WANDERERS may still have a six-point safety cushion on the bottom three but no-one at the Macron rested easily after another frustrating 90 minutes at Middlesbrough.

Neil Lennon saw his team drop to 19th position in the Championship thanks to a solitary strike from Albert Adomah.

And while the Northern Irishman might take solace from the fact the Whites showed considerable defensive improvement on recent outings, he is bound to be concerned that they are now looking like a side deep in a rut and struggling to get out.

Lennon made six changes to the side beaten at Forest, the most surprising of which was dropping Adam Le Fondre to the bench.

Ben Amos came in for his first Wanderers start, in fact his first anywhere since a New Year’s Day game for Carlisle United in 2014.

The on-loan Manchester United keeper had been signed as cover for Adam Bogdan’s injury but found himself thrust into the limelight after Andy Lonergan left the City Ground on a stretcher on Saturday.

He had fond memories of Teesside, though, having made his senior debut for United against Boro in the League Cup in 2008.

Saidy Janko, Dean Moxey, Emile Heskey and Eidur Gudjohnsen also came back into the side, while David Wheater – in for the suspended Matt Mills – played his first game at the Riverside since leaving the club for Wanderers four years ago.

The big centre half contributed to a decent opening 20 minutes for the back four, which came in for some considerable stick at the weekend. Across the pitch, however, the Whites looked as compact as they had for some time.

With Neil Danns and Barry Bannan screening the back four, Boro were forced to work hard to find the gaps. And but for a wasteful shot from Patrick Bamford, it was relatively comfortable going.

But with so little happening in an attacking sense, it was always going to be hard work keeping up that high tempo pressing game and slowly Boro started to work their way closer to the Wanderers goal.

Amos made a tremendous one-handed save from Bamford at close range to preserve his clean sheet, but alas, it would only last another couple of minutes.

Lee Tomlin picked the ball up 35 yards out and produced a disguised pass which caught the Wanderers defence completely on their heels.

Adomah waltzed through the gap between Wheater and Dervite, then slotted a shot past Amos to ruin all that hard work in the opening half hour.

What would be the response? In all, it was quite disappointing.

In fact, Boro should have extended their lead before the break when Wanderers struggled to clear the ball in their own penalty box and when it arrived at Bamford’s feet five yards out, the striker somehow managed to prod his shot over the bar.

The home side continued their measured brand of football after the break, consoled by the fact their defeat against Leeds at the weekend was their first in 10 games.

The only position on the pitch they didn’t look completely assured was when the ball dropped for Bamford in the penalty box – the on-loan Chelsea striker having ‘one of those days'.

The youngster should have made it two on 55 minutes when Josh Vela’s poor clearance ricocheted to George Friend eight yards out, and his unselfish pass was skewed wastefully wide.

Without Le Fondre sniffing around up front, Wanderers looked static. And the fact their first corner took more than an hour to arrive said a lot about the flow of the game.

Heskey had one brief sight of goal, heading the second corner goalwards but never seriously testing Dimi Konstantopolous.

While it remained 1-0 there was always a chance the Whites could nick something, and that might have explained Lennon’s furious reaction when Saidy Janko was adjudged to have fouled Ben Gibson on the halfway line as he spun the Boro defender to race in on goal.

The manager threw on Zach Clough and Le Fondre in the hope that something would drop to them in the penalty box but for that to happen, his side needed to go up another gear if not two.

For a moment with nine minutes to go, Le Fondre threatened to steal in for an equaliser, linking well with Liam Feeney to get to the byline.

Feeney also had a brief sniff at the far post as he put a header wide. But, in truth, Wanderers had lacked conviction until the bitter end and were relying on a lucky bounce rather than any real creative touch.

Tomlin rattled the bar with a late free kick for Boro, who would have been decent value for a two-goal lead considering the chances Bamford had wasted.

But they ended up holding on as Wanderers won a flurry of late corners – prompting even keeper Amos to come up in search of a goal on his full debut.

Even when Wanderers earned a fortuitous free kick deep in stoppage time and threw everything forward, Bannan’s delivery was poor, prompting Lennon to kick angrily at a set of water bottles in front of the dugout.

If his side had shown similar venom in 90 minutes they might have headed back to the North West for something to show for their efforts.

WANDERERS (4-2-3-1)

BEN AMOS...7

JOSH VELA...5

DAVID WHEATER...7

DORIAN DERVITE...6

DEAN MOXEY...6

NEIL DANNS...6

BARRY BANNAN...6

LIAM FEENEY...6

EIDUR GUDJOHNSEN...5

SAIDY JANKO...7

EMILE HESKEY...6

 

Subs: Clough 6, 70 (for Gudjohnsen), Le Fondre 82 (for Janko)

Not used: Fitzsimons, Twardzik, Threlkeld, Slavchev, Walker.

 

Boro (4-4-2): Dimi, Fredericks, Kalas, Gibson, Friend, Adomah, Leadbitter, Clayton, Reach, Tomlin, Bamford.

Subs: Forshaw 76 (for Reach), Kike 76 (for Bamford)

Not used: Mejias, Whitehead, Omeruo, Carayol, Wildschut

 

Referee: Andy Madley

 

Attendance: 16,549 (240)