Before the Tottenham match, Southgate said he was paying no attention to Redknapp's mind games, as the Spurs' manager tried to lure us into a false sense of security regarding his team's fitness.
That is all very well but whether Southgate could override the sense of complacency that the Boro boys, who watched Tottenham players limp off defeated against Manchester United, must have felt is another matter.
Our new impenetrable defence let four goals in. None of them were world-beating wonder goals, we simply made stupid mistakes which Spurs capitalised on. We had no way to get back into the game because we were given a rude awakening and the fight-back (such as it was) began far too late.
I have always expressed concerns over Robert Huth's fitness and attitude and unfortunately both were called in question last night. Southgate reminded us that Huth has a foot injury - a new one, or are we just calling his glass ankle a 'foot injury' now?
Two fantastic games in a row seem to have been the German's limit and he reverted to his main role, from earlier in the season, of watching the ball go past him and then disgustedly retrieving it from the goal.
An undoubtedly talented player, he seems to have very little inclination to push himself. A fan favourite for some solid work and a couple of flashes of brilliance, he needs to try a lot harder before I am satisfied that buying him was a risk worth taking. Maybe I am being harsh and it his his injury which is holding him back but as he is injured more often than not it is hard to tell!
He was not alone. An out of position Pogatetz was tortured by Aaron Lennon for most of the match.
Wheater missed a header, O'Neil failed to do anything with a back-heel from Aliadiere except put it out of Downing's reach and Arca skied his shot.
Even our new super strike force let us down. Tuncay had the ball in the net twice but both times it was disallowed for offside. He also hit the post and was obviously trying to score but one shot lacked any real power and he also missed probably the easiest of his chances.
And Aliadiere? Well, I'm almost sure even I would have scored the open header that he somehow guided wide of the post. Okay, perhaps not, but then I'm not getting paid to do so. Having had an awful first half, the Frenchman was subbed after around fifty minutes in favour of Marlon King.
That substitution made sense. It also made sense to swop Huth for Andrew Taylor for the aforementioned reasons. What made no sense to me whatsoever however, was taking off Justin Hoyte who was probably our best player and who would have been a lot more dangerous had his team mates looked up and noticed that, as usual, the nippy defender was creating acres of space for himself and was planning on sprinting forward.
This is another problem Boro must address sooner rather than later. Our players, at times, have no idea who their nearest team mate is, let alone whose in the best position because they pass without looking.
Brad Jones' run of clean sheets ended before it really got going, although defensive errors accounted for three of the goals, and it will be interesting to see how he does in the next couple of games having been brought back down to earth with a bump.
So, Boro go back to the bottom - I'm barely counting West Brom anymore which means we are effectively in last place.
As the scoreline and my language got worse, I started to think about Sunday's trip to Everton. It was not a happy thought. If we win we will all wonder why we couldn't beat Spurs when it really mattered. If we draw we will have to endure yet another Riverside replay, another game where no doubt one of our small team will pick up a new 'knock' and if we lose, it will be a miserable trip back home and another defeat to add to a very long list.
We are playing the Everton side who drew last night to Blackburn, as Fulham lost to Hull City, helping to keep the Tigers out of the drop-zone. This would normally give us confidence, because we also drew with Blackburn not so long ago and have Hull and Fulham both left to play at home. I would argue we have better players than either of those sides. Unfortunately that means sod all on the day. All our problems before the Liverpool match are back and now we have the added burden that the teams around us are starting to get results.
If we can stick it to the Toffees we may regain some confidence but then that was what the Liverpool match was supposed to do! It was the same team who comfortably beat the Reds who were embarrassed by Spurs last night and the crux of Boro's troubles was revealed, again, as inconsistency. We are unpredictable, unconvincing and at times unwatchable.
Had we got this hammering at the hands of Liverpool and beaten Spurs 2-0 we would be looking a lot healthier in the League. The key to survival is to beat the teams around you and time is running out for Boro to prove they can do that.
I'd love to end on a positive but I'm struggling to think of one, ten games left, five of which must be won I just hope we can do it.
First published on www.newsoftheworld.co.uk/sport/fanzone - Mar 09
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