WORD leaked out in the press room that Reading boss Brian McDermott was the cousin of chrome-domed overly inventive TV chef Heston Blumenthal (snail ice cream? have a word....) and there's no doubt he has served up a revival recipe for the visitors.

For Boro though, the play-offs could now be off the menu after this hard to swallow and stodgy Riverside stalemate.

LIVE and direct from the virtual massive in the Bosko Jankovic Stand... Boro v Reading.

All the usual cynical quips, tourist advice and poor music based quips plus observations, news, views, live score updates from a global cast of thosands (well, hundreds anyway) and the occasional bit of live match reporting and food reviews from the Riverside.

Join us then. Or get in early with some pre-match punditry. Or be first on this thread with your post-match assesment. Come on Boro!

BORO have frozen their season ticket prices for early bird buyers.

That follows a slight trim last term and three years without price rise. That added to the extra games you get in the Championship - and you will almost certainly be getting them next term too - it represents a decent deal in financial terms. At a few coppers over £16 a game in the North Stand and less than a fiver for kids it is better value for money than many tickets at Hartlepool and Darlington and far cheaper than most of their rivals.

The benefit of buying a season ticket rather than going game by game works out at nine free matches. But of course, it is not just a financial consideration.

AT ONE point during the game with Derby all the results were going Boro's way and we were just one point behind Cardiff. On the whistle we were six. It feels far more.

That must be it now. Nine games to close that yawning gap - and they have a game in hand - and hope that all the other team chasing sixth place slip up along the way as well. And we would need to we would have to go to West Brom and Leicester and get something. No chance. Not if we are going to continue to let teams wriggle off the hook like that, failing to make chances count and then retreating to invite pressure. Self inflicted wounds again. Game over. We may as well get on with the cull.

More later...

SPIRITED display. Cracking atmosphere. Good goals. Tackling. Attacking intent. Some superb individual performances. Entertainment. A bit of edge. An opportunity to laugh at the "trophy virgin" opposition, It was all you can ask from a derby game and exactly what a home crowd long starved of excitment desired and deserved. Except for the three points.

Boro dominated for long spells and should have won but then offered a beaten side a way back in when as they sat back and invited pressure in the closing stages then failed to defend a routine ball in and BANG. Nooooooo. How many times?

IF THINGS had gone to script this may have been the title decider; a silverware showdown that would have been a shoe-in for small screen slot on Sky. In fact it is a contractual obligation game of champions elect against play-off long-shots that the viewing masses don't particularly want to see. To be fair, not many on Teesside are overly keen.

BLOODY Cardiff again! Game over? Defeat has left Boro hopelessly adrift, five points behind the Welsh side and having played two more games. And with rampant Newcastle to come next week. And West Brom and Leicester still to play away. Making the play-offs isn't impossible - yet - but it would take a dramatically improved Boro beating the Geordies and then embarking on a spectacular winning run to force our way back into it with seven wins, maybe eight wins, from the last 11 games.

And on the evidence of the frustratiing display at Cardiff I wouldn't put money on it.

ARE BORO back where we belong? Is this scramble for position in the second tier pecking order our true lot in life?

Now the aberration of the Gibson funded dream has faded, is this it? Are we just one of football's second class citizens back in our natural habit?

RUBBISH game, great result. Two pennas, three points. Scrappy as hell and some scary moments but hey, we're back in it because all the other results - and all the breaks - went our way. Blackpool slipped up and so did Cardiff... which makes next week massive.

MATCHDAY fun and frolics here, live and direct from stuttering Boro's crunch clash with QPR. Feel free to make wildly inaccurate stabs at pre-match punditry and we'll have a laugh at them later. You can also post your post match rants here.