Middlesbrough FC 0 Huddersfield Town 0: A step forward for birthday boy Mark Fotheringham

This represented Town’s first clean sheet on their travels since their previous visit to Teesside on Easter Monday. Hardly a time for rejoicing - Huddersfield prop up the table still - yet here was a smidgen of relief and a start. Needs must.

How times have changed for both these sides since April. Ravenous for promotion points back then, the insatiable desire these days is all about grasping survival spoils. Such is Championship life.

This point was more pleasing for Town, although not significantly. It will look better if they beat Millwall this Saturday.

Fotheringham will have at least derived satisfaction at his tactical manoeuvres at the end of a hard week which had seen him slam rumours of a fall-out with his captain.

His switch to a four-man backline worked with Town - with Yuta Nakayama back in after being on the equivalent of the naughty step in midweek following his mistake at Rotherham - harder to break down.

Fotheringham said: “Our fans deserve attacking football, but we’ve got to go step by step. This was a really solid performance. It’s going to give us a good base to work from.

“The more clean sheets, the better and it will start bringing confidence back to this group. They’ve been a bit shell-shocked from the start of the season, we’re not disguising that.

“We know what people are saying out there, we’re not stupid. But I believe in the group of players and don’t listen to the white noise. I focus on the football matters. Everything on the outside does not influence me.”

Michael Carrick - still in the process of finalising his move to Boro - was not present in the directors’ box.

Had he been, or if he viewed footage of this, he would have been writing a copious amount of notes.

It was messy and increasingly desperate as the second half progressed in what was likely to be Leo Percovich’s swansong as caretaker.

He emptied the bench in terms of five mainly attacking substitutions by the midway point of the second-half. Aside from a spot of brightness from Riley McGree, none worked.

The game was full of perspiration if not inspiration. The one player who looked capable of rising above the morass was Sorba Thomas.

Unlike the previous weekend, his radar was more consistent. A flurry of crosses in a short spell in the first half posed all sorts of bother for Zack Steffen, with one viciously inswinging corner clipping the bar.

The US international had the good grace to admit as much afterwards.

He acknowledged: “They are tough. He (Thomas) whips them in and they are tough to deal with and you have to react as fast as you can and trust your skills. There were ten or eight bodies around you, which makes it tough for everybody."

On the opposing team, Boro's main sorcerer in Isaiah Jones, one dangerous early cross aside, had misplaced his book of spells.

Boro's intent was at least there for parts of the first half. If not the conviction.

Ex-Town captain Tommy Smith, one of Boro's better players, almost got a telling touch after the disappointing Paddy McNair headed towards goal, with Percovich also furious at a non-penalty award against Tom Lees for handball. Lees was at the centre of another similar call later. Again, referee Andy Davies said no. Again Percovich was not happy.

Fotheringham spoke far more warmly about Lees. A 'warrior' he called him afterwards and his defensive lieutenant gamely soldiered on despite being hampered by a calf issue deep in the second half. He will be key for Town going forward.

Boro-wise, the sight of Dael Fry and Darragh Lenihan putting on a solid front was a positive. The hosts look safe enough defensively; the problems are elsewhere.

For Town, the one tinge of disappointment was surely not taking the game by the scruff of the neck early in the second half.

Steffen looked vulnerable after coughing up a shot from Jack Rudoni, with Danny Ward's follow-up straight at him.

The visitors, who had a day's extra to prepare, did not go for the throat. A point must do.

Middlesbrough: Steffen; Smith, Fry, Lenihan, Giles (Bola 68); McNair (McGree 68), Howson, Mowatt (Hackney 45); I Jones, Akpom (Forss 60), Watmore (Muniz 60). Unused substitutes: Roberts, Dijksteel.

Huddersfield Town: Nicholls; Turton, Helik, Lees, Nakayama (Jackson 85); Kasumu, Camara; Thomas, Rudoni, Holmes; Ward (Rhodes 62). Unused substitutes: Bilokapic, Russell, Mahoney, Ruffels, Diarra.