EVEN by the standards of the often bewildering Championship and even with Neil Warnock in the home dugout, this was the most unlikely and baffling result.

Huddersfield Town 4-2 Middlesbrough. A major blow for Boro in their quest to win automatic promotion and one that nobody saw coming either before the game or at half-time.

At the interval, it looked to be business as usual. Boro were ahead thanks to a clinical and class Marcus Forss goal late in the first half. What followed was quite staggering.

In a nightmare 21-minute period, Boro conceded four goals to a Huddersfield Town team who came into this game with the 23rd worst attacking record in the Championship.

Boro, usually so calm and controlled, completely lost composure after they were caught napping just 22 seconds into the second half when Town, who’d only created one chance in the first half, levelled.

And worse was to follow. Warnock’s team scored three more goals in quick succession to stun Boro and deliver what could well turn out to be a major blow in the race for automatic promotion, particularly with Sheffield United winning at Norwich. The gap is now six points and the Blades have a game in hand.

Boro tried to recover and managed to get one back through Chuba Akpom’s 25th league goal of the season. But the damage was done.

Just three places and five points separated these sides when they played out a dull 0-0 draw at the Riverside back in October. And while Boro have soared since, Town’s struggle has continued, hence the February rescue call to Warnock to come out of retirement – again.

The former Boro boss says it would be his greatest career achievement if he was to keep the Terriers up. They stand every chance now.

They beat Millwall impressively before the international break and carried that momentum into the early stages of the game against Boro. They were up for it, sharp and bright early on and had it not been for a brilliant goalline clearance from Darragh Lenihan would have opened the scoring in the first five minutes.

Carrick made two changes to his Boro team, with Paddy McNair replacing Dael Fry in defence and Aaron Ramsey coming into the team on the left in place of Riley McGree, who suffered with illness while away with Australia.

And after bit of a nervy start, Boro soon settled and, as expected started to control the ball and the tempo of the game. Dangerman Akpom headed a Ryan Giles cross just wide with his first glimpse at goal and went even closer when he lunged to get a touch on a teasing Giles cross but could only steer wide under pressure from a home defender.

The hosts suffered a blow when Duane Holmes, making his first start since January, was forced off after just 25 minutes, but Warnock’s side were doing a decent job of containing Boro despite having very little of the ball.

Boro had almost 80% of possession in the first half an hour but, as Carrick said ahead of the game, what matters is now how much of the ball you have but what you do with it. Forss broke down the right but had a cross blocked and an acrobatic Archer effort went over the bar.

Huddersfield were so deep that Lenihan was almost playing as a third Boro midfielder, regularly allowed to stroll midway inside the home half with the ball at his feet. And behind him, Steffen was regularly allowed to amble out to midway inside Boro’s half when he had the ball.

To allow a team so comfortable on the ball to have so much of it is risky and Huddersfield very nearly got to the interval. But the inevitable Boro opener was worth the wait. All four forwards were involved in a wonderful free-flowing goal. Akpom’s casual flick got the move going before Ramsey jinked past two and played an inch-perfect through ball into the path of Archer. There was still work to be done and the striker cut in from the left and teed up Forss to hammer home.

From there on, you fancied Boro to move through the gears and coast to three points. Anything but. Huddersfield’s leveller came just 22 seconds into the second half when Josh Ruffels forced his way through the visiting defence before slotting beyond Steffen.

That was bad but much worse was to come. Eight minutes later Josh Koroma curled into the bottom corner to give the hosts the lead. And with Boro reeling, Town took full advantage, Matty Pearson turning home a knockdown inside the box. Huddersfield weren’t finished, with Pearson scoring his second and Town’s fourth on 66 minutes.

Boro tried to make a fight of it and Akpom scored his 25th league goal of the season when he headed home a cross from substitute McGree.