Outfoxed

Boro's stuttering form continued last night as Nigel Pearson's Leicester City stole victory in a dire match at a half empty Riverside Stadium. Having spurned several chances to take the lead, Boro then allowed Lloyd Dyer an obscene amount of time and space to score the crucial goal with just seven minutes to go.

Gareth Southgate made one enforced change to the side who threw two points away at Coventry on Saturday, with Tony McMahon replacing the hamstrung Justin Hoyte. Leicester made five changes, including introducing the fantastically monikered Frenchman Yann Kermorgant.

The first half was spectacularly awful. Boro were listless, justifying every single one of the 17,000 empty seats. Leicester were even worse, looking every inch a side just escaped from the barren wastelands. The most threatening effort on goal was an errant David Wheater passback that Brad Jones had to stretch to stop. The grinding monotony of the Championship was in full evidence here - rarely can such earnest endeavour from two sides have resulted in so little end product.

Boro at least perked up after the break, particularly when Leroy Lita and Mark Yeates replaced Emnes and Arca. Leicester keeper Chris Weale was still rarely tested, the only scare coming when Adam Johnson lobbed into the corner of the net from distance after Weale had conceded a throw. The referee called the action back, restarting with a Boro throw that saved Weale's blushes.

The keeper was finally forced into making a save from St Ledger as a Yeates free kick induced panic in the Leicester defence. It was from another free kick soon after that trouble began to brew in the home defence.

Brad Jones could not collect the initial shot and Jack Hobbs inexplicably smashed against the post with the net gaping. Boro failed to heed the warning, almost instantly ceding another chance for the visitors. From a simple throw in, Leicester were somehow allowed to find two men in the area with only Tony McMahon for company. Oakley sqaured for Lloyd Dyer and, although McMahon managed a partial block, he couldn't prevent the goal.

Boro did at least put Leicester under pressure in the dying moments but to no avail. Gareth Southgate was subject to the most vocal criticism heard from the Riverside crowd in some time. Several called for his head and optimstically joined in with the visiting fans' chants of "You're getting sacked in the morning".

There's no chance of that happening in spite of the growing body of evidence against Southgate. A superb player, inspirational captain and an honourable man, Southgate is unfortunately not a good manager. He may have been handed a difficult job but he has done little to inspire confidence that he can succeed. Boro looked depressingly toothless against a horrribly limited Leicester side. Even when they managed to build up a head of steam after the break, Weale was rarely tested.

The lack of defensive organisation that led to Leicester's goal was concerning. After four consecutive clean sheets at the start of the season, Boro haven't kept one since Robert Huth left for Stoke. There has to be a fear that the last three games are a truer reflection of Boro's abilities than the first five. The poisonous cycle of last season is being repeated again - rallying cry, soul-destroying defeat, "I can handle the flak", "Southgate demands response" rallying cry, defeat (repeat until you lose the will to live). How much longer can this go on before something gives?

Hearts and minds

Boro's promotion push continued to stutter on Saturday as a two goal lead was thrown away. Sean St Ledger and Rhys Williams' first goals for the club helped Boro into a 2-0 half time lead. However, with the home side applying mounting pressure in the closing stages.

First, with twelve minutes remaining, Clinton Morrison outmuscled Justin Hoyte to score from close range. Then, in the dying seconds of injury time, St Ledger failed to clear after a penalty area scramble, allowing Leon Best to poke an equaliser past the recalled Brad Jones.

Southgate and his team have an imminent opportunity to make up for the disappointment of the last two games, with former Boro skipper Nigel Pearson bringing his Leicester City side to the Riverside. The following article will be in tomorrow night's Fly Me To The Moon, available on all good street corners...

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Just over a fortnight ago, the visit of Ipswich Town saw the first sub 20,000 crowd for a league game at the Riverside Stadium. There's a good chance that the expanses of barren red plastic will be greater still tonight. If Boro were beginning to enjoy life as a big fish in a small pond, the hammering at the hands of West Brom was a sobering dose of reality. Twelve years on, Roberto Di Matteo and Eddie Newton conspired to deliver another sickening kick in the knackers.

The consequences of that game could be felt for a long time. Despite the protestations that it was just a 'bad day at the office', it felt like the continuation of a recurring theme of Gareth Southgate's tenure. The expectation that is inevitable after moderate success seems to be encourage timid performances and complacency. For a team to get an important game that wrong, writing it off as bad day hardly seems an appropriate response.

The performance ten days ago had all the hallmarks of what may still be the nadir of Southgate's time in charge. The day when Cardiff became synonymous with FA Cup failure rather than Carling Cup glory. The excitement around town before that game was palpable. Beat a combination of lower league sides and/or a solid but unspectacular Portsmouth side and we could do it. The most glorious day in the club's history was tantalisingly close.

We all know it didn't work out as planned. Boro blew it in soul-destroying fashion, a spineless, witless, slow-motion car crash of a performance. The context was everything – to lose the game was bad enough but the anticipation made the fall so much worse. Southgate lost a huge chunk of the fanbase that day and there's plenty of hardened opponents who have never been won back.

The commendable efforts the club has made with ticket pricing helped keep numbers healthy last year. But the Riverside has rarely been an enjoyable place to be over the last year or so. Last season took on a tiring monotony – successive home game where insipid, negative football sapped all the passion from a crowd which game after game tried to lift the team and saw little response.

No-one seemed to see the West Brom debacle coming but maybe we should have done. Before the game, the general sentiment was that people were looking forward to the game much more than normal. A chance to go top of the table, two solid victories and positive news on the club's finances and ability to recruit seemed to have put the bad feeling about the Huth/Tuncay deal firmly in the past.

The team and the manager couldn't handle it. The lunatic fringe of vociferous critics of Gibson and Southgate have another axe to grind. More damagingly, the moderate centre of match to match attendees have been given a convincing reason to stay away. Winning back their trust and filling the empty rows at the Riverside will not be done easily.