Middlesbrough’s festive stutter continues with Blackburn stalemate

Middlesbrough’s festive stutter continued as they were held to a goalless Championship draw by Blackburn at the Riverside.

The Teessiders suffered their first defeat under new head coach Kim Hellberg as they lost 2-0 at Bristol City in their final game before Christmas, while they were unable to find the net again as they were frustrated by a resolute Blackburn rearguard.

Morgan Whittaker fired a shot against the inside of the post in the first half, but former Middlesbrough goalkeeper Aynsley Pears was barely tested at all in the Blackburn goal in the second half as Rovers avoided defeat at Boro for the 17th time in their last 18 visits.

Boro started brightly with Whittaker coming close with a ninth-minute shot that was saved by Pears, but the hosts suffered an early setback when centre-half Alfie Jones was forced off through injury before the midway point of the first half.

Another promising spell of Middlesbrough pressure ended with Tommy Conway and Hayden Hackney both having shots blocked in the 18-yard box, but the way side created a couple of chances of their own as they began to settle into the game.

Todd Cantwell fired into the side-netting after a cross was cleared in his direction, before Ryan Hedges saw a low strike blocked by a sliding Callum Brittain, who was lining up against the club he left to move to Teesside in the summer.

Blackburn should really have opened the scoring 10 minutes before the interval, but while Axel Henriksson sent Yuki Ohashi breaking clear from the halfway line, the Rovers striker pulled a poor effort wide of the right-hand post.

Boro also went close towards the end of the first half, with Whittaker breaking into the right-hand side of the area and cracking in a shot that cannoned off the inside of the post, with Pears beaten.

It was a day when both sides were struggling to hit the target and Middlesbrough midfielder Alex Gilbert wasted a decent opening at the start of the second half when he broke towards the edge of the box, only for his rising drive to sail over the crossbar.

A few minutes later, Blackburn full-back Matty Litherland at least found the target, but his effort lacked real power and resulted in an easy save for goalkeeper Sol Brynn.

Boro’s defensive issues continued to mount during the second half, with George Edmundson and Matt Targett following Jones in being forced off because of injury problems.