Unbeaten run is over, but Boro pride intact

ALL good things must come to an end. And thus, that was the case on Saturday at Portsmouth for Middlesbrough's unbeaten start to the new season.

- By CRAIG JOHNS

A disappointing 1-0 defeat at Fratton Park ultimately highlighted a major Boro flaw that was always going to prove their undoing if not solved sooner rather than later.

Minhyeok Yang's goal may have proven the difference between the sides, but in truth, it was Boro's lack of efficiency at the other end of the pitch that cost them in this one.

It always looked a potential problem down the line for Rob Edwards' side - who, until defeat on the south coast, topped the Championship table after an eight-game unbeaten start.

With the fourth-lowest xG in the division, however, it told its own story on how Boro had been grinding out results and getting by with solid foundations above all else.

Many successful Championship teams are built on that of course, and that's something to be celebrated. Given the frailties defensively in recent years prior to Edwards, the turnaround deserves enormous recognition.

Even at Portsmouth, they were pretty solid defensively, with the exception of a five-minute period in which they failed to heed an earlier warning before falling behind.

It was a crucial moment because it allowed Pompey to sit deeper and deploy the low block. Such an Achilles heel of Boro's last season, they could not break it down this time either, try as Edwards did to find any which way to spark his attack into life.