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Middlesbrough fans welcome Southampton with Spygate chant; managers react to scandal

Middlesbrough fans welcome Southampton with a chant about their Spygate antics this week, with has seen the Saints charged by the EFL.

Large crowds of Boro fans waited outside the Riverside Stadium for the arrival of the team coach ahead of the Championship playoff semi-final first leg against Southampton.

As Southampton turned up, they were met with loud boos and chants of ‘we know what you, you cheating bastards’. Players came off trying to keep focus on the game and not let the noise distract them.

Southampton boss Tonda Eckert speaking to Sky Sports about spygate:

“I believe the club has made a statement. That’s all I can say at the moment.

“I believe when you arrive in this moment of the season it’s not coaches who win games, it’s the players. It’s going to be the same today.

“We are focussed on ourselves and we have been all week. We know that we face a very good team today. It’s going to be a big challenge.

“We’ve been consistent with confidence and humility. We always play to win, that hasn’t changed. We will try to do the same today.”

Middlesbrough’s Kim Hellberg said:

“It’s not affected our build up. We have done what we should have done before this type of game. We’ve watched every Southampton game there is, trying to find solutions to beat them – how they press, how they build up. Putting every hour towards getting the advantage to win, in the right way.

“We’re motivated. We’re going to do everything we can to win the game. It’s a new game. I believe in my players. We’re going to try to win the game fair.”

But Hellberg then said after the game, as per a tweet by Keith Downie:

“I couldn’t believe my eyes or ears. I couldn’t believe it when I was told a second time, or third. It’s quite clear that they – and I don’t mean the players or fans of Southampton, I think they are brilliant and have nothing to do with it – but someone has made a decision to cheat.

“I feel anger, but there has to be respect too between each other that they have totally failed in. I mean those who did it, not the club or anything like that.

“So I think it’s disappointment because it’s a big game. They tried to get an advantage in an unfair way. Things can happen in the heat of the moment, like a dive to trick the referee. But this is something they’d planned — absolutely everything.”

“If the punishment is a a fine, who would get the fine? Should they pay it to the EFL? Okay. So they see everything we do, and… what? We will see what happens, I don’t know.

”I just think it’s weird they try to cheat in this type of game. Didn’t Bielsa (at Leeds) pay £200,000 when it wasn’t a law? I think a lot of clubs would pay that amount to try and get the advantage two days before a game.”

“Is there a suspicion they’ve done this to other clubs this season? I’m just thinking about now…and we found them in the bushes.”

EFL issued a new statement on Friday:

Southampton Football Club has today been charged with a breach of EFL Regulations, and the matter will be referred to an Independent Disciplinary Commission.

This follows a request from the EFL for the Club’s observations after a complaint from Middlesbrough relating to alleged unauthorised filming on private property ahead of the two Clubs meeting in Saturday’s Sky Bet Championship Play-Off Semi-Final First Leg.

The charges relate to the following Regulations:

EFL Regulation 3.4, which requires Clubs to act towards each other with the utmost good faith; and  

EFL Regulation 127, which prohibits any Club from observing, or attempting to observe, another Club’s training session within 72 hours of a scheduled match between the two Clubs.  

Under EFL Regulations, Southampton would ordinarily have 14 days to respond to the charges. However, given the nature of the matter, the EFL will ask the Independent Disciplinary Commission to shorten the response period and to list a hearing at the earliest opportunity

The League will make no further comment whilst proceedings are ongoing.

Southampton FC have said: “SFC acknowledges the statement issued by the EFL in relation to alleged breaches of EFL Regulations. We can confirm that we will be fully cooperating with the League throughout this process. Given the ongoing nature of the matter, the club is unable to comment any further at this time.”

EFL issue statement after Middlesbrough report Southampton for alleged spying on training session

STATEMENT FROM CLEVELAND POLICE:

On Saturday 9 May Middlesbrough Football Club will host Southampton FC at the Riverside Stadium which begins at 12.30pm.

Officers expect there to be plenty of fans in and around the stadium and town centre prior to, during and after the match has finished.

During these times, fans will see a highly visible policing presence including uniformed and non-uniformed officers and specialist drug dogs. This is to protect and ensure the safety of everyone who is there to attend and support the match. It will also enable officers to respond to reports of disorder that could take place.

To ensure the safety of everyone in the stadium, there will be specialist drug detection and pyrotechnic dogs who will work alongside officers for any searches that may take place to prevent prohibited items from entering the stadium.

To assist in the safety of fans and to deter disorder and anti-social behaviour, a dispersal order will be in place from 8am on Saturday 9 May until 8am on Sunday 10 May.

It will cover the following areas River Tees Deepwater Wharf, Cargo Fleet Lane (A171), Longlands Road (A1085), Marton Road, Park Road South, Valley Road onto Cumberland Road, Devonshire Road, Roman Road, Ayresome Green Lane, Heywood Street (A1032), Newport Bridge Approach Road (A1032), Newport Bridge, River Tees.

These are outlined in the map below.

Map2.png

PC Chris Hilton, part of Cleveland Police’s football operations, said: “While the majority of footballs fans have the intention of coming to or supporting the match safely and responsibly, it is important we have officers in and around the stadium and town centre to provide reassurance and respond to disorder or criminal behaviour.

“I want to take this opportunity to remind fans that searches may take place for pyrotechnics or drugs and those in possession of them will be dealt with appropriately and there will be a dispersal order in place as a precaution.

“In the meantime, I hope everyone has an enjoyable and safe time.”

If you have information relating to disorder or criminal activity, please either call 101 or visit our website.

You can provide information anonymously by calling Crimestoppers on 0800 555 111.

The game itself played out to a goalless draw, Boro left frustrated by the Saints, the hosts had the most momentum first half, then their opponents had the better of the second.

The closest we came to a goal was in the closing stages, as Taylor Harwood-Bellis struck the bar with a header and Samuel Edozie seeing his chance go just wide of the post.

Middlesbrough’s Luke Ayling said to Sky Sports, as per BBC Sport’s live blog:

“We played a great first half and then they changed a few things second half and came right back into the game.

“We know that if we play like that in the second leg then I think something will fall for us.

“Great first half and then I think we showed great spirit to stay in the game second half.

“Great team performance today.”

Middlesbrough’s Tommy Conway to Sky Sports:

“I probably should score a few of them but staying present in the game, trying to still do my bit out on the left, I felt confident today.

“As soon as I miss one, I knew I was going to get another chance. I missed three today. That’s football.

“I’ve been through worse in my career so we look forward to Tuesday and hopefully we can put it right.”

On being motivated by Southampton’s alleged spying on his side training: “Football is football. I’m not surprised by anything that gets thrown at us anymore.

“We just focus on ourselves and today, the fans came out in their numbers. It really touched a lot of us. We really felt that on the pitch.

“Hopefully they can come down to St Mary’s and make the same noise.”

Southampton boss Tonda Eckert said to Sky Sports post-match:

“I think the boys were outstanding today. Excellent performance and that will give us so much confidence going into the game on Tuesday.”

On whether Saints were lucky to get to half-time at 0-0: “No, I didn’t see it that way. We played a very good 90 minutes overall and then bigger chances, especially towards the end.

“But again, the players were absolutely outstanding.”

On what changed at half-time: “It was a good team, we knew we come up against a good side with the support. There’s lots of energy and they used that in the first half.

“Then we knew the game was going to open up for us a little bit later. Just some small adjustments like we always do at half-time.”

Middlesbrough boss Kim Hellberg to Sky Sports:

“An unbelievable first half against a very, very good football team with so many good players.

“I think that’s one of the best halves I’ve seen since I’ve been here. You have to score and get momentum from that first half because we’re playing an unbelievable team.

“Then I think the second half is even. Everything I looked at with statistics was even. They maybe have once chance that is feeling bigger than our chances in the second half.

“Overall, a good performance that should’ve got us the win but we go again on Tuesday.”

On whether they should score in the first half: “That’s football. I’m so proud of the players, the supporters, everything we did together.

“And proud of the football because that was an absolutely top performance. I’ve seen them play against Arsenal and [Manchester] City and to be fair that was a game up in terms of how we created chances.”

Southampton;s Caspar Jander told to BBC Radio Solent:

“I think we can be happy about the result, it was a very difficult first half.

“In the end with a little bit of luck we could have even won but we take the 0-0 for now and go again on Tuesday.

“We didn’t want to stay so low in out half and let them have so many chances but we changed some things for the second half that made us stronger.

“I think we take the 0-0, not be fully happy because we wanted to win but when you look at the first half we can be happy to not concede one or two goals

“We can go confident at St Mary’s and take the win there.”

On spygate: “This wasn’t really a big topic for me and the team so we didn’t make it a big thing, we didn’t really care about it and just tried to play football.”

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