Town’s hopes of winning automatic promotion would appear to hang by a thread after they were defeated 4-1 at Middlesbrough. Boro went in front through Daniel Ayala in the fourth minute in an incident which saw Blues keeper Dean Gerken stretchered off, Daryl Murphy equalised with his 23rd goal of the season on 11 and Albert Adomah restored the Teessiders’ lead on the half hour, before Patrick Bamford sealed the victory after the break with goals on 64 and 79.

Teddy Bishop replaced Richard Chaplow in an otherwise unchanged Town side with the on-loan Millwall man dropping to the bench.

Bishop started in the centre of midfield with Jay Tabb moving to the left and Jonny Parr to the right.

Gerken, whose wife gave birth yesterday, continued in goal with Bartosz Bialkowski on the bench with Paddy Kenny also having made the trip.

Kevin Bru was back on amongst the subs after his knee injury, while Stephen Hunt travelled having recovered from his hamstring problem but was not in the 18. David McGoldrick remained in Suffolk but is likely to be in the squad for the home game against Bolton on Tuesday.

Boro were the first to threaten in the third minute when Daniel Ayala chipped a quick freekick behind the Blues’ backline to Adam Reach, but skipper Luke Chambers did superbly to get back to stab the ball away from the midfielder. Referee Mike Jones waved away Boro claims for a penalty.

But from the resultant corner on the left, the home side went in front. The flag-kick was played short to Adam Clayton, who sent the ball over and former Norwich man Ayala headed home.

As Ayala scored, Blues keeper Gerken clashed heads with George Friend and Christophe Berra and required seven minutes of treatment on the pitch before eventually being carried off on a stretcher with his neck in his brace while being administered oxygen. Bartosz Bialkowski took over in goal.

Before Gerken had made it to the tunnel, the Blues were on terms. Tyrone Mings’s header found Parr midway inside the Boro half and the Norwegian turned and brought the ball forward before hitting a powerful shot to Dimi Konstantopoulos’s left.

The keeper got across to save but parried the ball back towards the centre of his goal, from where Murphy stabbed his 23rd goal of the season into the roof of the net.

It had been a remarkable start to the game with Town’s goal having come only 26 seconds of actual playing time after Boro’s.

The Blues were a whisker from going in front in the 21st minute when Tabb cut the ball back from the left and it fell to Murphy, who hit a powerful strike on the turn which struck Freddie Sears before trickling onto the post and into Konstantopoulos’s arms.

After Jonathan Woodgate had replaced goalscorer Ayala - who had been a pre-match doubt with a thigh injury - Cole Skuse smashed a low shot which was deflected wide. From Tabb’s left-sided corner, Murphy headed over.

Tommy Smith picked up the game’s first booking for a foul on Tomas Kalas in the 28th minute, Chambers heading clear former Blues skipper Grant Leadbitter’s lofted freekick.

But two minutes later the home side were back in front. After a well-worked corner on the left, the ball eventually found Adomah on the edge of the box and, as Mings sought to close him down, the Ghanaian international hit a low strike which caught Berra on its way past Bialkowski and into the net.

Bishop’s 33rd minute strike was claimed comfortably by Konstantopoulos, then three minutes later Murphy headed another Tabb corner from the left over the bar.

Town threatened again on 39 from another Tabb left-sided flag-kick. After Mings had failed to get enough on his header, Berra returned the ball from the right and Sears’s hooked effort was blocked.

As the half moved into its final five minutes Adomah shot over from the Boro left, then Bishop screwed an effort wide from the edge of the area after another Blues corner, again on the left.

Town continued to look the more threatening side. With a minute of scheduled first-half time remaining Bishop skipped across the Boro area but saw his effort snuffed out, then Sears following up had his strike blocked.

As the half moved into eight minutes of injury time Bishop was shown his first senior yellow card for catching Friend as they challenged for an aerial ball.

The second of two Bishop corners from the right culminated in Berra’s over-head kick running through to Konstantopoulos, then Patrick Bamford claimed a penalty when challenged by Berra but referee Jones waved away his lengthy protests. Replays suggested the on-loan Chelsea man had a good case.

Just before the whistle finally came, Adomah hit a shot on the turn which was blocked by Mings.

On the balance of the half Town shouldn’t have been behind having been on top for the most part. However, after failing to defend Boro’s only two corners, they could hardly complain about the scoreline.

Having gone behind to Ayala’s goal and lost Gerken to his injury, the Blues reacted well, although Konstantopoulos will feel he ought to have done better with Parr’s shot which led to Murphy’s goal.

After conceding the second goal, the Blues had looked the more likely scorers, although without creating any clear-cut opportunities.

The Blues started the second half on the front, Mings over-hitting an early cross from the left beyond Murphy.

There was a scare for the Blues in the 53rd minute when Reach almost profited from a moment of hesitation between Bialkowski and Chambers but the Boro man was adjudged to have used his hand and his shot had in any case been blocked.

Middlesbrough centre-half Ben Gibson was booked for pulling back Murphy as the Town scorer turned and took the ball away from him in the 55th minute. Sears curled the resultant 25-yard freekick well wide.

The first quarter of an hour had been much the same as the end of the first period with the Blues on top but without creating anything significant, however, on 64 the home side increased their lead.

After a Town ball forward had been cleared and hooked on by Leadbitter, Jelle Vossen deftly sent Bamford away behind the Blues’ backline. The England U21 kept his cool and dummied his way past Bialkowski before tapping the ball into the net.

After Boro had switched Adam Forshaw for Vossen, Chris Wood took over from Tabb for the Blues.

On 73 Reach was booked for a late tackle on Bishop, then two minutes later Clayton hit an effort from distance which flew over.

Bishop played a shot corner on the right to Parr on 78 but the Norwegian’s shot was blocked.

With 11 minutes left on the clock Boro’s fourth goal sealed the result. Bamford dummied a long ball and broke away from Smith before hitting a low shot across Bialkowski and into the net to make it 4-1.

Town were by now looking shellshocked and Adomah wasn’t far from making it 5-1 with a shot from the left which flew wide. At the other end, Murphy cut the ball back to Sears from the right but the former Colchester man diverted it against a defender and behind.

Bamford should have made it five and completed his hat-trick in the 86th minute when Adomah brought the ball forward from halfway and fed him to his left, but the Chelsea loanee shot over.

Luke Varney, who had replaced Bishop for the final six minutes, headed wide from Murphy’s cross from the right, then at the other end Boro sub Forshaw ought to have done better with an Adomah cross, but headed well wide.

As the match moved into three minutes of additional time, Bamford smashed high and wide. Not long afterwards referee Jones put the Blues out of their misery.

Despite the eventual scoreline, the Blues had been in the game up until the hour mark having had a fair amount of the ball, albeit without creating anything which would have tested Konstantopoulos. Town failed to seriously threaten from their 13 corners while Boro scored their first two goals from their total of three.

Bamford’s first goal all but settled the game, the fourth added some gloss and in the end the home side might have won by even more having had plenty of chances in the final minutes with the Blues looking uncharacteristically dishevelled.

It was little consolation that Murphy, who was watched by Ireland assistant manager and former Blues boss Roy Keane, became the first Town player to score more than 22 league goals in a season since Ray Crawford in 1962/63.

The Blues are now eight points behind Boro, who move to the top, with the rest of the challengers in action later this afternoon. Town’s chances of returning to the Premier League after a 13-year absence would now appear to be reliant on winning the play-offs.

Middlesbrough: Konstantopoulos, Kalas, Ayala (Woodgate 24), Gibson, Friend, Leadbitter (Nsue 88) (c), Clayton, Adomah, Reach, Bamford, Vossen (Forshaw 68). Unused: Ripley, Whitehead, Tomlin, Kike.

Town: Gerken (Bialkowski 10), Chambers (c), Mings, Smith, Berra, Skuse, Bishop (Varney 84), Parr, Tabb (Wood 69), Murphy, Sears. Unused: Clarke, Anderson, Chaplow, Bru. Referee: Mike Jones (Chester). Attendance: 18,909 (Town: 444).

Photo: Action Images

Minneapolis_ITFC added 19:56 - Mar 15 While there continues to be calls for Mick McCarthys resignation, some just won't believe it, they bury their heads in the sand at such a thing, and hide at the idea that such a thing could ever occur.. But as the weeks go by and points are once again dropped, isn't such a scenario becoming more of a possibility ? McCarthy has done well, but is he really the man to lead this club through another season in the championship league ? (I don't believe we will go up now after all that has happened after New Year although would like to be proved incorrect) No I'm NOT a Norwich fan, been a follower of THIS club team since the 1970s and only want that club name to succeed, but soccer is a results business, and as McCarthy picks the squad, chooses formations etc, is he really best equipped to lead us on for another year ?. I'm prepared to stick with him once again for another 12 months but that decision has come more into question in the last few weeks. Fans can only tolerate so much. As for the game yesterday there's no shame in losing to a team as good as the opposition and they're obviously one of the promotion favorites but thought we could have made more of a fight of it. I didn't see the game in my defense but have read the match report and read through various post-game reaction from our support. Obviously there are areas of the team that needs to strengthen, we have players out and morale would appear low but as always we still find ourselves in a very good position to challenge for a promotion. Two or three wins in the games ahead could make all the difference, and get us back on track. I still remain hopeful we CAN be in the top six by end of season - it would be foolish to just write off our chances at this stage - but the fact of the matter is, we were in the top two places only 6 - 8 weeks back and we have given up a wonderful opportunity. Guess you can only take each game as it arrives. We're still very much involved, but the form since New Year and points given away - you just can't help but be irritated. Bottom line, it'll be such a shame if by end of season we will have missed out on the top six after all the hard work and impressive results that we put together when they occured. But this league unfortunately is judged over nine months, not just having a very impressive run in the fraction of the time.

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BillBlue added 20:01 - Mar 15 blueherts - I did think at the start of the season that we might go up and, in view of the fact MM had said 'safety first then we will start playing good football' (or words to that effect) I did expect us to be up there AND playing good football. We actually achieved both of those things up to the Southampton games when apparently we put up a good defensive show which brought out all the negatives in MM's character and re-introduced his bloody-minded stubbornness. I have made no secret of not thinking MM is the right person for Town but I do believe we could have gone up as Champions this year! Does that answer your question?

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paulnstar added 21:00 - Mar 15 we are punching above our weight ,mick signed Bristol city and wolves players who got relegated to league 1 so what does every one expect and our best player is from Colchester utd I rest my case
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topguy added 22:24 - Mar 15 Looking at the situation if it doesn't go right the interest in cresswell from man city and arsenal are we looking at a sell on clause to maybe give us a kick start next season hopefully
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runningout added 23:44 - Mar 15 expecting to be mid-table at best, with half our squad having out of football interests
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BrettenhamBlue added 23:52 - Mar 15 topguy There is no known of sell-on clause for Cresswell. To be fair; none of us were privy to the sale of Cresswell but if there was a sell-on clause it remains unannounced (which in itself is highly unusual). We are not good enough to be a top 6 team. If we do get 6th spot MM and TC should be congratulated wholeheartedly as we are nowhere near good enough. A new manager at ITFC right now would be disastrous. Many of the squad have been brought in because they are good at what they do (hoofball). If another manager comes in and tries to play football with our present squad, we will be thrashed week-in/week-out. We simply don't know how to play football and our once ok defence now looks really really shaky.

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budgieplucker added 23:58 - Mar 15 Its been one of our better seasons in recent years, the club is moving in the right direction. We have a good crop of young players coming through. Real positives Teddy, Murph, Bru, Freddie and Johnny Parr. Yes I am disappointed with recent results, yes I am at times very frustrated with Mick's stubboness - I don't particularly like hoofball, but I saw very little of that in the first half yesterday when we outplayed Boro from a football perspective. Teddy Bishop was a breath of fresh air. I don't think for one moment we will get promoted this year but the play-off;s are far from dead and the season is still very much alive. If we can get three or four more acquisitions during the summer then our squad will improve for next year. This club is in a much better place than it has been for a long while and I have every intention of renewing my season ticket. Thanks lads for keeping our season alive.

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Sospiri added 00:52 - Mar 16 Clearly, at the moment, we are not good enough. We have the players, but it isn't working. Mick is a very sound manager. He excels in finding good players cheaply, man-mamges well, is excellent with the media, and is highly respected in the game. But he is tactically inflexible. His mind-set is safety first. He doesn't see when change is needed, and doesn't make it., or makes the wrong change He doesn't learn from the games we played well, games in which we had 3 up front or five in midfield. Or games where we played the ball on the ground, and attacked from midfield. I'm worried that Mick is just too cautious a man to see us succeed. We have few games left. We HAVE to go for it. But will he?

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BackTheBlues added 09:58 - Mar 16 Going out on a limb here but... I thought first half we were the better team, more chances more possession just done by two set pieces (admittedly disappointing) but I always thought we were in it... 3rd goal killed us as we went in search of an equalizer - were poor at the back again but actually thought the rest of team played ok against a good Boro team! Questions is though - Mings or Smith? Tommy isn't gifted but at least he tries hard - Mings just doesn't look interested!

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