“ATTACK, attack, attack” was the exhortation from the 1,700 Boro fans at the Reebok on Saturday but “defend, defend, defend” would have been a more appropriate instruction for their shambolic side.

Gareth Southgate used trademark understatement when describing a dreadful defensive showing as “pretty shabby” but it cost his side three points and, in all probability, a place in next season’s Premier League.

Southgate’s gung-ho tactics chimed with the attack-minded travelling support and his starting line-up included three strikers and a pair of foraging wing backs; demonstrating that his pre-match intention to go at Gary Megson’s team all guns blazing was no idle threat.

Sadly, it didn’t work.

Before the triple-strike force of, Afonso Alves Jeremie Aliadiere and Tuncay Sanli had registered a shot on goal, Boro were one-down courtesy of some suicide defending.

A formation that had been so effective at Stoke City two weeks ago was jettisoned after only ten minutes on Saturday as Southgate’s strategy left his side unable to cope with Bolton’s superior power.

By the time Andrew Taylor replaced the injured Emanuel Pogatetz just after the half hour, he was joining an orthodox 4-4-2 line-up that for a short spell, sparked an upturn in fortunes.

But whatever the formation, it was a succession of schoolboy mistakes that sealed Boro’s fate. Unless Southgate can work a miracle in the final seven games, then trips to Plymouth and Doncaster beckon next term.

Middlesbrough’s shortcomings this season have regularly been attributed to a lack of experience in key positions.

But on Saturday, it was old campaigners like Robert Huth and Pogatetz who were culpable of handing the game to Megson’s side.

After he’d left the Boro dressing room, the manager was still visibly upset by his team’s capitulation that left them five points from safety.

Southgate is of the ‘what goes on in the dressing room stays in the dressing room’ school of management and he refused to single out any of his side for criticism.

But as he struggled to sum up his feelings, Southgate’s voice cracked with emotion; betraying the anger and disappointment he felt towards a group of players who’d let both their manager and supporters down.

“Everybody in that dressing room knows exactly what I feel about today and as the manger of the football club I take responsibility of the performance,”

he revealed. “We are where we are in the league because we deserve to be there. I’m not going to criticise individuals, my job is to take the pressure for the team and the club.

“I’m big enough to take that. What the players have to do is roll their sleeves up.

We’ve got two home games coming up that are crucial for us and a win can make things look very different. But that win today was million miles away.

“There are certain qualities that you need to win football matches and we didn’t show enough of them. I think that the way Bolton played caused this formation more problems than it had at Stoke.

“But saying that, the system had nothing to do with the way we conceded goals.

Sometimes you can look too much into systems, when things that happen on the football field are down to other qualities.

“We changed the system at one-nil down and went back to a 4-4-2 and very quickly after that Andrew Taylor came on, played a part in the equaliser, we’re back in the game and the system then wasn’t an issue because we’re back with what was familiar and what was working.”

Boro can take a crumb of comfort that their’s was the best goal of the game. Taylor and Alves played head tennis and Tuncay’s sublime through-ball teed up Gary O’Neil to finish smartly for his third goal of the campaign.

For a short spell either side of their goal, Boro were the better side with Alves’ sweetly struck free kick, that smacked the upright, the pick of several narrow misses.

But their inability to cope with the Trotters’ set-pieces proved Boro’s undoing and Matthew Taylor’s floated freekick caught the visitors napping as Gary Cahill exchanged passes with Johan Elmander before calmly firing beyond Brad Jones.

This restored the home side’s lead after Ricardo Gardner had earlier brushed aside Justin Hoyte and Aliadiere’s half-hearted challenges to send a skimming centre that gave Kevin Davies a chance to remind Fabio Capello of his goal-poaching abilities.

A Taylor free-kick that Huth misjudged horribly and a cool Gardner finish completed the rout.

“When you come to Bolton you’ve got to deal with set plays and we’ve conceded two.

The fourth was a breakaway where we’re ragged trying to chase the game,” noted Southgate who took heart from the efforts of O’Neil and Tuncay.

“I thought Tuncay was technically very good, and again worked tirelessly until the final whistle.”

But despite a brief second half rally, Boro had no matchwinners with Alves and Tuncay lacking composure in front of goal. Bolton however, with powerhouses like Taylor, Cahill and Davies, effectively guaranteed top flight football at the Reebok next season.

If the same is to apply at the Riverside, Boro must complete a great escape to rival any in recent memory.