It is unfortunate for Gareth Southgate that Middlesbrough’s best striker is no longer available for selection. He’s 7ft tall, made of bronze and stuck on a plinth in nearby Albert Park. If only Southgate could ink Brian Clough’s name on to his team sheet.

With Clough’s firebrand energy and eye for a bulging net, his old club, Middlesbrough, wouldn’t be on a run that has produced one goal in their past seven Premiership matches.

That statistic partly explains Southgate’s unproductive season and why it has been such miserable hard work for him so far. Southgate is a stoic, level-headed figure, but he can only be utterly frustrated at the way in which Middlesbrough constantly fire blanks.

He tried to correct the fault by giving new loan signing Marlon King his Riverside debut. King fared no better than his predecessors. Trying to break down Blackburn proved as difficult as drilling rock. This wasn’t entirely his fault. Middlesbrough generated almost nothing for him to feed off.

It was easy to see why Southgate and Blackburn’s Sam Allardyce are still gasping for breath at the bottom of the table. Locked in a grim dance with relegation, neither team seems to know where to put its feet or which step to take next.

Given the high-stakes and the circumstances, this game was predestined to be a nervy, often hurried and panicky affair in which passes went astray and moves routinely broke down.

The scrappy, often safety-first nature of the contest emphasised the desire of each camp not to come away from it empty- handed. But it heavily underscored something else too. At its finest the Premiership is a battle of wits, vision and craft. In which case Middlesbrough and Blackburn go into it frequently unarmed. Their approach yesterday was based around self-protection and an over-reliance on honest sweat and endeavour rather than aesthetics and sensitivity of touch.

Only occasionally did the heart beat a little faster. Roque Santa Cruz shot from the edge of the box and the ball swerved so much that Brad Jones opted to block with his boot rather than his hands. Vince Grella came close to the post from a similar distance with a drive that took a slight deflection before scurrying past.

Jones was making his first league start since the opening day. Far from wilting under the sense of expectation, he relished it. He made one springy save after another. Even deep into stoppage time, he was sufficiently alert to make his most classy save of all, pushing aside Jason Roberts’s effort from close range. Roberts, who looked certain to score, stared in disbelief. Without Jones, Boro would have been striving to put a mitigating gloss on yet another defeat. Their best chance was a header from Chris Riggott, who steered it over the top.

On an afternoon when their rivals picked up points, the stalemate serves neither Middlesbrough nor Blackburn. Both teams will be approaching the next month or so with queasy apprehension.

Middlesbrough, nonetheless, have more to worry about. A sequence of 12 matches without a Premiership win has relegation writ large across it. Southgate certainly went back to the dressing room as if he was in for a night of bad dreams.

Perhaps saying a small prayer at Cloughie’s statue might help matters.

Star man: Brad Jones (Middlesbrough)

Yellow cards: Blackburn: Ooijer, Nelsen, McCarthy, Petersen.

Referee: C Foy.

Attendance: 24,303.

Middlesbrough: Jones 8, Wheater 7, Huth 7, Riggott 7, Pogatetz 7, Walker 7, Bates 7, Johnson 7, Downing 7, Tuncay 7 (Alves 65min), King (Emnes 65min).

Blackburn Rovers: Robinson 7, Ooijer 7, Samba 7, Nelsen 7, Warnock 7, Emerton 6 (Dunn 50min 6), Andrews 6 (Tugay 43min 7), Grella 7, Pedersen 7, Santa Cruz 7, McCarthy 7 (Roberts 73min).