A DOUR derby game left Sunderland fans celebrating a fourth consecutive victory in their 2,000th home League game while dejected, bottom-of-the-table Boro supporters trooped away from the Stadium of Light wondering if former England manager Terry Venables can work his miracle.

The two clubs could hardly be further apart at the moment - Sunderland are fifth from top of the Premiership and looking forward to a Worthington Cup quarter-final tie at Crystal Palace tomorrow night, while the Teessiders are in bottom place after losing eight of their last nine League games.

But on the evidence presented to a record 47,742 crowd neither outfit looked any great shakes in a shabby, often nasty clash which was hardly a decent advert for Premiership football or North-East derby games.

Sunderland just shaded it, thanks to a match-winning, first strike of the season from skipper Michael Gray, but it might have been a different story if match referee Graham Poll had allowed what appeared to be a perfectly legitimate headed goal from dangerous Colombian striker Hamilton Ricard.

Mr Poll, who was far too lenient in what was always going to be a highly competitive game, deemed there had been an infringement and disallowed the 36th-minute effort - a decision which bemused managers Peter Reid and Bryan Robson and must have baffled the Teessiders' new head coach, Terry Venables.

At the moment Middlesbrough need all the help they can get, but there was no sympathy from the referee, who rubbed salt into Boro's wounds by booking Ricard for diving as he looked for a penalty in a clash with Teessider Darren Williams.

The Hertfordshire official arrived on Wearside with the reputation of being one of the strictest referees in the Premiership, having shown 37 yellow and three red cards in his ten matches this season.

He kept up his average by taking the names of another four players, but he let a lot of blatant and sometimes cynical fouls go unpunished and Middlesbrough's Keith O'Neill was lucky to stay on the field after a bone-jarring second-half challenge on Williams which deserved a second card.

As it was Mr Poll turned a blind eye to the offence, the type of leniency which encouraged some players to push their luck to the limit as attempts at skilful play were roughly cancelled out.

Boro lost the services of Phil Stamp in the 15th minute, not to any rough stuff from Sunderland, but because of an accidental kick on the head by his fellow defender Ugo Ehiogu, but his replacement, Christian Karembeu, emerged as one of his side's better performers.

Boro's most likely scorer was undoubtedly Ricard, and it took a great diving save from Thomas Sorensen to prevent him scoring just before half time.

Another fierce attempt in the second half was blocked, and the South American might have had a better chance of a spot kick if he had not made so much of a meal of his clash with Williams, who might well have made contact with the striker.

There was not a lot of entertainment and undoubtedly the brightest moment for the home supporters was Gray's crucial goal in the 53rd minute.

Gray had been working well with Argentinian Julio Arca, who continues to excite the crowd, and the latter sent over a cross.

Ehiogu could only force the ball back to the defender, who rifled in a low, left-foot shot which travelled between goalkeeper Mark Schwarzer and the upright, leaving the Australian to shoulder the blame.

Boro tried desperately to get back on terms and if anyone was going to score it was Ricard, who earned full marks for effort.

He almost saved the match in the 86th minute when he flung himself at a right-wing centre from Curtis Fleming, but he couldn't get enough power or direction behind the attempt and Sorensen again denied him.

Reid admitted afterwards that he hadn't expected it to be a free-flowing encounter and Sunderland's task had been made no easier by the arrival of Venables.

The Sunderland boss was grateful for the points and admitted: "It wasn't pretty and it was a game where we had to dig in. At half time I said to the players I would settle for 0-0 because they looked dangerous on the break.

"But I was pleased with the second-half display - we looked solid and I think we just about deserved the three points.

"I thought Michael Gray deserved a goal - if there was any area on the pitch where we might have got a bit of joy it would have been down the left hand side."