Full-time: Ipswich Town 2 Middlesbrough 0

IT wasn’t quite the night before Christmas, more like the nightmare before Christmas for Middlesbrough on Saturday.

Aitor Karanka’s men arrived at Portman Road unbeaten in eight matches and knowing a win could take them top of the Championship for the second time in as many weeks, but instead they left licking their wounds following a below-par performance.

The opportunity was there – results depending – to establish themselves at the top once again, but perhaps this was a bridge too far for the promotion hopefuls.

You have to go back to October 21 for Boro’s last defeat and as far as August 30 for the one before that, so it was perhaps too much on an ask for the Teessiders to make it nine games without losing a week after beating then league leaders Derby County.

Good displays have outweighed the bad ones on Teesside this season and on Saturday they simply lost out to a team that wanted it more than they did.

Mick McCarthy’s men outmuscled, outclassed and outfoxed Karanka’s side, whose principles seemed to vanish into thin air in the space of 90 lacklustre minutes.

Gone were the sleek passing, patient build-up play and solid defending that have come to the fore this campaign and they were replaced by hopeless long balls, needless fouls and bad mistakes.

On two separate occasions, the tightest defence in the Championship was breached when top scorer Daryl Murphy and Jay Tabb scored for the hosts.

Both goals were avoidable, but in truth Boro did little at the other end to really cause their opponents any trouble.

It was a bad day at the office and in a league as unpredictable as the Championship every team will have them along the way. Now, with the memories of two years ago still in the minds of some players, Middlesbrough must ensure their bad day at the office doesn’t become plural.

“That wasn’t one of our good days, but every team in this league is going to lose a game,” said Adam Clayton. “It’s how we react to it and every time we have so far we’ve won. That’s the only thing you can do.

“I don’t think any team is going to go through the season without losing so we’ve just got to take it on the chin and move on to the next game.

“I think they are very similar to us. When they go a goal up they are very astute at keeping the lead and not really allowing the opponent many chances.

“I don’t think many teams will get points here. We came with a game plan and it didn’t work, but it has for the majority of the season.

“Both teams have had a go. We could have scored a couple in the second half but it wasn’t to be. When they go in front, it’s a bit like us when we go in front. Not many teams come back into it, especially at home.

“It was a tough game. They are where they are for a reason and just like we did a job on Derby last weekend, they’ve done a little bit of a job on us. We’ll move on and come back fighting.”

From the off the warning signs were there for Boro when Tommy Smith headed wide from Paul Anderson’s cross in the second minute.

Anderson went close ten minutes later when he received David McGoldrick’s knock down, flicked the ball over Kenneth Omeruo’s head, but the midfielder blasted his shot over the bar.

Despite boasting the best defensive record in the Championship, Boro looked wobbly at the back and they were punished in the 25th minute.

Dimi Konstantopoulos pulled off a great save to deny McGoldrick from Tabb’s cut back, but no one in a red shirt reacted leaving Murphy to blast home the follow-up for his 14th of the season.

Ipswich doubled their advantage in first half stoppage time and again Boro’s defending gave Aitor Karanka cause to be unhappy.

Standing at 5’5, Tabb found space in between Daniel Ayala and Kenneth Omeruo to head home Teddy Bishop’s cross unmarked.

Boro’s last defeat – the 2-0 reverse at Wolves – provided a wake-up call and started the eight match unbeaten run they were on prior to Saturday’s defeat and Clayton believes the squad can turn their latest negative into another positive.

He said: “The gaffer will keep us on our toes all season. He hates losing just like the lads.

“He will get into us to get a positive reaction and I’m sure that’s what he will get. Every time we have put in a bad performance we have come back and won the next game. If we can do that we’ll be back on track.

“If you had said to me we would be three points off the top of the league going into a Boxing Day fixture I would have taken it.

“We will take more from this game. It will be a kick up the bum for us. We beat top of the league on Saturday and maybe we came here with a bit of a strut and we didn’t need to.

“It’s back to hard work in training. The gaffer will be on our case and we’ll come out against Forest firing.”