MIDDLESBROUGH attracted their biggest crowd of the season with a cut-price ticket deal - but still left the Riverside faithful short-changed.

The gathering of 32,586 was over a thousand more than Boro's previous best attendance this term, with many season ticket holders availing themselves of the offer of two extra seats for £20.

But Steve McClaren's side failed to match the generosity of their club with a colourless display against bottom-of-the-table Ipswich. The Tractor Boys pulled their European bandwagon into town, yet ultimately found that the Premiership baggage which now amounts to 12 top-flight games without a win, had also come in tow. But it was not for the want of trying that George Burley's men, who last week humbled Inter Milan in the UEFA Cup, missed the opportunity to claim only their second League victory of the season.

Ipswich, with Newcastle boss Bobby Robson looking on ahead of tomorrow's Worthington Cup tie against his old club at St. James' Park, twice saw penalty appeals turned down and hit the woodwork as many times inside the last quarter of an hour.

Substitute Pablo Counago, a 62nd-minute replacement for former Boro striker Alun Armstrong, beat Ugo Ehiogu to fire against a post before the Boro defender appeared to impede him in scrambling the ball away as the Spanish striker attempted to score from the rebound.

And seven minutes from time, left-back Hermann Hreidarsson watched his header, from Jermaine Wright's left-wing corner, clip the Boro bar.

With leading eight-goal marksman Marcus Stewart sidelined through injury, along with Finidi George and Ulrich le Pen, Ipswich boss Burley's attacking options are currently limited.

That's why he plunged back into the transfer market on Friday when he completed the capture of Blackburn striker Marcus Bent for a fee of around £3m.

And Bent was handed an immediate debut alongside Armstrong, who returned to the starting line-up after signalling his recovery from post-virus syndrome by coming off the bench to snatch the winner against Italian giants Inter in Thursday's superb first-leg triumph at Portman Road.

Armstrong, whose double strike buried Boro here in April, soon posed a renewed threat when he peeled away at the back post in a manner reminiscent of his headed finish three days earlier. Jamie Clapham crossed from the left and Armstrong knocked the ball back for Wright, whose volley was blocked at point-blank range by Boro skipper Gareth Southgate. Boro, unchanged from the side which drew 0-0 at Aston Villa, flattered to deceive and it was the visitors who showed a mite more adventure in a sterile opening period.

They threatened again on the half hour with another teasing centre from Clapham which Sixto Peralta just failed to reach as it flew across the face of goal. Ipswich had their first penalty claim waved aside by referee David Pugh six minutes later, when Peralta released Bent who was pulled down by on-loan left-back Franck Queudrue as he sped into the box.

Hartlepool-born Boro fan Mark Venus was only a whisker away from breaking the deadlock a minute before half-time with a driven free-kick deflected wide of the far post. But Ehiogu should have made more of a free header on the stroke of half-time, nodding over from around six yards on the end of Carlos Marinelli's left-wing delivery.

Ipswich kept pressing after the break, with Peralta - on a season-long loan from European opponents Inter - firing into the side-netting, before Boro keeper Mark Crossley was forced to tip over Clapham's curling 20-yard free-kick after Queudrue had been fortunate to escape a booking for a trip on the goal-bound Armstrong. Boro finally came to life when Marinelli warmed the hands of Matteo Sereni with a stinging drive. When Marinelli then picked the ball up on the left, his centre fell to Alen Boksic, whose snap-shot brought another save from the keeper.

As Boro suddenly built up some forward momentum, Boksic made room on the left for an effort which Sereni was happy to push away.

Soon afterwards, striker Armstrong was withdrawn to a mixture of boos, jeers and cheers from the home fans.

Boro's Slovakian striker Szilard Nemeth wasted a 12-yard chance with a weak finish which went straight to Sereni, but at the other end Queudrue made a crucial saving tackle to deny Peralta as he bore down on goal, before the woodwork kept the home side in the game.

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