Late Posh leveller puts dampener on Boro’s New Year celebrations

Boro sit in second place but were denied a share of the top spot after being pegged back on 87 minutes and having to settle for a draw in a game they were in complete control of.

“That felt like a defeat,” Mowbray admitted after Boro missed a golden chance to take advantage of slips by title rivals Southampton and West Ham.

“We dominated the game for long spells, we had I don’t know how many efforts on goal and we hit the woodwork twice so of course we come away frustrated,” said Mowbray. “We had in mind that Southampton and West Ham had both lost but we’ve said before, it doesn’t matter what the other teams do, you still have to go out and win your game and we didn’t do that.

“They will be feeling like they have won the game after their late goal but we’ve been there ourselves. We’ve won games with very late goals in the last few weeks so we know how it feels.

“Credit to them, they kept going and changed it late on and got something and to be fair, our keeper had to make more saves than theirs did. We really needed to kill it off when we were on top but they were difficult to break down.”

Boro attacked from the off and carved out some good early chances before finally making the breakthrough on 50 minutes as Scott McDonald darted to the near post to steer home a corner.

Peterborough salvaged a point when Steele saved well from Paul Taylor but from the resulting Boyd corner Tommy Rowe bundled home.

Middlesbrough: Steele, Hoyte, Rhys Williams, Bates, Bennett, Robson, Bailey (Thomson 46), Arca (Zemmama 78), Haroun, McDonald, Ogbeche (Emnes 76). Unused substitutes: Hines, McMahon.

Peterborough: Lewis, Alcock, Bennett, Zakuani, Kennedy, Wootton, Kearns (Newell 53), Rowe, Boyd, Taylor, Sinclair. Unused substitutes: Jones, Thompson, Lawler, Grant.

Referee: G Eltringham (Tyne & Wear).

Man of the match: Scott McDonald.