The manager was endorsed as the man to lead Boro into next season in the Gazette's Big Boro Survey - but the results also showed a significant vote for the opposition. Mogga is now defending what is in effect a marginal constituency.

But the bad news is that lining up on the other side almost a quarter of voters in the extensive on-line poll were quite clear that they were against the current manager.

In topical terms they are the confirmed dissidents demanding a straight-forward "In or Out" referendum now, even if it isn't on the table.

There is also a large and potentially problematic volatile group in the middle-ground that are "unsure" and who could swing quickly either way depending on exactly how next season pans out. That is the key battleground in the early stages of next season.

Equally problematic is that the results also show that almost half of voters point emphatically to areas under the gaffers control - tactics and team selection - as the primary cause of Boro failing to secure a play off place in the shrivelled season just gone.

And the survey was quite scathing about the team as a collective and in many cases harsh on individuals too. One individual in particular. But then, it seems to be a cultural obligation to have a clearly defined and widely recognised scapegoat. It is nice to have some clarity on these tricky matters.

The obvious impression given by the figures from the Big Boro Survey is that fans remain largely behind the boss - but many have marked doubts and criticisms too.

Next season, the pressure is really on the boss to deliver.

That's the headlines. Before we look at the results in detail, first, a word on the survey.

We asked a wide ranging series of open questions about the team, the players, the manager, whether your expectations had been met, the key reasons for the campaign's feeble finale and what needs to be done to improve Boro ready for next year.

The main results have been illustrated in the Gazette over the past two days and are also on gazettelive.co.uk website.

The Gazette conducted the poll on-line via specialist third party website Surveymonkey over the course of three weeks in April as a second successive frustrating Championship season fizzled out.

The first week of polling covered the aftermath of the win over Nottingham Forest so the backdrop was not totally bleak. The polling period also covered the narrow defeat at Bolton and the fightback in a 2-2 Riverside draw with Charlton so there was a little bit of everything and no one emotion would have dominated the hustings.

There were 807 respondents, which is easy to dismiss but is almost as big a sample size as the national polling organisations use when shaping national policy on the big topical news issues of the day. National newspapers run stories calling for the end of the NHS and Michael Gove wants to rip apart education in a far more flimsy basis.

The vast majority of respondents were active supporters with almost a third having attended every single home game and a slither over half having travelled to at least one away game as well. This is a well informed and representative constituency.

Yes, there are problems - the sample is self-selecting rather than random but then strangers stopped in the street are not neccessarily going to have an informed view on which of Boro's wasters was the most disappointing - but this poll is as scientific as we are going to get. And the results put a lot of flesh on the bones of assumption and anecdotal evidence that surround the big issues.

Chief among those areas that have previously been dominated by guesswork and unsupported supposition (and some mischievous manipulation too it must be said) has been over the true size of the opposition to the boss.

Judging by the hot-housed angst on the message boards and the institutional whining of the moan-in shows with all their assertions that "almost everyone I know is against Mogga" it would be easy to believe there is an unstoppable bandwagon, that the dug-out dissidents command a majority. The Big Boro Survey nails that myth.

In fact the opposition is a whisker under the quarter mark. That is still a sizeable political problem but far from the groundswell of overt dissent that is claimed.

Only 23.9% of respondents nailed their colours clearly to the mast and defined themselves as "not at all confident" that Tony Mowbray is the right manager.

A similar figure was thrown up in answer to a different question. When asked what will be the most important factor in success next season slightly less, just 23.3%, voted for a change of management.

In contrast a smaller group of confirmed loyalist of 16.4% said they were "certain" that Mogga was the right man - but they were swelled by a further 26.5% wwho said they were "pretty sure" making a substantial slice - 42.9% - firmly behind the boss. That is not a majority but it is still a healthy bulwark to any notions of a terrace insurrection.

There were however exactly a third - 33.3% - that said they were "unsure" either way which is a grey area of floating voters that will need to be won over next term to avoid things getting sticky.

Those figures are more in keeping with the actual matchday experience this season rather than the virtual one on the foaming forums where there appears to be a white noise of permanent fury, only a small easily shouted down minority of vocal Mowbray loyalists and very little evidence of a middle ground.

At games, fans have generally been stoic and remarkably patient despite the second half slump. The booing has limited largely to the whistle and even then born more from resignation and frustration than any discernable anger directed specifically at the boss. There have been no audible chants of 'Mogga out' for instance.

That is not to say that supporters are happy with the way the promotion push wilted.

The biggest indictment of Tony Mowbray comes as 43.3% of voters pointed to tactics and selection as the primary cause of the campaign's collapse putting the blame firmly at the manager's feet.

Injuries, inexperience and a lack of depth - factors often wheeled out as mitigation after defeat by the boss - were brushed aside with negligible numbers citing them.

The other key factors flagged up were a lack of quality in the squad (17.4%), a lack of goals (15%) and conceding too easily (18.5%) - although how many who voted that way would put the onus on the manager for those faults anyway is open to question.

And more people suggested new players are the way forward than a new boss.

Asked what will be the biggest factor in success 28% suggested an attack which takes its chances and 24.6% said new players, both higher than the 23.3% who see dug-out change as the solution.

It is not just the boss facing flak at the polls. Naturally the under-performing players come in for a kick in the ballots too. No department of the team and few individuals escaped the withering criticism.

Asked which area of the team needs strengthening, 74.4% of respondents said attack, 59.3% said defence and 52.3% said midfield.

And poor Jason Steele may have been called up for the England Under 21 side in their European Championships and he may well have scooped both Player and Young Player of the Year gongs but even so 12.3% think goalkeeper needs strengthening too.

On the plus side for Steele, he was rated the highest of all the players in the individual marks with an average of eight.

The detailed breakdown of the marks makes better reading for the keeper too.

The system allocated an overall mark reflecting where the largest single cluster of votes were cast.

A healthy 37.5% of the voters rated the keeper an eight but another 15.9% gave him a nine and 4.7% even gave him a ten out of ten.

Of the rest of the squad only George Friend, Grant Leadbitter and Mustapha Carayol dented the top mark.

Those three plus Justin Hoyte, Scott McDonald, Adam Reach and Seb Hines were the only players who made a seven with the latter two only just clawing over the line by less than 1%.

Most of the voting patterns were almost unanimous which shows that most fans watch roughly the same game. The majority of players votes were clustered within two marks.

Two players were given a damning one out of 10 mark for their contribution: a staggering 35.8% of voters gave pricey perma-crock Kevin Thomson the lowest possible mark while 20.8% gave frustrating frontman Marvin Emnes the same black spot.

Merouane Zemmama and Ishmael Miller were given a one by more than 10% of voters but polled enough elsewhere higher up the rankings to avoid the shameful stain.

That may muddy the waters over who was the popular whipping boy and ease the burden for enigmatic Emnes - but there is no escaping the harsh reality of the most eye-catching and damning numbers in the entire poll.

The Dutch striker, 18 goal top scorer in the previous term and briefly a £4m Swansea target, was overwhelmingly voted the most disappointing player of the season.

A hefty 57.6% of all voters named him as the undoubted flop of the campaign.

Injury jinxed Rhys Williams was the only other player to even limp into double figures with 12.5% of the vote while Jonathan Woodgate, equally dogged, was the only rival to top the 5% mark.

Perhaps the biggest surprise was that "all of them" attracted only 3.4% of the vote.

There was a sign of the new realism creeping into the Boro fans mental universe when asked about potential new signings. Asked to name ONE player to bring in the overwhelming favourite was Albert Adomah of Bristol City. Lionel Messi was only third. So if we can't persuade Adomah to sign only then will we ring Barcelona.

The painful post-mortem was dominated by the demand: has there been a WORSE display than THAT this season?

But it is equally damning of the shrivelled season as a whole that as the emotional anaesthetic wore off with distance from the scene of the disaster, gradually a list of rival candidates for the tainted title started to emerge. And it is a long list.

Let's be honest, there have been some real stinkers.

There have been pallid performances where a powerless Boro have been swept aside by a more organised and motivated side in good form and that has been painful - but that's football. Sometimes a better team tonks you and you have to bite the bullet.

But there have been some woeful displays too this term where a mentally weak Boro have quickly crumbled under routine but persistent pressure from technically inferior side and that is far harder to swallow. Or to forgive.

Supporters can cope with losing, God knows we've had enough practise over the years, but it hurts when the team signally fail to offer any resistance to a lesser outfit that simply want it more.

And it is far worse when Boro fail to rise to the occasion, when they don't respond to a big atmosphere and who fold under the pressure of expectation when a golden opportunity presents itself because not only is that a slap in the face for fans who do raise themselves for a big occasion but also it is a psychological fatal flaw that will prevent the club ever achieving success.

Anyway, let's pick our way through the debris of the worst displays this season....

BLACKPOOL (a) September 18. L 4-1

A traumatic Blackpool rocking was the nadir of Boro's Black September.

Boro had won three at home and lost away at Barnsley and Millwall. So far so average.

Then they were clinically dismantled at buoyant Blackpool as pundits anxiously checked Boro's promotion credentials.

A shapeless side were ruthlessly carved open by the mechanical forward diagonal thrusts of Ian Holloway's on-song side in a first half onslaught that was embarrassing. Boro knew what Blackpool would do but had no answer.

It was terrible. It was the first real milestone on what would be a nightmare season on the road - but it was forgiveable.

That orange crush came from a rampant side on song. Blackpool were rattling goals in a purple patch then with Holloway still at the helm. It was the wrong team at the wrong time and a Boro side still finding its feet were walloped. No excuses. No complaints.

And Boro bounced back with a run of just one defeat in 12 that took them to...

BIRMINGHAM (a) November 30 L 3-2

The first cracks had appeared in Boro's promotion bandwagon. They had dominated but lost 1-0 at Cardiff and fumbled in the fog and lost 3-1 at home to lowly Bristol City in the "buy one" part of a ticket BOGOF.

Then somehow Boro contrived to lose 3-2 at Birmingham on TV after twice leading. And not just leading but bossing. On 45 minutes the crowd were booing the team and Lee Clark and it looked all over.

Then came three colossal cock-ups that cost the game after what had been as dominant a first half all season.

Bikey finally got caught out after riding his luck for weeks to concede a first half stoppage time spot kick, Jason Steele developed Brad Jones aerial flappy wrist syndrome for the second then Josh McEachran played a sloppy ball and got punished. By Marlon King, naturally.

Boro were in command but failed to make it count, then lost their rhythm, lost their composure and finally lost any semblance of a grip on the game against a limited and demoralised side suddenly galvanised by the gifts.

It was the sign of things to come. After that Boro won only one of 12 away games - and that was a close call at rock bottom Peterborough.

DERBY COUNTY (a) January 1 L 3-1

After two home wins on the bounce put them in an automatic spots, hungover Boro suffered a damaging New Years Day drubbing at Derby.

It was not the score but the passive acceptance of defeat by a more motivated side that hurt - and rang alarm bells.

Derby were nothing special. They were the archetypal Championship side. But they were fired up, well organised and ruthless in applying their plan to press Boro at high tempo and force mistakes.

Boro never came close to matching the pace and intensity of the Ram raid and lost all semblance of team shape and individuals started doing their own thing. To no avail. It was deeply worrying.

That game was the start of a run of five successive league defeats as a jittery January turned into fragile February

IPSWICH (a) February 2 L 4-0

Boro had just been edged out to play-of rivals Watford and a last gasp penalty miss cost them at Leicester - but they were still in the picture.

After a week when all the results had gone their way Ipswich offered a golden chance to regain momentum but they meekly surrendered. A brittle side folded without a fight in abject fashion.

They were torn apart by a demoralised Town that were in freefall, fourth bottom and had not won in six. One of the lowest scoring sides in the division easily put four goals past Boro - and they could have more but for a couple of good blocks by Steele.

They sat deep, left Boro to enjoy fruitless possession in the middle third and then hit on the break with devastating quick balls forward in text book Mick McCarthy fashion.

And it was frightening that a strong Boro defence could not cope with one of the weakest and predictable attacks in the Championship.

CRYSTAL PALACE (a) February 19 L 4-1

BORO were left tattered and torn as a deja vu Palace coup left hopes of an end of term coronation in the balance.

Tony Mowbray admitted after the game that, just like at Ipswich, an abject display had been littered with individual and collective errors. It was a scenario that had become frighteningly familiar.

And stinging too because the flop in the "play-off six-pointer" followed hot on the heels of a gritty, spirited scrap to beat Leeds that showed real steel.

At Palace, disorganised Boro were woeful at the back, over-run in a pedestrian midfield and toothless up front in a display lacking spirit. The template was set by then.

BRISTOL CITY (a) March 9 L 0-2

This was a far more damaging result than the scoreline suggest. The rot had set in.

Boro desperately needed to reignite a stuttering promotion push but spluttered and failed. They failed to grab what should have been a routine winnable game by the scruff of the neck. They failed to contain the Championship's rock bottom side. They failed to compete, to battle, to threaten, to penetrate, to impose a pace or pattern. They failed. Individually and collectively. They failed to show the spirit and desire and ruthless will of a side battling for promotion.

It was a flat and flaccid display by a leaderless and demoralised team. It was very, very disappointing.

The local radio commentator, a Bristolian Brownlee with a touch of the pirate about his exclamations, felt moved to comment, with an note of surprise, on Boro having the demeanour and "the body language of a beaten team." And that was in the first half.

PETERBOROUGH (h) April 2 0-0

IMPOTANT Boro struck a bum note as they found themselves in a cow/banjo situation.

Against basement battlers who had come for a point, Boro bossed possession and created a dozen good chances, three or four glorious ones... and one or two gilt-edged sitters - but the flaccid front-line failed to make a single one count.

It was woeful. Boro's poorly calibrated players queued up to screw it wide, scoop it high over the bar, take airshots six yards out, fall over the ball and drill it well wide, high over or straight at the keeper.

Between them the shot-shy shambles blasted it from just about every distance, angle and velocity known to football physics and barely forced a save out of the Posh keeper.

It was a mis-firing masterclass of multi-marksman mediocrity. They should have all hung their heads in shame.

BRIGHTON (h) April 13 0-2

Boro's frustrating defeat to Brighton could have been a cut and pasted from any of the familiar failures in the sorry slither from the summit.

Sickened spectators will know the script off by broken heart by now: blunt Boro boss possession and win the stats but fail to take their chances and then are punished by a more clinical and organised side.

But what made this so dismal was the context. It was the do-or-die moment, Boro's last chance to keep their fate in their own hands. And they didn't take it. They didn't want it. They showed no hunger or urgency and did little to rattle the visitors at all.

Boro passed and probed and plodded and picked their way forward and back and sidewards in a repeat to fade low-tempo first half. Then got punished after the break. Oh. So. Predictable.

****

I'm sure there are more. Shout up if I've forgotten your favourite. Cast your vote here

It was torrid stuff from the whistle and it took about 30 seconds to see exactly how the game was going to pan out as lower league journeyman Fancy Dan Jermaine Johnson waltzed through the defence at will doing the Shammiobi Shimmy - but making it work. Down the other flank Helan was running riot. Boro were in utter chaos every time the ball came into the box. Midfield was non-existent. What was nominally a three man front line barely featured with Carayol a passenger, McDonald dropping far too deep and Main's occasional direct runs heading straight into trouble. Their keeper barely made a save.

It was men against boys. And not very good boys at that.

Boro set out with a creaky, badly executed 343 with a debutant centre-back and even though it was clear within a minute that Wedensady were going to rip down the flanks neither of Boro's midfield wide men - both full-backs by trade - offered the slightest bit of protection. It could have been a massacre. Seriously, I was watching through my fingers in white faced horror after about two minutes. Boro made them look like Bayern. It could easily have been three or four at the break and no-one could have complained.

I mean, Steve Howard scored. Glacial Steve Howard. Bombed out on loan by relegated League One Hartlepool for being a bystander, hasn't scored in his 10 anonymous games at Wednesday, hasnt scored for THREE YEARS in the Championship ... barges his man aside and leathers in the opener. The only surprise is that Leroy 'Offside' Lita didn't score - although in familiar fashion he tried to claim the second as a corner flashed past his attempted touch and went in.

Boro were slightly better after the break. Either that or, job done, the Owls eased off. Boro saw more of the ball and had the odd half chance but there was no sustained pressure, no real testing of the keeper, no sense of determination, no real feeling that they could claw thir way back into it. The crowd - 31,000 - had started very nervous but after 10 minutes they relaxed and even as Boro "battled back" there was no sense of jitters. The Owls fans were all too busy getting into position ready for a mass good-natured celebratory pitch invasion on the whistle.

Boro did nothing to get the home crowd on edge. Or the opposition. It was a plodding, half-hearted contractual obligation display with the aeroplane already taxiing on the runway. Despite the stakes, Wednesday won't have had an easier game all year.

No-one emerged with any credit. At least Burgess can claim some mitigation as a rookie that was left high and dry by his international colleagues at the back and the kids who came on - Bryn Morris and Ben Gibson - wil have got some big game experience as they tried to salvage something from the wreckage. Gibbo's nephew really rattled Lita in a brave challenge which bodes well. Jason Steele made two superb stops when Boro were being ravaged early on. And Grant Leadbitter at least ran around furiously. Rhys Williams made a couple of good blocks but only after a very poor start.

The rest? Well, least said soonest mended. But right now if anything was said it would be peppered with expletives. Suffice to say very few emerged with credit.

On the plus side, the pain will now at least stop until August. It was a frustrating and deeply disappointing season that has been the walking dead for months. A sickening long slither from the automation promotion spots to a finish just above the relegation zone. What if Boro hadn't beaten Forest? It doesn't bare thinking about.

Most people gave up weeks ago. Including a lot of the players on that showing.

I'm now actively trying to airbrush the last few months from history, to push the pain into a little box to be stored away in the collective loft of repressed memory.

A win would finish the season with a smile (a wry one maybe, but a smile nevertheless) and cast off the weight of a long barren run since New Year without a single win on the road... one point from 10 games so far in 2013 is a terrible, taunting memory we would all be keen to airbrush with the short term half-forgotten thrill of victory.

But if Boro win and a couple of other related results swing the right way - battling Barnsley at already safe Huddersfield and Peterborough at creaky Crystal Palace - it would relegate Wednesday too. A lot of people would see that as poetic justice.

Boro have twice been relegated at Hillsborough in sickening fashion. The first time they were cruelly sucked into the drop spots for the very first time on the final day; the second they won an acrimonious match but were relegated by results elsewhere with a game to go. Football fans have long memories and are skilled at nursing a grudge - some see it as their live's work - so there will be a significant section of the crowd that believe "we owe them one."

The ground casts a shadow over Boro's recent history - so much so that until Boro finally secured Championship safety with a point against Peterborough, a significant swathe of Boro supporters were adamant they would not make the traditionally well attended trip because they couldn't bear the prospect of a third Hillsborough heartbreak.

In 1989, Brucie's Boro were still living a football fairy-tale. After climbing out of the liquidation coffin the team of mainly local lads (and Bernie) had swept to two successive promotions playing adventurous football and held their own in the top flight. They spent most of the season comfortably in mid-table Even after a wobble, with three games to go they were still six points clear of third bottom Luton and looked reasonably safe.

But a draw at Villa and a narrow 1-0 defeat at Arsenal left them dangling one point and two places above the dotted line - with Wednesday third bottom. Boro went to Hillsborough knowing that they only needed to avoid defeat. They could even afford to lose so long as fourth bottom Luton didn't pick up a point at home to Norwich.

Boro went to a bleak and haunted ground just three weeks after the Hillsborough disaster with the Leppings Lane end still taped off and covered with tarpaulin, a ghostly backdrop that subdued the mood and heightened the nerves.

Boro struggled to get to grips with a hectic and scrappy game and although they dug deep they were eventually ground down and the Owls snatched a 1-0 win as Steve Whitton headed home on 67 minutes from a last of five testing corners in succession.

Boro had some late chances to claw back as a Gary Parkinson 25 yard was tipped over, Paul Kerr had a close range effort blocked then Tony Mowbray brought a good save from a bullet header. It was all to no avail.

On the whistle Wednesday fans celebrated scrambling above their visitors to secure top flight survival while deflated Boro - team and crowd - trudged away dejectedly.

BORO: Poole, Parkinson, Mowbray, Pallister, Mohan, Proctor, Kerr, Hamilton, Burke (Kernaghan), Slaven, Davenport. Subs: McGee.

Ref: Roger Milford. Att: 20,582.

Boro were back at Hillsborough in April 1993 as Lennie Lawrence's side battled in vain against relegation from the inaugural Premier League.

Boro had a decent first half to the season and were in the top half at Christmas but a long second half slither - they had won just one and draw one in 10 away games - had seen them trapdoor dancing for months but it was tight down there and they still had a chance with two games left.

Boro went to Hillsborough needing to win while also hoping rivals Sheffield United lost at rock bottom Forest. That would put the teams level going into the final fixtures.

And Boro did their bit. They attacked from the off and won a bad tempered game 3-2. They took a commanding lead with goals from Willie Falconer, Jamie Pollock and John Hendrie then stood firm as Wednesday - including soon to be Boro assistant boss Viv Anderson - fought back through Chris Bart-Williams and a Chris Morris own goal.

There was nasty edge to the game after Pollock went down injured and "England international Carlton Palmer" (a phrase that goes a long way to explaining exactly why the national side failed to make the 1994 World Cup) stood over the prostrate player pointing and screaming, accusing him of feigning what was later discovered to be a fracture. Dwight Marshall came on for him!

It wasn't enough. Sheffield United won 2-0 at Forest to open a three point gap with an unassailable advantage of 18 in goal difference. It's a funny old game but not that funny.

Here's the highlights:

BORO: Collett, Fleming, Whyte, Morris, Phillips, Hignett, Pollock (Marshall 57), Peake, Wright (Falconer 17), Hendrie, Wilkinson. Subs: Roberts

Ref: Brian Hill. Att: 25,949

That said, last time were there, in September 2009, we battered the relegation bound Owls 3-1, Gareth Southgate's side coming from behind with a vibrant display. Gary O'Neil grabbed the midfield by the jugular and Adam Johnson was in devastating form as an emphatic victory took Boro to within a point of West Brom at the top. Surely a Premier League return was a shoo-in. So it's not all bad. That was also Sean St Ledger's debut after his cheeky beat-the-window loan-cum-real deal.

*****

MEANWHILE, here's a chance to get it all off your chest in the Gazette's end of season big Boro survey. Tell us what you think.

*****

AND, while you've got your box ticking head on, fancy filling out a short survey as part of boffinological research into factors influencing dynamic ticket pricing?

Seven years to the day since the fantastic UEFA Cup fight back against Bucharest, Boro again came from behind - but that is where any similarities with the 'Spirit of Steaua' end.

Boro were carved open for the opener after 29 seconds and I'm sure at that point there were some people actively considering leaving at an earliest ever 'here we go again' moment. Boro should have had a penalty against them soon after as the rapidly depreciating Rolls Rhys hacked recklessly from behind to trip Fuller in the box - what did he think he was doing? - but somehow got away with it thanks to a generally poor referee waving play on. Then after 17 minutes they were two down thanks to a sloppy own goal off hapless Williams at the near post and if felt like an impending implosion. Plenty more considered an exodus right tthen I'm sure. It half crossed my mind.

At that point Charlton's official club twitter feed was asking if anyone knew off the top of their head what their record away score was. And I don'tthink that was arrogance. It looked a genuine prospect. I considered tweeting them that we had lost 6-1 to Arsenal at the Riverside if they wanted a target to aim at. It looked bleak.

Boro were shambolic at the back, disjointed and lightweight in midfield and inept in attack. The youngsters that the disaffected ranks had been calling for - Adam Reach and Curtis Main - proved to be not Messiahs nor even naughty boys but just largely ineffective raw prospects looking still well short. The only real threat of the first half came when innocent bystander Marvin Emnes lolloped forward 60 yards from a quickly cleared corner looking more surprised than clinical sharpshooter only to get hacked down for what looked a stonewall penalty just before the break.

Boro were roundly booed off at the break which is both unsurprising and completely understandable. The frustrated deep seated jeering, the product of weeks of powerless dicontent, was interspersed with the odd audible angry expletive-peppered rants directed from the gentile West Stand Upper at the manager, which was a first. At that stage everyone was pretty much resigned to defeat. There were few signs of life. It was awful. We were faced with completely recalibrating the direometer.

Yet somehow in the second half they clawed back. That is not to say it was a markedly improved performance. It wasn't. Not really. If anything it was Charlton who levelled the playing field with a markedly worst showing. Maybe they thought the job was done and took their foot off the gas. Maybe they suddenly remembered they were playing in the Championship so by defibnition they were rubbish too. Maybe Boro realised they couldn't get any worse and relaxed a bit.

Boro did most of the attacking after the break (although they still nearly got caught on the break a few times) and gradually forced their way untidily back into the game. It was scrappy and laboured and until the double switch - McDonald buzzed about and started to take pot shots from anywhere and Ledesma added a bit width and creativity - it was toothless for all the potent but pointless probing of the lively Mustapha Carayol.

Then out of the blue Emnes stretched hopefully and shinned home a teasing chip into the near post from Ledesma (it was the first goal Charlton had connceded on the road for five games) and after some more huffing and puffing McDonald headed a late facesaving equaliser from a Ledesma corner. Hurray! We didn't lose.

It still wasn't great. After the game Mogga said he was angry despite the fightback - who can blame him - while on the whistle fans were left confused: they didn't know whether if they applauded the fightback it would endorse the first half ineptitude, or if they booed it would seem churlish after the team crawled out of the wreckage. The "Lap of Honour" was a strained, muted, polite but not passionate affair with an almost tangible sense that the players were as glad as the fans to see the back of the Riverside for this campaign.

One more. Then we can draw a big black line under this season.

So I don't do that "two world wars and one world cup" or "ten German bombers" thing. I grew up in Germany and used to go and watch the mighty DSC Arminia Bielefeld. They like us. They don't reciprocate that "bitter international rivalry" we have with them. They save that for the Dutch. And hey, stereotype fans, they have a good sense of humour!

There are a lot of similarities between the two nations and two games (something the English do not like to admit ) except in German they can also boast safe-standing, a vibrant terrace culture, strong governance and fan ownership. It may hurt to admit it but for us at least, there is much to learn. Read on...

*****

SIX years ago, in the wake of Steve McClaren's timely exit, Boro found themselves locked in a bitter war of words with the League Managers' Association over the appointment of badgeless boss Gareth Southgate.

Gareth is now a respected TV pundit dissecting the tactical machinations of teams in international and Champions League games and has enjoyed a spell as FA supremo of all FA youth development programmes so must be considered to have passed his exams - although his on the job training at Boro wasn't entirely successful.

Many will still point to his troubled tenure as the starting point of long sickening slide backwards for Boro that has taken the club from the glories of Eindhoven to treading water in the Championship.

But the time to knock Southgate is long gone.

I only raise his stewardship because apart from Southgate - and Martin O'Neill who couldn't agree terms and conditions or a transfer kitty with Boro and was keen to persue his ambitions at a big club - one of the other candidates for the job was "the German."

Teesside was buzzing as news spread that a top German coach with an incredible CV but had put in a written application for the Riverside hot-seat citing his desire for the challenge of managing in England.

The German, who it was whispered had won the Champions League, was setting out a battleplan to transform Boro - then on the back of a recent trophy win and successive years in the UEFA Cup - into a major European power. How exciting was that? It was like an episode of Dream team. But it was TRUE.

The name was never publicly revealed back then. It was widely rumoured at the time to be Ottmar Hitzfeld who had won the European Cup with both Borussia Dortmund and Bayern and no-one in the club would deny this. Or confirm it. They just obliquely referred to "the German."

Boro big wigs later told us in passing that "the German" was in fact Felix Magath, an experienced and successful coach with an unimpeachable record. He was a Bundesliga winner with Bayern Munich who had run out of steam in Bavaria and was under pressure from above and from the fans - and the players were said to be not to keen on his old school discipline and emphasis on athelticism either. He was actively looking for a new club and a new challenge.

And we was seriously considering Boro. He had plans. Ambitions. He wanted to test himself in the Premiere League. He thought he would be a good match. It never came off and instead he went to Wolfsburg - one of German's middling clubs outside the Magic Circle - and guided them first into the Champions League then later to the title.

For a second a radical departure was possible - but Steve Gibson promptly back-heeled the move and chipped the CV into the wastepaper bin. He said he didn't want to turn the club into "Middlesbrough am Rhine" with an army of German speaking Teutonic coaches and nutritionists and scouts invading Hurworth and reshaping Boro along continental lines just as the Academy was starting to hit top gear.

"I looked at a German coach," said Gibson. "He wanted to bring in a German fitness coach, German masseur, German players. We were going to become Middlesbrough-on-Rhine. It didn't feel right. We had all these kids coming through from our academy. An outside manager might not recognise that, but Gareth knew.

"He is a good man, with integrity and fantastic football experience. He will make mistakes as he's inexperienced, but he has the intellect to learn from those mistakes. That is why we went for Gareth over more experienced people."'

You can see the chairman's point: a individual club culture is a fragile construct full of nuance and wholesale importation of an alien approach has rarely worked. At Chelsea under Mourinho maybe. And at Liverpool under Benitez maybe. Both both were backed with vast wads of cash. Boro were just entering a period of belt-tightening and it was unlikely that an experiment would be backed with the resources those two clubs could muster when it came to recruiting the players the new boss wanted.

But watching Germany's steady revival on the international stage to Under 21 titles, and in the last World Cup and Euros with a young team playing precise penetrating football to an atheltic and attacking template, and watching their club sides slowly inch towards ascendency in the Champions League again you can't help wonder 'what if?

Germany failed to qualify for the knockout stages of the Euros in 2000 and immediately the national federation launched a nuts and bolts radical review of the entire structure from club academies up and instituted far reaching changes in youth development (similar skill-centred moves were afoot in Spain at the same time) which were taken seriously, backed by a determined FA and taken up right across the Bundesliga.

German football has been on the up since then with a fresh crop of hot-housed talent sweeping England aside first in the Under-21 European Championships and then the senior squad at the 2010 World Cup. Now German club sides look set to usurp Spanish and English clubs in European club competition. Watch out.

"The German" would have arrived at Hurworth with that cultural revolution in full swing and fully aware of the burgeoning talent in his home country.

If you squint a bit you can just see a scenario where a re-engineered Boro may have signed the likes of Schweinsteiger, Ozil and Podolski. Kroos or Gotze. Or if not them, starlets of similar ability, attitude and athleticism.

Sigh. Where could we have been if we had taken a different route away from the debris of Eindhoven? That's the kind of thing I muse about while watching the Euros and Champions League on the gogglebox..

The English - or at least the patriotically blinded and proudly parochial one - may hate to consider this, but we have a lot to learn from Germany, and not just on the pitch.

German football has community and fan-based ownership models and strictly regulated governance models at clubs that ensures a Portsmouth or a Blackburn couldn't happen.

Yes, they have their big clubs and the "50+1 ownership model" is not perfect - dominant Bayern are a Manchester United juggernaut financially and culturally and are similarly widely hated among 'real' German supporters nationwide - but the football economy is not completely distorted. It is a competitive league that has produced a string of different winners in a spell when the Premiership has become a closed cartel that has priced out ambitious challengers.

And it has a vibrant fan culture with engaged groups involved in club affairs, with massive safe standing terraces in well designed and engineered fan friendly new stadiums that help create a real atmosphere. As opposed to an opaque, unaccountable structure that freezes supporters out of all but the most trivial areas of the game. Sit down, shut up and give us your money.

And even at the top they have affordable pricing structures - and integrated free matchday transport systems - that do not price out ordinary supporters. Much in the German model is to be admired. And emulated. Certainly it has far more progressive elements within it that the current English model of naked profiteering by clubs eager to milk alienated fans of every penny possible, a model seemingly beyond control.

And with a little twist of fate Boro may have been ahead of the curve.

If only....

This term, since January 1, Boro have played 19 games and taken just 11 points from a possible 57. Just three wins, two draws and 13 defeats have seen them slide from a proud second place to a crestfallen 10th.

How does that stack up against previous plunges? Well, it's not bad. Or rather, it is bad. Very bad. But not quite the worst.

The win against Forest last week clawed the current run above the two worst ever, dismal back-to-back campaigns 90 years ago leading to relegation from the top flight.

But their tally since the turn of the year is far worse than both the Bobby Murdoch and Willie Maddren relegation seasons, generally regarded as the benchmark for ineptitude by traumatised eye-witnesses.

They are still two points shy of the New Year nosedive that saw Gareth Southgate's side slip from the elite. And they will need to win both the last two to avoid the shame of a far more pronounced plummet than that from the Premier League under Lennie Lawrence.

Here are some of Boro's sorry slithers of the past.

1922-23
Division One
Manager: Jimmy Howie
P19 W3 D1 L15 Pts 10/57*

THERE was early title talk as Boro tussled at the top with Liverpool and local rivals Newcastle and Sunderland.

Boro went second by beating Spurs on December 30 - then followed a spectacular collapse that was to become a familiar feature of the calendar for future generations.

Boro went on a run of six successive defeats, beat Arsenal then suffered four more losses on the spin. They got a draw then thumped Forest 4-0 then finished with five defeats in six, the only saving grace a 2-0 home win over Sunderland that ended their title bid.

Despite the plummet Boro avoided the drop, their first half stockpile enough to see them finish 18th, six points above Stoke and Oldham.

1923-24
Division One
Manager: Herbert Bamlett
P20 W1 D4 L15 Pts 9/60*

UNDER a new boss Boro continued their downward drift and spent the entire season bumping along the bottom, although two wins and a draw in the festive fixtures brought hope of a New Year revival.

Alas, from losing 1-0 at home to Cardiff on New Year's Day Boro lost eight of nine and scored just one goal in both January and February. They won at home to Blackburn in early March to bring some relief then embarked on another long losing run before perking up to sarcastically draw three of the last six when already down.

They finished 10 points adrift - some going, under the two points for a win system.

1964-65
Division Two
Manager: Raich Carter
P20 W4 D4 L12 Pts 16/57*

WITH Alan Peacock flogged to Leeds, Boro struggled for goals but did enough to take up residence in the mid-table pack and were ninth going into Christmas when back-to-back defeats to eventual champions Newcastle punctured morale and form disintegrated.

A 3-2 home defeat to Coventry on New Year's Day started a run of six defeats in seven that included a 6-1 spanking at Cardiff and a 5-3 loss at Ipswich.

A brief rally in march saw two draws and a win at relegation rivals Swansea before another long slide punctuated only by crucial wins in basement battles with Portsmouth and Orient, just enough to inch Boro into 17th, two points above the drop spots.

1965-66
Division Two
Manager: Raich Carter
P19 W5 D3 L11 Pts: 18/57*

BORO took the previous season's second half form into the new term and were trapdoor dancing throughout the campaign.

An unbeaten December inched them up to a season high 14th going into New Year when they hit the skids with a 4-1 defeat at Rotherham then took one point from five to slide towards danger.

Home wins over Preston and Bristol City brought a brief respite before six defeats in seven - including a 6-0 thumping at Bolton - pushed them into the relegation spots.
And although two wins in three offered a late lifeline, three losses from four and a final day do-or-die 5-3 defeat at Cardiff sent Boro down to the third tier for the first time ever.

1981-82
Division One
Manager: Bobby Murdoch
P24 W6 D6 L12 Pts: 24/72

WITH the stars flogged off in the Great Ayresome closing down sale, the season flat-lined from the off. Three players - Billy Ashcroft, Tony McAndrew and Heine Otto - were to share the top scorer gong... with FOUR. It was a write-off. Boro never got above 18th.

A big freeze meant no action between early December and late January when rock bottom Boro failed to thaw out and went on a run of eight games in which they clocked up two points and two goals and were cast adrift.

They occasionally threatened to click and ground out wins at Sunderland and home to Notts County and Brighton in a solid five match unbeaten run in April but the damage was done and even a final flourish of three unbeaten could not prevent the inevitable.
Boro finished bottom and five points adrift.

1984-85
Division Two
Manager: Willie Maddren
P20 W4 D5 L11 Pts: 19/60

BORO were rapidly sliding towards the abyss when poor Willie Maddren was handed the poisoned chalice.

Already deep in trouble, Boro never scored a goal in the league in January (and lost in the FA Cup to Darlington) and while they kept eking out the odd draw they never won a game until March 12 when teenage goal machine Alan Kernaghan grabbed a 1-0 win at home to Sheffield United.

The bottom two - Wolves and Cardiff - were well adrift but Boro were caught in a furious scrap with Notts County to avoid the last drop spot and a late spurt of three wins in the last six, including a final day 2-0 victory at Shrewsbury which saw them scrape to survival.

1985-86
Division Two
Managers: Willie Maddren/ Bruce Rioch
P19 W5 D3 L11 Pts 18/57

BORO were down at the bottom in the first half but were in touch until one point from the first five games after New Year saw a gap start to open.

In February Maddren was axed and Bruce Rioch took over but with a weak squad he was on a hiding to nothing. He started with a win but four defeats in five showed there would be no instant upturn.

There were brief flashes of hope as Boro beat fellow strugglers Grimsby, Huddersfield and Blackburn then victory over promotion hopefuls Portsmouth lifted them briefly out of the relegation places.

But three losses in the final four including a final day defeat at Shrewsbury as other results swung the wrong way consigned Boro to the drop into the third division.

1989-90
Division Two
Managers: Bruce Rioch/Colin Todd
P21 W5 D4 L12 Pts: 19/63

AFTER relegation from the top flight Boro settled into a pattern of win one, draw one, lose a couple and were flirting with the drop - but after New Year the wins became rarer and the flirtation on became a full on snog.

After a dreadful first footing 1-0 defeat to Stoke just two wins in the first 11 games - although one was a 3-0 derby defeat of Sunderland - saw Boro get bogged down in the relegation places, distracted by a first ever Wembley trip in the ZDS Cup and coming to terms with the exit of Rioch, engineer of the post-liquidation football fairytale.

Two wins and a draw early on under new boss Colin Todd seemed to have salvaged the situation but then a lost lead and a woeful 3-2 home reverse to Port Vale sparked a slump of just one win in seven leaving Boro suspended above the abyss before a famous finale in a 4-1 win over Newcastle.

1992-93
Premier League
Manager: Lennie Lawrence
P19 W5 D1 L14 Pts: 16/57

A WIN and three draws in December left Boro in the mid- table comfort zone going into the New Year - then seven defeats in eight sent them plummeting into trouble.

Crucially Boro lost to Forest and Palace - both to be relegated with them - and also Oldham and Leeds who were also in the mix.

Typically, sarcastically, Boro won two of the last three and drew on the final day at home to Norwich but the damage was done.

2008-09
Premier League
Manager: Gareth Southgate
P20 W2 D7 L11 Pts 13/60

AFTER a bright start Boro were already deep in trouble come New Year after a run of five defeats and a draw. It was about to get worse.

Another seven without a win followed. There was a shock 2-0 home victory over Liverpool before a brittle Boro went into a tailspin.

With a string of basement battles looming the Gazette launched a 'Keep The Faith' campaign: Boro won just one game in the last 10 - at home to Hull - then surrendered with four defeats in the last five including a limp loss at relegation rivals Newcastle. Although they went down too.

* Denotes total adjusted to three points for a win system.

******

MEANWHILE, here's a plug for the Gazette's big Boro end of term on-line survey.

Boro were playing well and after surving an early barrage had settled and were slightly edging a very close game at the break. They were playing well in midfield witrh Richie Smallwood industrious and effective and Carayol looking very dangerous. They were working hard, had stifled the Bolton threat and started to carve holes in their defence.

Then a woefully mis-hit Eagles cross screwed high and wild and dipped into the goal beyond a rooted Steele. It was a total fluke, no matter whathe says. And it was against the run of play. Boro quickly clawed back a leveller with a Dyer header from a delicious Carayol cross and then almost immediately were pegged back by a dodgy penalty.

Tricky Korean wing Lee cut in from the left and did well to get to the byline then cut inside and as he poked the ball square he appeared to stand on Woodgate's foot as the defender moved across to block, then stumbled forward and crashed into Hoyte's challenge before Steele saved Sordell's shot.

When the whistle everyone was surprised. Hoyte's challenge looked fair and Lee was already falling over when it went in. Woodgate hadn't made contact and, if anything, he had been caught by the Bolton man. It was apoor decision. And the pivotal one.

Result: Woody booked, penalty awarded, they score. It was a gift. Then, to add insult to injury, five minutes later Woody was legitimately booked - for a daft challenge on Sordell wide out on the flank well out of the danger area - and was pedalled and from then on Boro were right up against it. The ten men gave it a decent shot and had a few scrappy half-chances but never really had a grip on the game.

Damn you lady luck. Boro played alright against a form team and will think they deserved something. The deciding factors were a flukey slice and a questionable penalty decison. But that will be hard to sell to the public. And teh end of the day, whatever the mitigation, Boro lost again on the road. They haven't won away this year, have taken one point in 11 games and have now got the worst tally on the road for 23 years. They are also on course for the lowest finish since that season, back in 1990.

More later...

Sky Sports News claim that the scrappy but welcome win had revived Boro's play-off prospects was met with widespread cynical laughter and sneering. Who are these delusional fools with their outlandish sci-fi predictions? Haven't they been keeping tabs on the results this year?

For most Teessiders mighty Boro felling Forest was a coupon-busting shock that had saved a troubled team from being dragged into the relegation place, probably to go down flicking the Vs with an historic flourish in an ill-fated final fixture at Sheffield Wednesday.

It was a Pyrrhic victory, a 'typical Boro' sarcastic win. But it was a welcome one and headed off what would have been a psychic surge of unstoppable angst.

Had Boro lost there would have been a split in the crowd: half hastily knocking together a gallows in Car Park B and half shuffling in a gloomy queue to jump from the Transporter.

I spent most of the build-up to the crunch match arguing theoretical mathematics with zealous pessimists armed with surreal sets of subjective projected results proving doomed Boro were going down.

Rip up your spreadsheets. Boro are safe. They have killed off relegation fears. They are staying up. And they've done it under their own steam. Hurray!

We shouldn't laugh. It was a close run thing. After weeks of incredible freak third party favours the vital victory came on a night when all the results finally all went against Boro.

Down in the depths Birmingham won at Bristol City (and relegated Matthew Bates), Ipswich beat play-off fixtures Crystal Palace, Leeds saw off Burnley, trouble magnets Millwall beat famous football refugee camp Watford while Blackpool and Derby both picked up a single point in scrappy draws.

Had Boro not won all those six teams would have edged above our heroes sparking off a wave of fear and loathing with bitter in-fighting and vocal protests aimed at the dug-out and the boardroom.

Now, if Boro somehow can follow it up with a win at seventh placed Bolton on Saturday then suddenly the play-offs WOULD still be on. Crazy.

That really puts the surreal nature of this ridiculous division into perspective.

Boro have been in woeful form for over three months now and going into the game had racked up just eight points from 57 - the worst start to a New Year since 1923.

They were in a powerless tailspin. Even the most loyal of fans, natural optimists who look for the positives, were already totting up how many new grounds they would be visiting in League One next year. Many others were weighing up if they were going at all. Teesside was shrouded in a cloud of nagativity.

Then suddenly Boro are catapulted back into contention - theoretically at least - and everyone is smiling again. With one result. It is astonishing really. But then, the stats are almost deliberately contradictory.

Only relegated Bristol have lost more games away from home than Boro - but only promoted Cardiff have won more at home.

Boro have beaten eight of the nine teams above them but have lost to 10 of the teams below them. Some more than once: Millwall, Bristol, Birmingham, I'm looking at you.

It has been the worst start to a calendar year since 1923 (I know, I've looked.) Yet Boro have spent most of it defiantly within one win or so of the play-off places.

Boro have taken just 17 points on the road but for all the talk of a terrible season and the Middlesbrough matchday being some kind of painful purgatory, the win over Forest means they have now racked up 41 points at home - the second most productive best ever at the Riverside. Only the 55 points in the Paul Merson inspired promotion season of 1997-98 has yielded more at home.

So, with one result a season of extremes has swung back towards being, if not exactly satisfactory, at least potentially palatable if Boro can finish with a flourish.

Ironically, in shape and dynamics at least, the defeat of Forest was not greatly different from many other far more disappointing fixtures of late. It wasn't that far removed in complexion from the games against Birmingham or Hull for instance.

There were the same scrappy and error strewn long spells punctuated by outbreaks of crisp movement, neat passing and probing and decent flurries of decent chances that went begging... only this time one went in.

There were the same passages of chaos at the back, a failure to clear convincingly, the string of free headers for the opposition and the nervous late frantic scrambles in the box ... only this time the defence held firm.

And while the team won and that in itself is worth celebrating after a mini-ice age of habitual defeat, It wasn't great. There were some very patchy personal performances.

Faris Haroun had a 'mare and seems incapable of hitting the target no matter how close in he gets or how sweetly the ball is lined up for him. Sammy Ameobi's erratic legs have a life of their own beyond his control and he looked a long way from the electric presence of his debut against Cardiff.

And top striker Scott McDonald worked hard enough but has lost his touch in the box. He got away with mugging the keeper on the edge of the box but failed to bury the loose ball then took a cartoon air-shot 10 yards out.

But there were some great performances too. Andre Bikey and Rhys Williams were superb at the back together, especially when one dimensional Forest - who looked progressively poorer as the game wore on - opted to lump hopeful high balls in.

The Dormo Destroyer Richie Smallwood was an industrious presence in midfield, closing and tackling but also getting forward and creating and he had a hand in sparking the move for the goal.

Josh McEachran also helped out for the goal on a lively night when he moved the ball around midfield quickly, crisply and intelligently and remembered how to pass it forward.

And Mustapha Carayol not only slotted the winner away sweetly but also showed flashes of searing pace, tricky footwork and real attacking intent and in the second half offered a potent outlet down the left flank that terrified the Forest defence.

Plus of course, after months of frustration, it was a much needed emotional pay-off for the patient punters. Not that one win will make up for the disappointment of a shrivelled season of 'what ifs'. There is still a summer reckoning to come.

There were some sign of encouragement, but it is too little, too late for this season.

THE CONSENSUS is that the Championship is totally unpredictable. Not when Boro are playing it isn't.

Boro's frustrating defeat to Brighton could have been a cut and paste from any of the familiar failures in the sorry slither from the summit. Sickened spectators will know the script off by broken heart by now: blunt Boro boss possession and win the stats but fail to take their chances and then are punished by a more clinical side.

For Brighton read Birmingham. Hull. Millwall. Huddersfield. And, as they say on the various artist compilations, many, may more.

They created the better of the chances in a tentative opening period without ever looking convincing or clinical or dynamic or dangerous.Richard Smallwood fired a low angled shot at the keeper that was routinely saved full length, Scott McDonald skied one and Grant Leadbitter sent a sizzler over then Andy Halliday lashed wide.

It was "alright" without causing any pulses to race. Teesside tiki-taka is an admirable trait - so long as there is an end product. But as so often in the New Year nosedive, there wasn't.

Boro dominated possession but lacked zest and pace and width and creativity and for all the ball they had they never really seemed to worry well organised Brighton. They probably haven't had as comfortable a game all season.

Gus Poyet said after the game that the first half atmosphere was flat, that the lack of noise in a nervous stadium had got into his players heads and feet and that he told them to go out after the break and create their own passion, make their own atmosphere. And they did.

Bubbling Brighton came out after the break and looked sharper, faster and more dangerous. Predictably, mono-paced Boro failed to match the sudden change in tempo and style and suddenly looked very vulnerable and chaotic at the back.

Brighton had a couple of good chances scrambled away before they scored what was a perfectly well executed but straight-forward training ground goal as unmarked Orlandi stroked home. And that was that. This Boro side don't come back.

Boro didn't give up. The beavered away. They pressed and probed again. They tried.

Then as toothless Boro committed men forward and laboured away en masse without much conviction 30 yards out, the compact Seagulls sat deep, strangled space and stifled any incursions into their box then Lopez struck a text-book second on the counter. Game over. Season over. We hope.

Boro are now eight points off the play-offs - although it feels like light years - but more urgently, they are just six points off the drop zone... Boro couldn't could they? No. Surely not. No. Almost certainly not. It would take a complex and spectacular series of results to see 12 teams claw above Boro in the last four games.

The bookies think it unlikely and are offering an average of 66-1. If you really think Boro will go down get your money on now. You can't blame more pessimistic Boro fans thinking it though. After all, the final fixture is Sheffield Wednesday away and that's an ill-fated date heavy with history for supporters of a certain age. Boro have been dragged through the trapdoor twice before on the final day.

Boro will stay up - but it could a tense finale unless they can stop the rot quickly and rack up a few points somewhere. Right now that doesn't look as easy at it sounds. After eight points from 51 with confidence visibly draining away by the game it could come down to other teams failing to punish their woeful form.

After months of all the results going the right way above us, we are now anxiously glancing over our shoulders hoping for the same behind us.

This broken season can't end soon enough now. Four dead rubbers left. Four chances to restore some battered pride. Four chances to shift season tickets and offer some thin shards of hope.

Meanwhile former sublime striker Alen Boksic was in the directors box. What must he have made of the languid and plodding affair? Boro are exploring the possibility of using his contacts in Croatia, he is assistant coach, to tap into the as yet unexplored market. Croatia join the EU in the summer so work permit restrictions will be lifted: we may finally get Robbo's 'next big thing' Igor Cvitanovic. Or his modern equivalent.

That and similar mooted link-ups in other countries may help find undiscovered talent on the cheap in the summer and help in the continued drive to improve the side against a backdrop of belt-tightening and looming Financial Fair Play.

With this season making creaking metallic scraping sounds and grinding to a halt, Boro are already planning for the next campaign.

Mogga said after the game he wasn't a quitter and had no intention of walking away. He was a Teessider and was digging in and Steve Gibson shared his DNA and approach and understood the circumstances and limitations. And the chairman underlined last week that he was not sharpening his axe. Mogga is his man.

That may not go down too well with a now firmly hostile section of the Riverside crowd but 'it is what it is.' There has been chuntering and cyber-squabbles but amazingly very little vitriol aimed at the dug-out during the long bleak slide. Booing on the whistle yes, and understandably so. But very few outright calls for Mogga to go. Partly he may be shielded by sentiment. Partly too because, for all the frustrations, most people see the limitations of the finances and the squad and are aware of the political landscape.

There's no mileage in demanding his head. And to fair, for many it has gone beyond anger and recriminations. The atrophied season has ushered in widespread apathy. Which is maybe harder to deal with.

The club are already planning for next season. The wheels are already in motion for a complete revamp of the failed squad so a promotion push can be carried into the business end of the season.

Next term will need to be far better than this one - and it will need get off to a bright start - if the viral disillusionment spreading through the crowd is to be contained.

There is now a layer of fans who have declared themselves against Mogga. It will take something special and sustained next season to get them back behind the boss.

This season has disintegrated along with morale and belief off the pitch. Putting that back together in the summer could be as big a job as player recruitment.

Boro played well enough in spells, dominated the first half, created a couple of decent chances and held their own against a title chasing team. Then they leaked from a set play... stop me if you've heard this one before... as Jason Steele, so often the hero this season, misjudged the flight of a routine low free-kick that took a bobble - and it was effectively game over. Season over. And this team over.

This current team is technically slick but physically and mentally weak in key areas. It lacks a killer touch up front and relentless body-on-the-line solidity at the back and in midfield it has nice touches but is missing muscle and bite.

Now it is time to rip it up and start again. It is natural to be frustrated by results, to be angry at the players and see one failure piled on top of anoither, to swear and shout and look for a scapegoat. Obviously everyone is hurting and there is a burning desire for recriminations. What is more important though is that work starts now for next season.

The club are preparing a radical overhaul of the squad in the summer. In looks likely that all the out of contract players will leave, the loanees will go and a couple off others who have repeatedly failed will be bombed out to be replaced by new signings - some seasoned battlers from the Championship, some from as yet untapped but well scouted markets - and by the young players judged ready to step up.

We may as well fast forward and give those young lads their chance now in the final five games. Let's see what they can do. They can't do worse. They and the frustrated fringe players should be given a chance to prove their worth now. There is nothing to lose.

It has been a disastrous second half of the season and angry fans will demand action after a disappointing empty handed limp to the finish line. But in the backlash we should be careful we don't throw away the baby with the bathwater. The club have been working hard behind the scenes over the past 18 months to prune a bloated squad, slash a toxic wage bill, rebuild the foundation and establish a solid scouting system and put in place the basis of what could be some productive partneships abroad.

When we rip the team apart we must be careful not rip that fledgling structure apart.

They bossed possession against Peterborough and created maybe a dozen decent chances and three or four very good ones... and one or two sitters - but the flaccid front-line failed to take a single one.

Between them the shot-shy shambles blasted it from just about every distance, angle and velocity known to football physics and barely forced a save out of the Posh keeper.

It was a mis-firing masterclass of multi-marksman mediocrity and they should all hand their heads in shame.

You would laugh at the penalty box slapstick if it wasn't so serious. It was a golden opportunity missed. With the play-off pretenders stuttering above and around Boro, somehow a season that should really have been put out its misery a month ago is still twitching and showing signs of live.

Victory was there for the taking. But time after time blunt Boro spurn the opportunity to climb up off the slab and stage a revival. After four defeats on the spin against basement battlers a point should have been welcome to stop the rot but instead it was a taunting reminder of how poor this team have been at the crunch.

They were at home against the second bottom side and with everything to play for - professional pride, a crowd that deserve more, a somehow still viable play-off push, their futures at the club, win bonuses - but could not find a goal.

It is not for the want of effort. In the past few games - Birmingham, Wolves and now Peterborough - Boro have worked hard and for long spells have had a clear edge.

There is an argument they could and should have won all three games. If only they could score when on top. They beaver away and get into positions. They get width and stretch play, pass and probe, get behind defences and put the ball in the box.

They are creating the chances. Good chances. Really good chances. Sitters. But they just can't hit the target. A combination of poor timing, poor luck, a lack of confidence, a lack of hunger and a lack of ability makes them a toothless attack.

Against Peterborough Boro did well up until the final fraction of a second. No, really. Yes, the result was deeply disappointing and the on-going slide to obscurity is frustrating if predictable - but the way the team set-up and functioned was fine. It panned out just was as planned. Until the moment of truth.

The 4231 shape worked. Sammy Ameobi, behind the lone striker Ishmael Miller, ran riot, carving open Posh with sublime trickery, unpredictable long-legged twists and turns and some divine short passes. Behind him Josh McEachran and Grant Leadbitter worked hard to win and keep the ball, recycling possession and switching the direction of play and passing crisply. That unit worked.

The trio was well balanced and looked detenmined and assertive. They dominated play in the opposition half and picked and probed with considerable success. It was where the bulk of chances were created.

Later on Mustapha Carayol came on to streak down the left and fire in cross after inviting cross into the danger zone with great effect. The chances were there.

But some of the finishing was sickeningly woeful. Scott McDonald is Boro's top scorer - the top earner usefully wears a shirt with the number 27 to give us some indication of the ball park figure of his rewards - and he is hard-working enough. No one can deny that. He buzzes about looking to link up. He has played out of position and done well.

At Wolves he was a orthodox midfielder and against Posh he played in a wider role. And he was effective in both - until he got into his natural territory in the box where right now he couldn't hit a barn-door with a blunderbuss.

Twice he had a clear sight of goal with time and space to pick his spot. It is what strikers are supposed to thrive on. But he blazed a routine 10 yard half-volley well wide after being perfectly teed up by a Miller knockdown.

Then he screwed another close range effort wide after snatching at his shot.

And Faris Haroun twice failed to make contact six yards out when passes were squared teasingly across the box, once with either of his left feet. Then when he finally did hit the ball eight yards in acres of space, with time frozen and with just the keeper to beat he skied it high into the stands. Another erratic, hurried shot from inside the box screwed off wildly closer to the corner flag than the target.

They were the worst offenders but they weren't alone. Miller and Justin Hoyte spooned wide and over and after coming off the bench direct Curtis Main twice surged into good positions but mistimed his approach and couldn't unload and the ball bobbled away.

It wasn't all mistimed ineptitude. There were some laudable efforts on goal too. Josh McEachran carved open Posh with a neat one-two off Ameobi to burst through and drill in stinging shot that brought a good full-length save.

And Ameobi clawed a loose ball back into play in with a sublime drag-back, dummy and reverse nut-meg - ProEvo skills that the young people refer to as "good tekkers" - then cut inside to rifle a low angled effort that was also well saved.

And Leadbitter - who obviously has a taste for an exocet now after his double at Wolves - sent a sizzling effort scorching just over after good approach play.

But good, bad and indifferent, they wouldn't go in. Even the deflections fly just off target.

And that has been the story of the season. Certainly it has been a frustrating fatal theme running through the steady slither from the summit.

Yes, some terrible goals have been leaked and the ever changing defence would not stand up to close scrutiny right now. Let's be honest, they have been woeful too and have conceded some sloppy goals that must leave old school defender Mogga mortified.

Failing to mark, failing to pick up signalled movement, failing to make simple headers, cut out crosses and failing to block shots and make tackles. It has been a poor fare.

But the fact remains that had Boro taken one of their gilt edge chances against Posh, one of their three or four first half sitters at Wolves to wrap it up before the break, one or two of their great opportunities in the Birmingham game, then we would not be squirming in frustration and looking anxiously over our shoulders wondering what happened to the Autumn optimism and the nailed on promotion.

Given where we started 2013 it is embarrassing and infuriating that we should even have to contemplate results and movement in the lower half.

It would take some bizarre results to drag Boro much further down - no one has ever gone down on 55 points before - but that it is actively being talked about and real calculations being made by the more cynical and jittery sections of a deeply discontented crowd speaks volumes of where most now consider the team to be.

Some are already talking of the historical inevitability of a nervous final day trip to Hillsborough, the scene of two previous heartbreaking relegations on seasons that started well and were still healthy at Christmas.

But, in fact, despite the despondency, this punctured season may have some mileage in it yet. With four of the teams above them to play Boro could - could - still gatecrash the end of season shootout. Crazy.

That is not me 'spreading ra-ra fairy dust on the wreckage'. That is the league table. Our peers are not good enough to pull away. Our teams are faltering too. Amazingly it is still there for Boro if only they could find a spark.

The kind thing would be to put us all out of our misery but this team - aided and abetted by the incomptance of others - could yet drag out the agony through another six games and take it right to the . In this league anything seems possible.

But to make that increasingly surreal scenario a reality Boro must start scoring. And quickly. They must start whacking beef bum with banjo.

Tony Mowbray admitted his side now had "a mountain to climb" after Wolves. It was a fourth successive defeat to poor teams frantically clawing their way out of the relegation zone. Expect Boro to run out wearing crampons on Tuesday against a revived Peterborough who have just completed a double against Cardiff.

Wolves fans and press were laughing with glee at the end. They thought they had "got lucky" because in the first half they had ridden their luck in what had been a very scrappy half. Boro were poor but they had the best of the game.

At the break they had scored both goals, rattled the woodwork three times and missed two, maybe three sitters. Boro were really going for it but Hoyte and Carayol hit the bar (as did Leadbitter but his bounced down and in, just ), McDonald failed to connect 10 yards out, Jutkiewicz drilled an angled shot straight at the keeper and a cross hit Adam Reach and spooned wide. One more goal from that lot and Boro may well have run riot and a poor Wolves team would have folded.

Then three minutes into the second half Wolves carved Boro open, a Ebanks-Blake backheel sending Sigurdarson skipping through to dance past McManus and round Steele and slot home and suddenly Boro wobbled and disintegrated. Yes, they pulled another back through a second Leadbitter rocket but the momentum was gone and around him the team was imploding into a shapeless, fractured, fragile collection of individuals and revived Wolves were asking all the questions.

Steele had to make a string of saves to keep Boro in it and George Friend cleared off the line. But a a glacial defence dithered and eventually cracked, allowing Kevin Doyle time and space to punish Boro with a free header after a long throw was flicked on and dropped into a packed box. It was woeful. But predictable.

It is easy to retro-slag the boss and talk about formations but the shape was not the problem. The formation 'worked'. Boro created a dozen chances and six really good ones but just could not score. And at the other end they easily contained a limited side for 48 minutes then disintegrated.

That's not about tactics or tempo or shape or set-up. That's about poor play from flawed individuals who are suffering from a lack of confidence after a nightmare riun and who crack under pressure. That's what we were told to expect from Wolves too.

So; six points adrift of the play-off and even with the gerousity and ineptitude of our peers it would take a freak sequence of results to keep the door open much longer. And, panic fans, just nine points from the drop zone with some tough fixtures looming.

Still, Schadenfreude is the official beer of the football fan so at least we can take some secondary comfort from the far more spectacular implosion of Sunderland and the end of the 'Party with Marty' and the enhanced prospects of a derby game next year.

Everest the hard way. Pass the oxygen.

We all know - or should know - that the economic backdrop at Boro is bleak. It always is for relegated clubs that don't get straight back up. Especially once the parachute payments run out. We have discussed the harsh post-Premier League financial landscape and the club's controlled downsizing before. Most recently in this bit

The accounts for the year to the end of June 2012 released today put some flesh on the bones. Firstly, hands up, I'm no accountant. Most journalists are arty-farty humanities graduates who do words, not numbers. We will hand the full report to someone more financially literate and attuned to the nuances of company balance sheets rather than league tables and the Gazette will do a fuller report later in the week.

Here are the highlights though, expertly and quickly delivered via the excellent Swiss Ramble blog, forensic football accountant to the masses. He is a Zurich-based high end financial analyst with a mission to demystify the balance sheets of clubs to arm supporters with the facts. He crunches the numbers so you don't have to.

Here are his main points of the numbers, plus a bit of context with comparisions of other Championship clubs who have already declared their own results.

* The 2012 loss before tax was £13.5m (2011 loss £18.7m). The loss after tax was smaller at £10.0m (2011 loss £13.8m), mainly thanks to tax credits.

* There are many large losses currently being recorded in the Championship: Leicester £29.7m, West Ham £25.5m, Bristol City £14.4m, Cardiff £13.6m, Forest £11.6m all lost more than Boro at £10m.

* Boro's 2012 revenue of £18.1m down was from the previous accounts figure of £40.8m, due to the 18 months accounting period in 2011 and also a significant stepped reduction in the PL parachute payment in that time. Those payments have now ended.

* Boro 's 2012 revenue of £18.1m (2011 - £40.8m) breaks down as: gate reciepts £4.8m (2111 - £6.8m), cup income £0.8m (2011 - £0.2m), media payment £7.4m (2011 - £26.1m), commercial activity £5.1m (2011 £7.7m). The high media payment for 2011 includes two years enhanced solidarity "parachute" payments of £12m and £8m, 2011 just one years's much reduced £4m solidarity payment).

* Boro 2012 profit on player sales much reduced at £2.8m (the 2011 figure was £15.2m including sales of Adam Johnson, Brad Jones & David Wheater).

* The biggest expenditure in the period was the £1.2m purchase of Lukas Jutkiewicz.

There were no significant sales (although several big earners players left on free transfers). The main exit from the squad came after the reporting period and the £3.25m sale of Joe Bennett (plus increments up to an additional £1m) will go into next year's figures - although the income has been very welcome in a difficult year that followed.

* The 2012 staff costs were £21.5m, giving a very high wages to turnover ratio of 119%.

* High wages to turnover ratios are not unusual in the Championship, eg Bristol City 157%, Leicester 130%, Boro 119%, Forest 119%, Cardiff 103%.

* In the previous 18 month reporting period staff costs were £32m (£1.77m per months). The 2012 figure works out at £1.74m per month. However in the following period there have been significant reductions with current wage levels widely reported as standing at £16m per year (£1.33m permonth) with further reductions expected.

** In 2012 Boro's gross debt was £70m - owed to Steve Gibson (interest-free). During the reporting period ALL external debt was repaid & replaced with owner loans. in addition to replacing external debt, £50m of inter-company debt was converted into equity during 2012.

That has saved the club over £4m a year - £10,958 per day - in interest payments to the banks that held charges against the loans and credit facilities - and has also released the club of a duty to get the banks' permission to make any significant financial commitments - that is buy players.

All the above numbers should bring home the reality of the situation to those who have convinced themselves that Steve Gibson is not putting his hand in his pocket, is holding out on Tony Mowbray, making a profit from the club, that he has some intricate fiancially beneficial reason for staying at this level, that he is failing to "show ambition". He is "showing ambition" to the tune of £10m a year.

In fact, through his company and his personal largesse, the chairman - who has diescribed his own position as "absolutely crackers" - is supporting a club through a period of post-Premiership toxic shock of the type that has proved fatal for some clubs.

The wage bill remains high. At £16m it is the third highest in the division... but it remains unbalanced with too much of that money concentrated in a handfull of players, the legacy of an ill-judged spending spree under Gordon Strachan. Most of those high earners will leave in the summer reducing the overall wage costs, reducing the wild anomolies and giving Mogga a bit - that's a bit - of leeway. But it won't herald a new golden age of recruitment. It will still mean shrewd scouting and hard bargaining.

Boro are spending far more than they are earning and are supporting a wage bill that eats up 119% of the turnover. That is unsustainable. Plenty of other owners in similar sitautions have pulled the plug and walked away leaving the club to plunge down another level and go into administration in order to shed the debt and regroup shell-shocked on a far lower base (look at Sheffield Wednesday or Leeds for example).

It also shows that the current controlled financial down-sizing is, in the immediate future, the only show in town. There is no money to throw at a promotion bid. There is no leeway to bring in "the one or two players that will make the difference".

Recruitment is the key to the future but that will need to be tightly controlled in terms of expenditure, wage levels and also the structure of contracts with more emphasis on bonuses for success on the field.

"The company's performance depends largely on the team manager and his staff and players," the report says. "The ability to recruit people with the right experience, skills and potential is a major key to performance.

"To manage these requirements the company is constantly analysing its market place and has performance reviews together with performance related remuneration in place to retain key individuals."

Next season will be more of the same. Yes, costs are falling but the parachute money has run out, players sales are unlikely to bring in much (even if they are desirable at all) and there has been no marked upturn in gates, despite the club's well intentioned and well priced ticket initiatives. With Football Financial Fairplay looming and set to restrict how much Steve Gibson can put in, gates are the only real variable in revenue terms.

"The company continually faces the risk of the team underperforming against crowd expectations which can have a significant impact on revenue streams and cash generation," the report notes. That is the key.

A lot now rests on season ticket renewals.

*****

BORO chief executive Neil Bausor gave his own response to the accounts in the Gazette, stressing the continued support of the chairman to fund the club to the maximum level allowed under Financial Fair play and reiterating that the club's ambition remains to achieve promotion to the Premier League as soon as possible from a solid financial platform.

Three defeats in a row to bottom eight sides of limited ability but far more functional form. Three lack-lustre and low-tempo and low-thrills shows from a side lacking confidence and any sign of a spark. Grrrrrr.

Birmingham were just as bad but several times caught Boro on the break, took advantage of some comical/suicidal defensive errors and forced two good saves from Jason Steele before a player who shouldn't even have been on the pitch scored. High rise hitman Nikola Zigic had already been booked when he committed a deliberate handball which caused the ref to go and talk to him but he somehow escaped a second yellow. Naturally he was the one that stumbled the ball home soon after. Grrrrrrr.

It was very, very diisappointing - as much for the apparent lack of passion and drive and urgency as the defeat - and any play-off hopes are disappearing rapidly over the horizon for a side that has shrivelled into mediocrity in a matter of months. And no doubt the frustrated spleen-venting will intensifyas we have a festering two week international break now to tear ourselves apart in. Grrrrr.

"Sprinkle some ra-ra fairy dust on that [expletive deleted], Vickers" I was challenged on twitter. I won't be doing that. There is very little that can be said in mitigation after such a poor show. But the result and the continued slither away from the play-offs - and the anguish of seeing a season of early promise evaporate - doesn't change the big picture.

The chairman will continue to back the manager because the club are midway through a long term rebuilding project which is, recent results aside, making steady and important progress off the pitch. The foundations are slowly but steadily being rebuilt, the finances have been restructured and the key people in the club share a perspective for the short to medium future. A kneejerk bout of emotional demands for dug-out blood-letting as an appeasement for fans frustrated at the fizzling out will not serve the club well.