MIDDLESBROUGH boss Steve McClaren and his Birmingham counterpart Steve Bruce were at loggerheads last night over the decision to rule out Stan Lazaridis's own goal for offside.

Not surprisingly Bruce backed the officials, insisting there was no question in his mind that Mark Viduka was offside when the ball crossed the line, but added the rule still needs further clarification.

McClaren, meanwhile, agreed with the need to clarify the new rule, but reiterated that it states if a player is not interfering then the goal should stand.

McClaren said: "I'm very disappointed. I've got a group of players in the changing rooms who are as disappointed as me because they know it's a great opportunity which we didn't take.

"The performance was poor compared to our normal standards and the first goal is important in any game, and we scored it. I've seen the replay and I can't understand why it was disallowed.

"That might have changed the game but that is no excuse, and losing Viduka after 20 minutes is no excuse if we have aspirations of where we want to be and the players know that.

"A lot of people are talking about us being in the Champions League and you can't afford off days like yesterday.

"I've said to the players it's not good enough but fortunately in two days' time we have a game where we need to see a reaction and bounce back and get back on track. We have done it before after disappointments."

McClaren couldn't put his finger on why several of his top stars underperformed, blaming a bad day at the office for the poor performance.

"It was just one of those days," shrugged McClaren. "We did not match the intensity of Birmingham from the beginning and we allowed them to dictate, and by that time we were two goals down.

"We did have a lot of possession in the second half but poor defending has cost us two goals and you can't afford to give two goals away like that away from home. We did it against Southampton and managed to come back but we couldn't manage it yesterday."

The Teessiders thought they had got off to flyer when Lazaridis turned in Jimmy Floyd Hasselbaink's shot only to see referee Steve Bennett rule it offside. Despite feeling the disallowed goal changed the course of the game, McClaren was philosophical about the decision.

He said: "You get these set backs in and disappointments in games and not every decision goes your way.

"We had a one against Liverpool that went our way a few weeks ago, but we still should have dealt with that. It was below our standards and the way we have been performing and the players know that."

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