It was the first time that Sylvain Distin had worn white boots for a game — “I have had some stick in training,” the centre half said — but even that fashion faux pas was less ostentatious than the white flag hoisted above the Riverside Stadium. A decade ago, Middlesbrough were docked three points for failing to turn up for a league fixture and history was effectively repeated on Saturday.

For Manchester City, relief and jubilation, but if this transpires to be the victory that keeps their snouts in the trough, it would, in its own way, be startling. So desperate, error-strewn and anticlimactic was the match that tumbleweed would have considered its standards and thought twice about attending.

“We were flat, the crowd were flat, everything was flat,” Stewart Downing, an atypically fluent performer, put it afterwards. “A bad day at the office, I think you’d call it.” City were better, but the margin was slender. “They looked a poor side and you could see why they’re in the position they’re in,” Downing said. “They didn’t have much drive, but we didn’t have any.”

Yet Stuart Pearce, the Manchester City manager, could reflect on a swath of welcome occurrences: a first victory on Teesside for his side in 30 years, an end to five defeats in succession, a first clean sheet since January and, perhaps, a pause in the speculation regarding his position. City are now above Wigan Athletic and Sheffield United and have a game in hand on Middesbrough, who are merely one win distant.

Their run-in is not gentle, but forthcoming outings against Newcastle United, Charlton Athletic and Fulham, for reasons of form, confidence or placing in the table, should offer further opportunity for advancement. “We will have to wait and see what’s going to happen, but it’s good to enjoy the moment,” Distin said.

The Frenchman mustered City’s opening goal in the 61st minute with a fierce, close-range shot once Joey Barton’s corner was imperfectly repelled, an intervention which prompted City supporters to implore “Psycho, Psycho, give us a wave.” The advantage was doubled when Lee Cattermole’s poor ball allowed the sturdy Barton to play in Emile Mpenza.

Having rested Jonathan Woodgate and, until the second half, Mark Viduka, and not risked Julio Arca, Gareth Southgate must hope that he can raise deadened spirits ahead of tonight’s FA Cup quarter-final replay at Old Trafford. Last season, Middlesbrough’s league campaign imploded under the burden of knock-out football and the comparison will make an amiable and ambitious manager uncomfortable.

Southgate assumed “responsibility” if his selection had delivered the “wrong message”, but while Middlesbrough have lost two of 16 games in 2007, the effect could still be damaging. “We know that Europe is important to this club, for keeping our best players and getting new ones,” Downing said. “If we don’t beat Manchester United, we can’t qualify any other way.

“It’s disappointing, because with the players we’ve got, we shouldn’t even be looking over our shoulders at all. We should be in the top ten at least.”