Boro hit by the proverbial sucker punch at Upton Park

ON the last occasion Mark Schwarzer faced Dean Ashton, the Australian goalkeeper was left with a fractured cheekbone inflicted by West Ham United's aerial bombardment tactics in a FA Cup semi-final at Villa Park.

Eighteen months later and there is a more collective feeling of nursing the wounds inflicted by the Hammers, after Gareth Southgate's Middlesbrough suffered the proverbial 'punch in the face'.

That was how Julio Arca, stood stunned but reflective in the Upton Park tunnel afterwards, described events in East London on Saturday afternoon.

Middlesbrough were left to rue three error-strewn goals inside the opening 18 minutes of the second half, which painted its own clear picture of how things unfolded.

In truth, Middlesbrough created the goalscoring opportunities to have taken something from this game.

But, despite a solid and well organised opening 45 minutes, it was a completely different performance defensively after the restart and that quickly proved to be to their downfall.

FOR 45 minutes Middlesbrough were well on their way to completing the job in East London.

West Ham United had been struggling to break the visitors defence down and the occasional chance was being created at the opposite end of the field.

But two goals in the opening six minutes of the second half prevented Boro from making it five matches unbeaten, four in the league, and the confidence built from a decent run will have been zapped away by this.

After Lee Bowyer had coasted in behind the Jonathan Woodgate-led defence to turn Carlton Cole's pass beyond Mark Schwarzer, West Ham simply never looked back.

Middlesbrough, who were by no means outstanding in the first half, looked a shadow of the team that had competed well against the home team in the opening period.

All of the good things - namely an effective defence aiding the occasional foray forward - disappeared and now manager Gareth Southgate will be seriously considering changes for next week's visit of Sunderland.

If Bowyer's strike was sloppy, Luke Young's own goal and Dean Ashton's back post finish were even worse from a defensive point of view - a complete turnaround from the first half.

To add to Middlesbrough's woes, Jeremie Aliadiere appeared to hobble off early on with hamstring trouble and Tunçay Sanli failed to take his chance by missing two sitters.

But it was more about the mistakes at the other end that will annoy Southgate.

Matthew Etherington was afforded too much space all too often down Young's side, while Ashton's mere presence caused problems for David Wheater, Jonathan Woodgate and Andrew Taylor.

What now for Middlesbrough? Shoring up the defence within the next seven days would be the perfect place to start, while helping Tunçay to find his scoring touch is now a must.

WEST HAM (4-4-2): Green; Neill, Upson, Collins, McCartney; Bowyer, Mullins, Noble, Etherington (Boa Morte 77); Ashton (Ljungberg 81), Bellamy (Cole 26). Subs: Wright, Gabbidon.

MIDDLESBROUGH (4-4-2): Schwarzer; Young, Woodgate, Wheater, Taylor (Davies 84); Boateng, Arca, Rochemback (O'Neil 68), Downing; Aliadiere (Tunçay 30), Mido. Subs: Jones, Lee

Within 23 seconds of the whistle, after West Ham had left their counterparts waiting to start the second half for a number of minutes, Middlesbrough were caught cold.

Lee Bowyer, the driving force behind the quick-fire move, headed into the feet of Hayden Mullins just inside the Boro half.

Bowyer kept running towards the box untracked while Mullins' ball into the feet of Carlton Cole sucked the visiting defence in.

Cole, an early replacement for Craig Bellamy, held up play before rolling the ball to Bowyer who perfectly finished into Schwarzer's bottom left corner.

Whether Bowyer should have been marshalled or the defensive unit tighter in terms of closing the gaps for West Ham to exploit - mistakes were aplenty.

Had the errors stopped there, the game would not have been lost for Middlesbrough. More, however, was to follow.

After Mido's poor centre six minutes later, West Ham broke and possession eventually fell to Cole on the right.

The former Chelsea striker looked incapable of keeping the ball under his control yet still enjoyed a stroke of good fortune to work free of Stewart Downing. From Cole's hapless ball into the area, Luke Young stuck out a foot and turned the cross into his own net.

Regardless of what happened after that the damage had been done.

"We talked about staying strong in the second half but two goals in five minutes or whatever finished the game off effectively," admitted Southgate.

"We had good chances before half-time and more chances to score, after they scored. But it's always the case that the first goal is crucial. Credit to the players, they kept going and we had chances to get back into the game. We have learned a harsh lesson here.

"We didn't get the ball out of the box at the start of the second half. We paid the price.

"But what we don't do is criticise everybody in the dressing room.

"Players know what went wrong and they are all very disappointed.

"Now we have to regroup for next week and show what we are made of."

Immediately after West Ham had gone two up, Tuncay Sanli had the best two chances he has had in a Middlesbrough shirt and wasted them.

Had he found the net with either - and later a third - the scoreline would have been more respectable.

The first was a routine lob over onrushing goalkeeper Rob Green, which hit the bar, and the second saw the Hammers shot stopper save.

Tuncay's wastefulness, although he was bright in the final third, was further highlighted when there were further blunders at the back just after the hour.

This time the liveliest man on the pitch, Matthew Etherington, was again afforded far too much space down Luke Young's flank.

Etherington's delivery should have been blocked by David Wheater or Schwarzer at the near post. And Ashton, with his first Premier League goal in over a year, worked his way ahead of Taylor to crash in number three from close range.

Middlesbrough's four match undefeated run was over, while West Ham's progress continued by clinching their first home win of the campaign.

Yet it may have been a different outcome had Jeremie Aliadiere's first half chance found the net instead of the foot of the post before he disappeared with hamstring trouble.

"Aliadiere looked sharp but Tuncay had the best of our chances and he came off all apologetic," said Southgate. "That's football. He is adapting well to the English game and he can be a real threat for us."

It is now just one win in ten Premier League matches for Middlesbrough at Upton Park and the eighth defeat in that sequence will have been particularly hard to stomach.

But with North Sea neighbours Sunderland next on Teesside, Southgate knows his players can't afford to dwell too long.