beat the previous low,recorded against Swansea last season, by more than 2,000. [LNB]Boyd carved out a stellar reputationas a finisher during four seasons with Rangers and showed that side ofhis game has still not deserted him with his move to Teesside,fashioning the only clear-cut opportunity of the contest himself to getBoro's campaign up and running. [LNB][LNB]Good point: Speed[LNB]Former Old Firm striking rival ScottMcDonald's flick-on was not dealt with by Sheffield United's ChrisMorgan, who paid dearly for ending up on the wrong side of the ball asBoyd nodded it into the area and stroked it across Steve Simonsen from15 yards. [LNB]SPEED HAS SLOW START Gary Speed remained upbeat after getting his managerial career off to a losing start. [LNB]Sheffield United are bottom of the table with just one point after Middlesbrough manager Gordon Strachan got one over his former Leeds team-mate. [LNB]Speed said: 'That (the table) doesn't worry me at the moment because one thing I have got is a group of players who are willing to work hard.'[LNB]Having bettered Henrik Larsson'sScottish Premier League's all-time scoring record with 164 goals, Boyd,27, opted for the challenge of restoring Boro to the top-flight. [LNB]Indeed, his capture was the coup degrace in a summer spending spree which cost in excess of £6million intransfer fees, millions more in wages, and cast Boro as pre-seasonChampionship title favourites. [LNB]Such financial freedom is notavailable to genuine football fans in the current climate, however, andboss Strachan believes it is a lack of funds rather than faith in histeam that contributed to the poor turnout for the televised lunchtimekick-off. [LNB]'There are big gaps everywhere,' hesaid. 'At Coventry there were 13,000 yesterday, I look at Wigan andthere is hardly anybody there and at a place like ours whenunemployment is huge you are not going to get people turn up to a gamethat's on telly. [LNB]'Only footballers seem to have money- it is a business that seems to have completely ignored recession interms of wages and all the rest of it.' [LNB]Strachan opted for greater width to his team's play on the way to only a fourth win in 15 League matches. [LNB]There were full debuts for Estonia winger Tarmo Kink and Andrew Halliday, 18, a summer buy from Livingston, on the flanks.[LNB] The latter was in tandem withMatthew Kilgallon, who only left United in January, on the left. Indeedit was Kink who awakened the sparselyscattered stands when he unleasheda shot from 30 yards which narrowly cleared the crossbar. [LNB]Appreciative gulps morphed to boos adozen minutes later, however, at the half-time whistle. They would havegrown louder had Ched Evans shown the same composure as Boyd whenpresented with the first half's single opening but goalkeeper JasonSteele's legs kept out his shot. [LNB]Julio Arca replaced Kink and provided better possession but no greater creativity. So thank goodness for Boyd.[LNB] 'He has only had one chance since he got here and we have to make the man more,' moaned Strachan.[LNB] Speed: Sheffield United job was too good an opportunity to turn downSunderland defender Kilgallon goes to Middlesbrough for season-long loanCheck out the latest npower Championship scores, standings and more in our brilliant Stats Zone[LNB] [LNB]
