IF JANUARY was a poor month for Middlesbrough then February showed no signs of being any kinder to Steve McClaren's men last night.

Boro are having to seriously consider the prospect of dropping outside the top six for the first time since October after suffering their third defeat in five Premiership matches at Portsmouth.

Despite Malcolm Christie's first goal in 16 months, his last strike ironically also came on the south coast at Southampton in September 2003, Middlesbrough could not make the most of a Greek tragedy waiting to happen guarding Pompey's net.

Instead a dogged and determined Portsmouth showed tremendous resolve to find the two goals - through Matthew Taylor and a Franck Queudrue own goal - that strengthens their hopes of survival and leaves their opponents still searching for their first Premiership win of 2005.

Middlesbrough have taken just two points from a possible 15.

Liverpool last night won at Charlton to move three points ahead of the sixth-placed Teessiders - who are still searching for their first away win since November 14.

And, with Tottenham's gradual rise up the table, despite last night's 3-1 loss to a Bolton side also on the up, McClaren is in desperate need of results before a once fruitful looking season descends into mediocrity - with fresh faces now an impossibility for the manager.

McClaren may have had a frustrating deadline day on Monday - with both Celtic's Bobo Balde and Chelsea star Geremi knocking back moves to Teesside - but he did at least have one new face in his starting line-up last night.

After suffering the misfortune of a broken leg on two separate occasions, unlucky striker Christie made his long-awaited comeback and capped his first start since October 26, 2003 with a goal.

Such is Middlesbrough's injury list, with Aussie front-man Mark Viduka one of those sidelined, Christie was given the opportunity to make only his second appearance of the campaign - having played just seven minutes of the UEFA Cup tie in Ostrava back in September.

Quite what that signalled to Joseph Job, asked to play a substitute's role again, is another matter as McClaren chose once again to overlook the Cameroon man.

Middlesbrough's lack of activity on the transfer front was certainly not replicated by Portsmouth's deadline day dealings. But new arrivals Giannis Skopelitis, who played against Boro for Greek outfit Egaleo last year, and midfielder Alexsander Rodic sat on the bench.

Perhaps the best piece of business done by Portsmouth in January was to retain the services of prolific forward Ayegbeni Yakubu until the end of the season at least.

The £7.5m-rated Nigerian had been, and still is, courted by many clubs with Newcastle and Middlesbrough both among his admirers, and he proved to be the biggest threat to the visiting backline all night.

Mark Schwarzer had already been called into action when he dived low to his left to stop a Patrik Berger drive, before Yakubu had powered his way through the Middlesbrough rearguard with relative ease for the first time.

The African's pace got him away from James Morrison before firing a low shot that forced Schwarzer into a diving save to his left.

Moments later, Yakubu pounced on Colin Cooper's failure to deal with a routine punt upfield from shaky goalkeeper Kostas Chalkias only to sidefoot wide, after shrugging off the attentions of Gareth Southgate.

All Middlesbrough had been able to conjure up was an off-beam header from Queudrue and their fortunes looked as if they were about to take a turn for the worse just after the half hour mark.

Injured Cooper's replacement in the centre of defence, Michael Reiziger, appeared to shove, then trip, Yakubu in the penalty area but to the surprise of everyone no spot-kick was awarded by referee Phil Crossley.

Mr Crossley was only officiating his second Premiership match and it proved to be a decision made more controversial by Middlesbrough's instant response at the other end.

Chalkias, making a disappointing home debut, spilled a routine Ray Parlour strike from distance and man of the moment Christie, two years after making his move to the Riverside, was first to react and slid into fire past the dejected Greek.

But that goal was harsh on Portsmouth, looking for their first league win in six, and they needed just five minutes to pull level - but that came as a result of more poor goalkeeping.

This time Schwarzer's inability to cope with a harmless low shot from Taylor, allowed Aliou Cisse to pick up the ball on the by-line and play the ball back for the on-rushing Taylor. The left-back fired first time high into the roof of the net.

After the restart the frenetic nature of the contest stepped up a notch with players from both sides going into tackles hard - a ploy that suited the home side more.

But that did not stop Middlesbrough from having a perfect opportunity to retake the lead. Jimmy Floyd Hasselbaink's lovely through ball set Christie free on goal but the former Derby striker's effort was well saved by Chalkias.

That only acted as a spur to Portsmouth who, like many sides in recent weeks, found the Middlesbrough defence extremely accomodating the longer the game went on.

Berger had fired into the side-netting before Ricardo Fuller forced the visitors into submission. The Jamaican's trickery created the space for him to fire across goal and Queudrue could only turn the ball into his own net under the challenge from Yakubu.

Had Middlesbrough tested Chalkias more defeat would not have been on the cards. But a bizarre keeper, who even dealt with a cross with a volley at one stage, was never called into question enough and Portsmouth survived with the points.