FRATTON Park resounded to choruses of "We want Milan" as Portsmouth's supporters paid tribute to their troubled chairman - but that three-word phrase could also serve as a fitting epitaph to Middlesbrough's season.

The Boro fans wouldn't mind Milan when the draw for the first round of the UEFA Cup is made in August. Or Munich or Moscow.

Even Minsk would do as the club prepares to make its maiden voyage into European competition.

And, when the dust settles on one of the most eventful seasons in Boro's history, the abiding memories will relate to just that.

They will be drawn from Boro's thrilling win in the Carling Cup final, the never to be forgotten trophy parade through the town centre and the growing sense of expectancy as Teesside starts to plan for a trip to the continent later this year.

Thankfully, there will be no need to remember the calamitous way in which things came to an end.

Steve McClaren might have persistently argued otherwise, but the curtain did not fall on Middlesbrough's season at Portsmouth last weekend.

It came crashing down at Cardiff's Millennium Stadium on February 29 when skipper Gareth Southgate finally ended the club's 128-year wait for a piece of major silverware.

Boro have been treading water since then and, while they were finally engulfed at Fratton Park, an awful end should not be allowed to cloud an otherwise successful season.

"It was a thoroughly unacceptable performance from the players," admitted McClaren, who will now embark on a European adventure of his own as Sven Goran Eriksson's assistant at Euro 2004.

"We have no excuses. Portsmouth took their chances and we didn't take ours. We've been suffering from a few injuries - we were missing eight or nine players - but that's not an excuse because the performance was unacceptable.

"But we've made a lot of progress this season and it shouldn't be soured by this one performance, no matter how bad it was.

"We went on a good run after the Carling Cup final and got into a position of mid-table security, but then we've struggled to keep it going at the end.

"We have given the fans some great memories this season though. We wanted to finish the season on a high but, unfortunately, things don't always work out how you want them to in football.

"Now we're looking forward to a good summer and the chance to improve this team for next season."

And, if there are any positives to be taken from Boro's worst display of the season by some distance, it is that McClaren can now be in doubt as to where his spending priorities must lie.

Middlesbrough had more shots at goal than their opponents but their strikeforce of Joseph-Desire Job and Szilard Nemeth, who have disappointed so often over the last nine months, were again rendered impotent.

Just as alarmingly, Boro's defence was more end of the pier than end of the season and McClaren must be starting to make contingency plans for when Southgate's creaking knees finally give up the ghost.

In Nigerian international Aiyegbeni Yakubu, Portsmouth possessed a natural predator able to take advantage of the numerous lapses in the Boro backline.

Pompey's defence was only marginally less shaky, but McClaren's side lacked anybody to exploit the gaps with anything like the same efficiency.

Boro's evident lack of desire was just about excusable given the fact they had nothing at all to play for - although the 1,500 or so fans who travelled down to the south coast might well have had something to say about that.

But the complete absence of a ruthless streak has cost them time and time again this season and McClaren will surely be stepping up his pursuit of Leeds duo Alan Smith and Mark Viduka, and Liverpool frontman Emile Heskey, before packing his bags for Portugal.

Boro's backline has been their major strong point but, after conceding just a goal a game on their travels prior to kick off, the Teessiders decided to get all of their defensive mistakes out of the way in the space of 90 minutes.

Having to play Franck Queudrue at centre-half with Bolo Zenden slotting in at left-back didn't help but, ironically, it was England hopefuls Ugo Ehiogu and Danny Mills that suffered more than most.

The tone was set in only the fourth minute as Yakubu set off on a goal trail that would eventually end in him claiming the match ball with a bit to spare.

Eyal Berkovic, who was allowed to do as he wished from first minute to last, played a delightful through ball between Ehiogu and Mills and, with the former caught woefully flat-footed, Yakubu galloped clear to slot home past an exposed Mark Schwarzer.

The same pair were at it again ten minutes later as, with Ehiogu out of position, Mills was caught on the wrong side of Yakubu and found himself brushed aside by the Nigerian's upper body strength.

His response was to crudely barge the striker to the floor and, after a brief altercation with Lomana LuaLua, Yakubu won the right to score his second from the penalty spot.

With Berkovic and Nigel Quashie running riot at the heart of midfield, McClaren opted to switch to a 3-5-2 formation with Boateng asked to man mark the Israeli and Zenden given an attacking role further up the park.

And the ploy paid instant dividends as the latter fired a precise angled drive into the bottom corner following measured build-up play from Job and the otherwise disinterested Gaizka Mendieta.

But Boro's recovery proved short-lived with Portsmouth regaining their two-goal advantage just four minutes later as the visitors' defending went from lethargic to lamentable.

Ehiogu headed Matthew Taylor's hopeful punt straight at Yakubu, and was then turned inside out as the African rounded off a 27-minute hat-trick with aplomb.

Job passed up two great chances to reduce the arrears, and Queudrue somehow managed to knee the ball over an unguarded net from no more than four yards, before Pompey added two late goals to give the scoreline the kind of emphatic veneer it deserved.

Substitute Teddy Sheringham ensured the happiest of endings to his Portsmouth career when he capped his final appearance for the club by rolling in Taylor's low cross at the far post.

And Yakubu grabbed his fourth goal of the game with seven minutes left as he arrowed an angled drive past Schwarzer from the left edge of the box.

Result: Portsmouth 5 Middlesbrough 1.

Read more about Middlesbrough here.