MIDDLESBROUGH'S winning run in the Championship came to an end on Wednesday night when they were beaten 1-0 by Blackburn at the Riverside.

Dom Hyam's second half goal shouldn't have stood - with the defender clearly offside - but below-par Boro were disappointing and didn't do enough to win the game.

Here are the talking points from the Riverside:

AZAZ'S IMPORTANCE

Wednesday night's defeat presented more evidence - this time in his absence - of the Boro importance of Finn Azaz.

On a night when Boro were set the task of picking the lock of a well organised and stubborn defence, Azaz, who has the most assists in the Championship this season and has created 44 chances, a tally only bettered by one player, was badly missed.

Now you could make the case here that Azaz has previously been in the Boro side when they've endured Riverside frustration and wasn't able to make a decisive difference.

But the 24-year-old is currently in his best spell of form since joining the club in January, with 10 goal involvements in six games prior to being struck down by the illness that ruled him out against Blackburn.

And it wasn't just the fact that Azaz was missing that proved costly for Boro, it was the knock-on effect. Carrick's solution didn't work out as he'd hoped. Tommy Conway replaced Azaz and played as something of a split striker with Emmanuel Latte Lath.

But that meant Boro lacked a link-up between midfield and attack. That forced Boro wide, where Blackburn did a decent job on Ben Doak and Micah Hamilton struggled to make an impact from the bench.

The sooner Azaz is back on the pitch, the better.

IN DEFENCE OF MICAH HAMILTON

With Azaz and Delano Burgzorg both missing, the early injury for Riley McGree was another setback Boro could have done without.

Micah Hamilton was introduced and had a difficult night. It was a struggle for the former Manchester City winger, as it has been, in truth, since his summer arrival.

But that doesn't mean the youngster should be written off.

Hamilton only turned 21 at the start of this month but it's not his age that should be the focus here, rather it's his lack of experience.

Prior to joining Boro in the summer, Hamilton had made just three senior appearances - two from the bench. Even now, he's only made two Championship starts, with his other 11 appearances coming as a substitute, several late on in games.

There were no loan moves away from Manchester City during his time at the Etihad, so not only did Hamilton not experience a first team environment elsewhere but this is also his first experience of living away from home.

While Morgan Rogers was a similar age to Hamilton when he joined Boro, he'd moved from Birmingham to Manchester when he left West Brom as a 17-year-old and had spent time on loan at Lincoln, Bournemouth and Blackpool.

And although Ben Doak is a couple of years younger than Hamilton, he relocated from Glasgow to Liverpool when he left Celtic and played 10 times for the first team at Anfield - as well as experiencing the Scotland senior set-up.

Perhaps Hamilton needs a loan move himself at some stage to benefit from regular football. That's for Carrick and the coaches to decide.

Hamilton is yet to show what he's capable of at Boro but that doesn't mean he should be written off. This, let's not forget, is a player who Pep Guardiola picked for Manchester City and pundits have purred about in the past. Give him time.

WORRYING HOME FORM

The emphatic and impressive victories over QPR, Luton and Oxford showed had been a long time coming and showed - like many believed - that Middlesbrough have the quality to do serious damage in the Championship.

But the manner of the defeat to Blackburn again highlighted one major issue that needs addressing if Michael Carrick's side are to now make the leap from top six to top two - and, crucially, stay there.

Boro have now lost a third of their home games so far this season and won only four of nine. Take the five-goal mauling of Luton out of the equation and Boro have scored just seven goals in eight Championship games at the Riverside.

That - and the way Wednesday's game played out - brings us back to the issue of finding a way to break down teams who head for the Riverside with the primary intention of sitting deep and frustrating Boro. Blackburn had just 39% of possession. Compare that with Luton's 47.7% when they played at the Riverside before the international break.

If you're an opposition boss right now and preparing for a game at Boro, it would be bonkers to try and go toe to toe with Michael Carrick's side. The sensible approach - as frustrating as it is from Boro's perspective - is to stifle.

Negotiating that challenge will go a long way to deciding the outcome of the season for Boro.

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MANAGER SWAP BORO COULD HAVE DONE WITHOUT

The subject of how opposition sides set out at the Riverside brings us to Saturday and the visit of Hull.

If only Acun Ilicali had sat tight for one more week before sacking Tim Walter.

Had Walter still been in charge, there was little chance of Hull heading to the Riverside with the intention of sticking 10 men behind the ball.

The German's tactical approach - whether it be deemed bold or naive - left the Tigers defensively exposed and just one clean sheet in 17 Championship games was one of the factors that led to his dismissal this week.

As Hull City correspondent Baz Cooper, who covers the club for Hull Live, put it in his assessment of Walter's team: "Too many opposition managers found it easy to take them to pieces".

Mark Robins is current favourite for the vacancy with the bookmakers ahead of former Plymouth and Stoke boss Steven Schumacher, but Northallerton's Andy Dawson will be in caretaker charge on Saturday.

His priority will almost certainly be to tighten things up defensively, but the 46-year-old is likely to get a positive reaction out of his players purely because he's not Walter.

The sacked boss was not popular in the dressing room.

Hull correspondent Cooper wrote (in this piece): "Regular critical comments in the media about certain players went down as well as you can imagine in the dressing room, and the bizarre side-lining of non-playing staff for no reason was also frowned upon within a group of players who were being set up to fail by confused tactics.

"Away from the scripted images on social media, the atmosphere around the training ground was anything but happy and joyful, even before results really started to nosedive."