THEY say that necessity is the mother of invention. In that case, perhaps Middlesbrough should get themselves into a mess more often.

Trailing to an in-form Blackburn Rovers side, and reduced to ten men following the first-half dismissal of Mo Besic, Boro started the second half of Saturday’s game at the Riverside with precious little to lose. As a result, for arguably the first time all season, the shackles well and truly came off.

Despite his side’s numerical disadvantage, Tony Pulis threw on Britt Assombalonga from the substitutes’ bench and played his leading scorer alongside Jordan Hugill in a two-man attack. Ordinarily, the Middlesbrough manager shies away from that system when he has 11 players on the pitch, let alone ten.

The protective shield normally provided by Adam Clayton was abandoned, with the more mobile George Saville stationed in front of the back four instead, with an instruction to push forward whenever possible. Lewis Wing and Jonny Howson were encouraged to support those in front of them in the penalty area, and despite Blackburn having dominated the opening 45 minutes, George Friend and Ryan Shotton were urged to be as positive as possible down their respective flanks. This was Middlesbrough with the handbrake released.

The result was a much-improved second-half display that secured what had looked an unlikely point, and kept Boro in the play-off positions despite a failure to win any of their last three league games.

Their form, especially at home, remains a concern, and as Pulis keeps stating, a significant change of tack will not really be possible until the transfer window reopens at the start of next month. There are four league games and a Carabao Cup quarter-final still to play in 2018 though, so the Boro boss has to find a way to guide his side through to January without losing touch with the teams in the top two. Has Saturday proved that a more adventurous approach might be the right way to go?

Hugill certainly looked more effective with Assombalonga alongside him, and for all that Assombalonga might have his faults when it comes to bringing other players into the game, Boro’s record signing remains the club’s most reliable goalscorer. Given that Pulis’ side have only scored four goals in their last seven league games at the Riverside, one of which was an own goal, can the Boro boss really afford to cast aside his most successful marksman?

And while Clayton and Stewart Downing have been reliable performers this season, has their lack of pace and energy become a hindrance at home, when opponents tend to sit back looking to soak up pressure before springing on the counter-attack? Do the likes of Wing and Marcus Tavernier offer more in the final third, even if their presence in the starting line-up might make Boro slightly less defensively secure?

Pulis knows the balance in his side is not quite right at the moment, and has identified January as the time to rectify the problem. Between now and then, though, might a few tactical tweaks help ameliorate the issue?

“At half-time, we said, ‘We’ve got to go for it here’, and we got the goal, and could probably have had more,” said Aden Flint, who resumed his central-defensive partnership with the excellent Daniel Ayala. “Hopefully, we can build on this now.

“We said at half-time that we were going to aim for Jordan and try to get runners off him. There’s no better person to do that than Britt because he’s got lightning pace. Then look at Wingy and Sav, and what they brought too. Sav was brought on just to sit in there, and Wingy’s got pace too. Him and Jonny were pushing on, and I think it worked in the end.”

The shift to a more attacking line-up worked, but Boro’s players also deserve considerable credit for the character they displayed after the interval.

Pulis might feel Besic’s dismissal was harsh, but for all that Simon Hooper initially looked like he had missed the midfielder’s tug on Bradley Dack’s shirt, it is hard to dispute that the official made the right decision in the end.

Besic was the architect of his own downfall as he needlessly dribbled towards to his own goal, and after Dack had nipped ahead of him to gain possession, his panicked tug unquestionably denied the Blackburn forward a clear goalscoring opportunity.

That the visitors were able to inflict a double punishment merely added to Boro’s woes, with Charlie Mulgrew curling the resultant free-kick past Darren Randolph.

It was a great finish from the Blackburn skipper, and Boro might well have folded had Corry Evans not stabbed wide when Randolph’s save from Danny Graham rebounded into his path.

Dack struck the post at the start of the second half, but it was a completely different story after the interval, with Boro becoming the dominant force as the strength of their collective will told.

Assombalonga’s fabulous curled finish levelled the scores, and the hosts would have claimed a winner had their leading scorer not spurned a much easier opportunity with five minutes left, misdirecting his lob over goalkeeper David Raya to enable Paul Downing to clear.

“The character has always been there, but I think it shone through even brighter,” said Flint. “For people who maybe didn’t think we had that strong a character in the team, it just showed what we’re all about.

“We can build on that. We’re a bit disappointed we didn’t get three points, but we’ll still go into next week on a bit of a high because of the way we played in the second half.”

The importance of that collective resolve should not be underestimated, and along with Pulis’ excellent defensive organisation, it remains Boro’s biggest asset.

This is a side that does not know when it is beaten, and in a league as relentlessly competitive as the Championship, durability can be a hugely-important factor.

Class eventually tells, and with that in mind, the January transfer window will be a decisive point in Boro’s season. Whatever Pulis does or doesn’t do next month, though, he knows he presides over a squad whose commitment cannot be questioned.

“If you have a look at the ten players that played in the second half, and you look at the people who were getting cramp towards the end of the game, it was the Blackburn players,” said the Boro boss. “It was none of our players, and our players have worked their socks off.”