WE left the grey clouds of Bolton to drive up to the blue skies of Teesside.

We met some Middlesbrough friends for an excellent lunch in the Royal Oak at Great Ayton.

As we chatted, the expectations for our two teams were very different.

Boro went close last season and have made several signings, particularly quality strikers, whereas we’re having to flog players to bring in free transfers.

The envy didn’t stop there as my friends confirmed that all Boro season ticket holders get a free pint before or after every home match.

So on to the Riverside, which is celebrating its 20th birthday this season, and the day went downhill rapidly from the first whistle.

Neil Lennon changed the defensive formation which did so well last week against Derby, to devastating effect. Middlesbrough must have thought it was Christmas and it was game over after half an hour.

Boro tore us apart and it looked like another Reading was the cards.

We changed the formation again and at least stemmed the flow.

In the second half Zach Clough came on to boost our attack but we still ended up without a single shot on target. Middlesbrough fans were singing for their chairman Steve Gibson and ‘We are going up’.

Bolton fans preferred to sing old favourites like ‘Let’s pretend we’ve scored a goal’ and ‘We are staying up’.

It was a bad day at the office but upon reflection most fans would not have expected us to get anything at Middlesbrough. However the performance was the biggest disappointment.

We weren’t even close to giving them a game.

One point from two of the promotion favourites is not a disaster but we need to start winning soon or we’ll be heading for a repeat of the past two seasons or worse.

If our player of the year for the past two seasons, Tim Ream has to be sacrificed on the financial altar, then let’s at least make the money available count. Also we must sort the injuries out as we need every player to do his duty.