'Played an absolute blinder': Former Middlesbrough defender George Friend praised after man of the match display for Birmingham City

Blues forward Scott Hogan scored the only goal of the game in the 26th minute, while the Teessiders, who were hit by a Covid-19 outbreak last week, looked flat for most of the match.

Former Boro defender George Friend also produced an impressive display for Birmingham and was awarded Sky Sports’ man of the match.

Here’s how some Boro fans reacted on social media:

@cbstar82: George Friend Man of Match. Still playing well at this level but some Boro fans think he’s passed it! Disappointing game from Boro poor from the start! Need to bounce back quickly as games are coming thick and fast starting at Forest on Wednesday!

@Twe12thman: Poor display. One chance for Brum, but that was 1 more than us. To go up, or get into the playoffs, you need to pick up points when you play poorly. Let’s improve for Wednesday. UTB

@jackallison34: We spent all of last season saying friend isn’t good enough at left back but he’s played an absolute blinder.

@SuperSquand: I think we started slow because of the last week or so. They were hard to break down once ahead. One bit of quality for the goal. After that Friend did what he does, defended immensely, organised them, motivated them.

@JoeScottGraps: Disappointing Performance from us today hopefully we’ll bounce back against Nottingham Forest on Wednesday night

@tom_mcgarry17: Dire performance and never got going at all, second best in every department but we still managed to create some decent chances, well beaten

@dominiccampbell: Poor. Low energy end creativity

@Smithy_MFC84: Looking at the game in isolation, it was as poor a showing as we’ve seen from us this season. Didn’t really get going, though the second half was marginally better, but only because Birmingham could afford to sit back. We need pace out wide and another striking option.

@Cooky34: Watching a Karanka 1-0 is pretty grim when you are on the right side of it, it’s absolute torture when it’s your team getting beat. No complaints though, Boro’s worst performance of the season. Friend man of the match

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