LUKE Ayling has been here before.

When the defender played for Marcelo Bielsa's Leeds United in the Championship, opposition sides parking the bus at Elland Road was a regular occurrence.

Teams knew that there would likely only be one outcome had they tried to go toe to toe with Leeds in their own back yard, and therefore inevitably set up to stifle.

It was a tactic that Leeds had to negotiate and overcome. And it's very much the same for Middlesbrough this season.

Saturday's defeat at Sunderland followed a similar trend for Boro, who dominated possession but once again paid the price for missed opportunities and then failed to pick the defensive lock.

Sunderland followed Preston, Portsmouth and Derby in frustrating Michael Carrick's Boro - and upcoming opponents will have undoubtedly taken notice. It would be a surprise if Stoke City headed for the Riverside this weekend happy to engage and play Boro at their own game.

"In our first six games we've seen a pattern in how teams are playing against us," said Ayling, who has started all of Boro's Championship games so far and captained the side in the absence of Jonny Howson.

"That's great for us because it shows we're playing good football and we have a style of play and teams are realising if they come and play they might get beat.

"But we have to find a way to score first and kick on and score a second and third. We're getting into the right places, making good chances but not quite killing teams off at the minute, which hopefully will come.

"It’s been the story of our season so far [missing chances when on top] and sometimes the first goal in a game is massive. We know that we’re playing well overall.

"Moments change games. We're playing well, we're playing our style of football."

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Tommy Conway hitting the bar against Sunderland was one of those moments Ayling alludes to. The game was goalless and had Conway buried his header, the Black Cats would have been chasing, which would have played into Boro's hands.

The defensive mistakes against Portsmouth and Derby were also costly moments that gave the opponent something to cling to and left Boro trying to force their way through a stubborn backline.

Carrick is frustrated by Boro's points return so far but convinced he's got the players to overcome the challenge.

“100% we’ve got the tools," he said.

"We’ll find a way, I’m certain of that.”

Boro's players share the frustration of the head coach and Ayling said there was "hurt" in the away dressing room after the defeat on Wearside.

"The game we played in the first half was really good," he said.

"We got in some really good positions and had some good chances before the goal. We could have been 1-0 up then the game changes. It's a sloppy goal, a bad touch from me then it escalates. Then we're fighting to get back into the game.

"I just didn't think we got into game in the second half. They played really well, slowed the game down when they needed to. They have some good players. It's a bad day at the office but it's just one game out of 46.

"It still hurts us. We know how much the Sunderland game meant to the fans, we tried our best to win the game. I thought in the first half we'd done enough to go in level or ahead. We're happy with how we're playing, we just have to find that final instinct to score goals and put teams away.

"We’re only six games in, we’ve got 40 games left and this result won’t define our season. We’ve got three games next week to put it right, we’ll work hard and try as best we can to have a good week next week."

Boro are looking to get back to winning ways this weekend against Stoke, whose new boss Narcis Pelach heads for the Riverside looking for his first win in charge of the Potters.

Pelach replaced Steven Schumacher in the Stoke hotseat last week but lost his first game in charge at Hull City on Friday night.