THIS could have been the ideal opportunity for Middlesbrough to perform the ultimate smash and grab raid on Wigan Athletic.

The Latics were weathering a storm of their own, facing scrutiny for appointing Malky Mackay, who is still the subject of a Football Association investigation into text messages sent during his tenure at Cardiff City that were racist, homophobic and sexist in nature.

Wigan owner Dave Whelan made comments in midweek defending his choice to bring Mackay to the club which not only were unhelpful, they have also become the focus of another FA charge, a censure which if found guilty, Whelan said, he would resign from his role immediately.

Vincent Tan, Cardiff’s owner, who sacked Mackay almost a year ago, called Wigan’s supremo a racist chairman, Mackay a racist manager.

It is some achievement that Tan, much maligned in his time at the Bluebirds, can afford to take the moral high ground in what has become a series of very unfortunate events.

In the middle of all of this, there was a football match set to take place, where Middlesbrough could have nipped in under the radar and come away from the DW Stadium with three points – which by Saturday evening would have put the Teessiders in the automatic promotion spots.

But, unfortunately for Middlesbrough, they came up against a hungry Wigan side. Eighteen months ago they were a Premier League outfit, the FA Cup holders, and although they find themselves in the bottom three of the Championship today, they boast top-flight players on top-flight money.

And with Mackay at the helm, they had a defensive steel and a desire to impress. Karanka, therefore, was relieved to come away from Wigan with a share of the spoils.

“I’m happy because it was a difficult place to come to,” said Karanka, after Patrick Bamford’s second-half goal cancelled out Shaun Maloney’s spectacular first-half goal.

“This is not Wigan’s real position in the table – they’re going to go up from here.

“We found it difficult. The pitch wasn’t in a good condition, and it was worse for us. We’re not used to playing in that way, long balls. We weren’t strong enough in 50-50 balls, Wigan won all the second balls, and it was uncomfortable for us in the first half.

“In the second half we were better because we knew what kind of game we had to play and we were better for it.”

There was controversy at the end when referee David Webb, from Stanley, failed to award two spot kicks to Boro, once when Albert Adomah was felled on the edge of the area and secondly when Lee Tomlin was brought down when clear on goal.

Karanka, however, was less convinced, adding: “I don’t think they were penalties at the end. Albert looked to be outside of the box and Tommo – I can’t say anything because I don’t know.”

The first action came when Maloney gave a hint of things to come after swinging a free-kick just over the crossbar after Chris McCann was pulled down on the edge of the area.

And while his first effort sailed into the 5,000 travelling Middlesbrough fans behind the goal, his second effort flew into the net.

Adam Clayton hauled McCann down 25 yards from goal, and former Celtic man Maloney executed a perfect shot past Dimi Konstantopoulos.

The goal spurred Boro into life, with Tomlin the architect for the visitors’ best chance on 42 minutes when the former Peterborough midfielder exchanged a neat one-two with Adomah before finding Kike with a through-ball, but the Spaniard curled his shot wide of the goal.

Boro equalised after the interval when, with his second touch of the game after replacing Adam Reach, Bamford collected Kike’s through-ball and prodded home.

Wigan went on the attack and McCann hit the post with a low shot from a corner, while the Latics midfielder had a second bite when Daniel Ayala failed to clear his lines, McCann skying over from an unmarked position.

It was a match which Wigan got a lot more out of, gaining a valuable point on their battle for safety. For Middlesbrough, their failure to win allowed Derby to go three points clear at the top of the Championship.

But this is not a setback. There is a feeling growing that this could be Boro’s year. The fans are buying into it, too – with coachloads of supporters packing out the DW away end.

Karanka said: “Last season we took 500 to Wigan and this season we took 5,000. I’m very happy for them. We need to keep them happy because it’s going to be a long season and we have to be together.”

Boro confirmed the loan of Emanuel Ledesma to Championship side Rotherham United on Saturday morning.

Karanka said: “We told Manu that it is going to be very difficult to play because he missed nearly a month of pre-season and the team is playing well at the moment. So it’s difficult for him. We thought we should send him on loan because the most important thing for him is to play – at Rotherham he can do that.”