All the bark but no bite from a ponderous Boro

Vicarage Road Stadium, Championship

- By CRAIG JOHNS

MAKE no mistake, it was a poor day for Middlesbrough at Watford. But a 3-0 scoreline was an unfair reflection on the overall game and a harsh scoreline for Rob Edwards' side.

If switching the game on in the 50th minute just after Boro went three-nil down, you'd have been forgiven for believing Boro had been battered. Not many teams find themselves three-nil down so early without saying they'd been totally outperformed.

And yet, that couldn’t have been further from the reality of what happened in the game to that point.

That's not to say Boro didn’t deserve to be behind. Outplayed, they most certainly were. Ultimately, there was one key take away from this rather humbling scoreline for Boro.

Possession and territorial advantage is all well and good if you do something with it. Boro looked very much like the worst side of Michael Carrick’s Boro all over again.

For all the time they spent in the Watford half in the first half, they were slow and ponderous in the final third and lacked any conviction or incision to break down the Hornet's compact defence. Watford boss Javi Gracia admitted he wouldn't usually like to be so defensive, but he recognised the need to be against a team as good as Boro.

That's a problem for Edwards, who started the season with his side perhaps not as feared as they were often under Carrick. That offered them far more space to exploit.

But having started the season so well, teams are once again recognising how Boro can hurt you when you over-commit against them. When you don’t offer space though, quite often, as was the case at Watford, Boro can play right into your hands.