THE RUBBISH strewn around the pitch at a windswept Riverside Stadium was in keeping with the quality of play in the most unmemorable of Premiership matches.

Having missed out on Diego Forlan and Dwight Yorke in his hunt for a striker, Middlesbrough manager Steve McClaren will be redoubling his efforts to bring in more firepower in a bid to safeguard the club's Premiership status.

Boro drew another blank in a game which proved a turn-off for viewers of Sky Sports.

It was a carbon-copy outcome of the encounter between the sides at The Valley in October, their third successive goalless draw, and the fifth time this season in all competitions that shot-shy Boro have featured in such a result.

It was a far cry from the record 6-6 draw they slugged out at Charlton in the playing days of Brian Clough.

The point scarcely improves Boro's position near the foot of the table, but at least McClaren can console himself with the fact that his side are proving hard to beat and have now lost only one of their last eight games.

There was a sombre mood before the start when a minute's silence was observed in memory of Finlay Cooper, the two-year-old son of Boro defender Colin, who died tragically only hours after the FA Cup victory over Manchester United eight days earlier.

Cooper's replacement in the 1-0 win at Sunderland last Tuesday was Gianluca Festa, who was shamefully sent off for spitting in the face of striker Kevin Phillips.

But the Sardinian yesterday received a surprise reprieve from McClaren.

The Boro boss had been disgusted with Festa, hauling him over the coals and hitting him with a club fine.

But with Cooper unavailable and Ugo Ehiogu still troubled by a recurrence of groin trouble, McClaren currently has few options at the back and Festa kept his place in a three-man central rearguard alongside Gareth Southgate and Jason Gavin.

Striker Alen Boksic, who hasn't started a game since the Boxing Day defeat at Newcastle because of a calf injury, was named in the squad for yesterday's match but failed to make the bench.

Noel Whelan has proved a more than able deputy for Boksic, and went into the game having scored five goals in eight outings and four in four.

But even he struggled to make any impression in a game which ultimately saw the sides cancel each other out.

Boro's best early effort came when Charlton centre-back Jonathan Fortune sent a mis-directed header narrowly wide of his own goal from Paul Ince's left-wing corner.

Skipper Ince should have made more of a 31st-minute opening when he dragged his 20-yard drive straight at Addicks keeper Dean Kiely after the home defence had failed to clear.

The scrappy nature of the game and the scarcity of any purposeful play from either side, did nothing to enhance the Premiership's reputation in front of the Sky cameras.

At best it was workmanlike stuff, and McClaren's patience began to wear thin when he strode out to the technical area to exhort his players to step up the tempo, only to quickly return to the dug-out shaking his head.

Substitute Paul Konchesky, who took over from injured defender Mark Fish in the 36th minute, delivered a free-kick which the unmarked Jonatan Johansson just failed to reach at the near post with an outstretched leg.

But Boro left-back Franck Queudrue enlivened proceedings with a 30-yard free-kick which was superbly tipped over by Kiely.

It was the last meaningful act of a tedious first half and with Robbie Stockdale struggling with a hamstring injury, McClaren took the decision to make a change at the interval when pacey striker Andy Campbell, scorer of the second goal in the eclipse of Manchester United, was introduced.

Phil Stamp dropped back from midfield to fill in for Stockdale at right wing-back, and striker Dean Windass was re-deployed in the middle of the park to allow Campbell to link with Whelan.

Campbell's first significant contribution, however, was a rather reckless and unnecessary lunge at cultured England Under-21 midfielder Scott Parker, which resulted in the game's second yellow card.

Carlos Marinelli came off the bench in the 63rd minute to replace Windass as McClaren threw caution to the wind in search of a breakthrough.

But the woeful inability of both teams to capitalise on the remotest opening was crystalised when Chris Powell's first touch let him down inside the Boro box after he had been set up nicely by Jason Euell, and Southgate mis-kicked horribly from the edge of the area at the other end.

Whelan then met Stamp's right-wing cross with a weak downward header which went straight to Kiely.

It was that sort of afternoon

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