Middlesbrough 1 Norwich City 1

Jan 4 2011 The Journal

THE Championship table might not show it, but Middlesbrough are finally making progress under Tony Mowbray.

Back-to-back festive skirmishes with two of the division’s free-scoring promotion chasers may have only yielded two points but a pair of dominant performances speak volumes for the green shoots of recovery being nourished by the new Boro boss.

Now in the middle of a run of just one defeat in their last seven games the Teessiders have resilience if not the cutting edge to finish off tense contests like this one.

Just as they had against Leeds, Mowbray’s men did enough to secure three points against Norwich. But again let down by some profligate finishing – Justin Hoyte cast as the guilty party once again as he nodded a late header against the post – they were made to settle for a draw that does little to move them away from danger.

Still, in their doughty fight-back from Grant Holt’s soft opening goal there were signs that Boro should, in the long run, have enough to stave off the threat of relegation long before spring.

“It was encouraging. It was a great effort from the players, it was just frustrating and disappointing for them not to win,” he said.

“It is not just Christmas that we’ve been playing like that – the performances for the last six weeks have been encouraging, we just haven’t picked up enough points. We played Leeds, fourth in the league, and more than matched them as well.

“Maybe for teams at the bottom, it just sometimes doesn’t go for them. But I’ve been saying for weeks we need to turn tight games into wins.

“The dressing room was very disappointed that we didn’t get the three points against are a team that are in second. And I was disappointed because I didn’t think they did enough to score – it was a really, really sloppy goal after a really sloppy start.

“After that I think we built up a tempo to the game that ultimately should have got us three points.

“But I think that is the league, to be honest. There isn’t much difference in the quality of teams from where we are in fifth bottom to the second-placed team.”

It was difficult to argue with Mowbray’s assessment after a contest big on effort but lacking in spark or invention.