If Steve McClaren thought that the criticism was going to stop once he left the England job, he was wrong. After the storm that followed his failure to qualify England for the European Championship finals next year, the former head coach of the national team is being blamed for the problems at Middlesbrough, his old club. According to Gareth Southgate, the manager, the club are suffering because the recruitment department had been allowed to wither and die.

“We can’t compete with the big boys in the transfer market, so we have to be a bit more creative in the way we recruit people,” he said. “When I took over [in June 2006] there was a very poor recruitment department and we have spent the last six months trying to fix that.

“But it will take two or three years before we see the benefit of having more scouting awareness of what’s going on in the world of football. I don’t know why the scouting network was allowed to wither and we still have a tremendous amount of work left to do. But you have to start somewhere.”

The implication, perhaps, is that McClaren concentrated on England to the detriment of the club, who are paying the price. After Saturday’s draw they dropped into the bottom three, but with limited resources Southgate will not be able to spend his way out of trouble. Yet he must do something during the transfer window next month. As an attacking force, Middlesbrough are less likely to intimidate opponents than cause mild amusement. At the back they are not much better.

A defensive mistake handed Reading their goal, when Kevin Doyle headed on Marcus Hahnemann’s goal kick and David Wheater allowed Dave Kitson too much space before he lifted the ball over Ross Turnbull. It was only because the home team returned the favour late on that Middlesbrough left with a point. Luke Young, overlapping down the right, produced a pin-point cross which Tuncay Sanli, given room by Ibrahima Sonko, headed powerfully home for the equaliser.

Whatever happens, however, it seems unlikely that Southgate will be the next managerial casualty. “The people I work for are a lot stronger than those at many other clubs and we’ve always made long-term decisions,” he said. “That’s been reiterated by what’s been said to me privately, and that’s all the support I need.”

In contrast, Reading appear to be in a relatively comfortable mid-table position. But a stop-start season has left a feeling of frustration at the club and Steve Coppell, the manager, is worried by his team’s form. “Because our away form has been so weak, there is more and more dependence on our home form and beating the teams around us,” he said. “Our league position flatters us.”

Reading (4-4-2): M Hahnemann 6 – G Murty 6, I Sonko 5, I Ingimarsson 5, N Shorey 7 – S Hunt 7, J Harper 5, B Gunnarsson 6 (sub: S Long, 86min), B Convey 7 (sub: A Bikey, 77) – K Doyle 7, D Kitson 7.Substitutes not used: K Cissé, L Rosenior, A Federici. Booked: Gunnarsson, Murty. Next: Liverpool (h).

Middlesbrough (4-4-2): R Turnbull 6 – E Pogatetz 5, J Woodgate 5 (sub: R Huth, 70 7), D Wheater 5, L Young 6 – S Downing 6, F Rochemback 5, G Boateng 7, A Johnson 7 (sub: L Cattermole, 90) – J Aliadière 5, Lee Dong Gook 4 (sub: Tuncay Sanli, 70 7). Substitutes not used: J Steele, B Hutchinson. Next: Arsenal (h).

Referee A Wiley
Attendance 22,262