IF MIDDLESBROUGH are relegated in May, they may look back at yesterday’s self-inflicted heartbreak and muse that this was the afternoon that sealed their destiny. For more than 80 minutes, they had performed with steel and panache against a Stoke City side who were at their most spirited. Then the visitors gave away a cheap throw-in, 12 yards out on Middlesbrough’s left.

Rory Delap wiped the ball1 with a towel, prepared to hurl and 26,440 souls knew what was about to come. Except the Middlesbrough defence who, despite having trained for such an eventuality last week could only watch as Ryan Shawcross made a late untracked run, leapt above them and headed neatly into the far corner. Middlesbrough had defended like a Championship team and they now find themselves in peril.

“How I’m feeling is irrelevant,” argued beleaguered Boro manager Gareth Southgate. “And whether we deserved something is irrelevant. We’re in this position because we deserve to be. It’s a big ask to escape but we can take heart that others have got out of such positions.”

Yet until their moment of lost concentration, Middlesbrough had matched Stoke stride for stride, flying body for flying body and blood-curdling tackle for blood-curdling tackle. They had no other option.

For all their never-say-die approach and, as Shawcross would remind us, their fistful of late, point-gaining goals, Stoke usually begin matches like sloths. Last week, they dominated the second half at Goodison Park, but by then they were two goals adrift.

This week, buoyed by the Britannia bearpit, they flew out of the traps: with crowd-stirring tackling, strength in numbers wherever the ball might be and an alarming propensity to hit the ground on the fringes of the opposition penalty area. Fortunately referee Lee Mason was an oasis of common sense and while the afternoon wasn’t pretty, it wasn’t always hit and hope, either. In Liam Lawrence Stoke had one man with sufficient culture to start his own museum. “We haven’t got the quality other teams have,” admitted manager Tony Pulis. “We have to compensate with graft.”

Appositely for an enthralling match sponsored by a violin company, Middlesbrough refused to play second fiddle and they were Stoke’s equals in gung-ho verve, a quality not always readily apparent in this Teesside crop.

Shot-shy, ergo goal-shy, Middlesbrough have now just one league victory to their name since early November and are without an away league goal since December 6. Once again, Southgate shuffled his pack, plumping for Tony McMahon and Andrew Taylor as eager outriders in a five-man midfield, but for all their spirit and aesthetically pleasing approach play, a sustained head of steam eluded them.

Before a fever-pitched first half had drawn to a close, the impish Tuncay was unfortunate to see his curler land on the roof of Thomas Sorensen’s net. Although the travelling contingent would end the afternoon with their customary chants of “Southgate out”, they were happy at the break.

Once Matthew Etherington emerged, McMahon found his attacking instincts stymied, while Lawrence was given similar licence to thwart Taylor. No matter, Stewart Downing found width of his own and Middlesbrough’s joi de vivre remained. Soon, Sorensen was again distinguishing himself, this time with a flying tip aside from Keith O’Neil’s piledriver.

With the volume turned to 11 (“I’ve never heard it so loud,” purred Pulis), Stoke rallied again. James Beattie hooked just over from a Delap throw, while Delap himself charged through the middle of Middlesbrough’s defence before shooting wide. A far from stale stalemate beckoned until Stoke’s traditional weapon of choice wreaked havoc.

STOKE: Sorensen 7, Wilkinson 6 (Kelly ht, 6), Shawcross 6, Abdoulaye Faye 6, Higginbotham 5, Lawrence 7 (Sidibe 83min), Diao 6, (Etherington 51min, 6), Whelan 6, Delap 6, Beattie 7, Fuller 6

MIDDLESBROUGH: Jones 7, McMahon 7 (Hoyte 81min), Huth 7, Wheater 7, Pogatetz 7, Taylor 6 (Johnson 87min), Shawky 7, O’Neil 6, Downing 7, Tuncay 7, King 4 (Alves 55min, 5)

Star man: Liam Lawrence (Stoke)

Yellow cards: Stoke: Fuller, Whelan, Diao, Beattie Middlesbrough: Pogatetz

Referee: L Mason

Attendance: 26,440