Neil Warnock's latest 'last season in football' has started with a win, a draw and a loss ahead of the visit of QPR on Wednesday. We surveyed the lay of the Teesside land with our regular contributor James Boothby.

How do you assess last season, improved but short of the play offs?

Last season was a season of two halves for us really. First half we performed well, looked defensively strong and harboured hopes of play-offs. We faded badly in second half though, we had a few costly injuries and the size of our squad couldn't really cope with that. A definite improvement on the year before, but still showed we have plenty of work to do if we want to be looking towards the play offs.

Boro results so far…
Fulham 1-1 Boro Wilson 29 — Bola 77
Blackpool 3-0 Boro* Connolly 31, Lavery 77, Anderson 78
Boro 2-1 Bristol City Ikpeazu 38, Crooks 70 — King 60

Another 'last year in football' for Warnock, how's he done and what's to come?

I think the general feeling is that Warnock has done well so far, despite the disappointing end to the season. He has improved some of the players like Bola and Dijksteel who looked to be on their way out of the club but have now become key players. Debates will always rage about his 'style' of football, but as long as results come people will be generally happy. Warnock will be gunning for play-offs at least this season, otherwise I don't think he would have committed to another season of mid-table nothingness.

How have you started the season? What have you made of it so far?

It's actually been a pretty decent start to the season all things considered. Fulham away is one of the trickiest fixtures of the season, and to get a point there was a very good result. Granted, we did not create a lot through the game but we defended well and looked solid. Despite missing a few players it was a good win over Bristol City at the weekend, and I thought we played pretty well. It does have to be said though, apart from a 10 minute spell City looked really poor. The lack of depth we currently have really showed in the League Cup though, as our second string were comfortably beaten by Blackpool’s second string so we will still have some work to do to get people fit/get bodies in.

Summer transfer business, what you make of it, and how's the squad looking?

There has been a good amount of business, both in and out so will be a much changed squad. We have lost Assombalonga, Fletcher and Saville with the likes of Bolasie, Kebano and Bettinelli returning to parent clubs after loans so we have some gaps to fill. Business so far seems to have been solid enough filling some key areas we were lacking. New keeper who you will know well in Lumley, Matt Crooks in midfield from Rotherham, Uche Ikpeazu up front who looks like he will be the physical presence Warnock likes. Sammy Ameobi has come in to add a bit of creativity and Lee Peltier to provide cover across the back. Argentinian midfielder Martin Payero sounds like he will join us after the Olympics and have been heavily linked with a couple of other South American attackers so expecting a busy few weeks until Deadline day. At this moment we still look short in attack, but if we get a couple in then we look in decent shape.

Ins >>> Martin Payero, 22, MF, Banfield (Argentina), Undisclosed >>> Uche Ikpeazu, 26, CF, Wycombe, £800k >>> Matt Crooks, 27, CM, Rotherham, Undisclosed >>> Sammy Ameobi, 29, LW, Forest, Free >>> Joe Lumley, 26, GK, QPR, Free >>> Lee Peltier, 34, RB, Cardiff, Free >>> Luke Daniels, 33, GK, Brentford, Free >>> Sol Bamba, 36, CB, Cardiff, Free

Outs >>> George Saville, 26, CM, Millwall, Undisclosed >>> Jordan Archer, 28, GK, QPR, Free >>> Britt Assombalonga, 28, CF, Adam Demirspor (Turkey), Free >>> Ashley Fletcher, 25, CF, Watford, Free >>> Lewis Wing, 26, CM, Sheff Wed, Loan >>> Nathanial Mendez-Laing, 29, RW, Released >>> Marvin Johnson, 30, LM, Sheff Wed, Free >>> Hayden Coulson, 23, LB, Ipswich, Loan

What sort of Boro team will we be facing on Wednesday?

I would expect to see much the same side as the one that played on Saturday. Tavernier has been struggling for fitness for a while and would not expect to see him which is a big miss for us. Watmore also missed out with what was described as a 'muscle niggle' so not sure how long he will be out for, but is another who poses a goalscoring threat which we have badly missed. Ameobi has not played a minute since joining the club, and fit or not I would not expect to see Akpom start again for us unless we can't get rid of him in this window. Would expect to see young Isiah Jones start again on the wing, was lively against Bristol City and has two assists in his first two games. Ikpeazu looked a real handful on Saturday as well, scored one and assisted the second. Expecting a tough game, and maybe not one for the neutrals.

Pre-season prediction for the season

I am always on the more optimistic side, so think we might just steal into the Play-Offs. That is reliant on us getting the last few pieces of the puzzle in and keeping hold of players like Fry and Tavernier.

Links >>> Middlesbrough Official Website >>> Teeside Gazette — Local Paper >>> FMTTM — Message Board >>> One Boro — Forum >>> Bonkers for Boro — Blog

The Twitter @jamesyboz, @loftforwords

Pictures — Action Images

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TacticalR added 19:28 - Aug 17 Thanks to James. Good results so far, especially as it looks like Boro (like everybody else) didn't want to spend money on transfers. From the videos they look a strong, physical side.
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