MIDDLESBROUGH have had to deal with the weight of expectation heading into the Championship after being billed as one of the division’s heavyweights to be battling for promotion. But after Chris Wilder demanded his side to come out swinging after their tormenting defeat to Cardiff City earlier in the week, it was the weight of the pressure that told against Rotherham United.

On an evening in front of the television cameras, it was an uneventful showcasing of what Boro had to offer in front of a tense Riverside crowd as Boro and the Millers played out a goalless draw. It was a game of few chances and a lack of spark and a lack of a spectacle. But what is truly telling is that it now means that Boro head into the international break languishing in the bottom three.

No doubt a period of soul searching for a club falling well short of where they want to be.

“It’s an arm wrestle at the moment” said the Boro boss Wilder. “It’s not free flowing, it’s a bit tough at the moment but we’ve just got to dig in.

“I thought the players attitude was good and I didn’t think it was a negative performance, I thought it was an edgy performance. It wasn’t free flowing.

“We’ll look at it and maybe we will have created the clearer of the chances in the game but we didn’t take them so we have to look at ourselves on that.

The one positive from the game? They managed to keep the ball out of the net this time. He added: “After 40 minutes on Tuesday scratching your head at where you are going to get a clean sheet, we managed to do that and that is a positive.”

As Wilder alluded to, there was a sense of nervousness to Boro’s play and they were not playing like a team on the same wavelength. There was a lot of the ball but not a lot of joy and the pressure could be felt.

One man who was hell bent on changing the fortunes of his side was Duncan Watmore who was rewarded with his goal against Cardiff City in midweek with a place in the starting line-up. During the game, he produced a number of dazzling runs to carve open opportunities, one for himself and one for Isaiah Jones who saw his low shot slam into the side netting.

But one of his chances managed to stay out of the Millers on a net. Rodrigo Muniz flicked over the top of the defence, he did brilliantly to bring down the ball and take it past keeper Johannson in the box. He could only divert the ball off the inside of the post as both sets of players watched the ball trickle across the goal line and out the other side. It didn’t take the shine away from his industrious display but the missed chance hurt nonetheless.

Watmore told Sky Sports: “I would like to have scored - the one that hit the post, I don’t know how it has not gone in. I would have like to score and get us three points so I am obviously disappointed.”

From there, Boro could not muster up much more of a meaningful chance with Rotherham standing firm. The newly promoted Millers have enjoyed a strong start to the season and sit outside the play-offs in eighth. But manager Paul Warne admitted he walked away from the game the happier of the two managers.

Having two weeks off may well be a blessing for a squad of players who are playing within themselves. In patches throughout the season, they have shown real glimpses of quality but their display against Cardiff may well have flattened the feeling amongst the squad. After failing to find a knockout blow against Warnes side, their leader Jonny Howson was happy to see the ball kept out of the back of their own net.

Captain Jonny Howson told Sky Sports: “A clean sheet is a positive, certainly after the midweek game when we conceded three in the first-half, I think that is only our second one the season so that’s a positive.

“We still had chances, obviously Dunc’s one, on another night, that goes in and we may be go on to win the game but the next best thing is a clean sheet and a point.

“We could have done with a win tonight but we will have a break now, get together and work on things on the training ground and get ready for the next match after the International break.”

That next game comes against Coventry City on the first day of October. Defeat on the road against the Sky Blues could raise some serious question with two weeks to discover the extent of Boro’s current issues but the best way to alleviate the pressure, as they only know too well, is results on the pitch.