Nottingham Forest 2 Middlesbrough 1

IF, as Dougie Freedman expects, Middlesbrough are going to win the Championship then scoring more goals has to be on the agenda for Aitor Karanka’s men.

But the vast majority of Boro supporters already knew that. What the Teesside club’s followers have not been subjected to regularly this season is errors at the other end – and such mistakes proved costly at the City Ground.

Middlesbrough, with the best defensive record in the division, dominated possession, particularly in the second half, yet were unable to break down a Nottingham Forest defence which was never stretched too severely.

The biggest bonus of the afternoon was the fact that, in reality, Middlesbrough’s failings were not punished outside of the City Ground by their main promotion rivals. Whether or not Middlesbrough can afford any further slip-ups, though, remains to be seen, with the promotion race showing no signs of having a runaway leader.

Freedman, even after his team had sealed the points, remains convinced that “Middlesbrough will win the title” because of the squad Karanka has at his disposal. The Spaniard, however, must try to ensure that defensive errors do not become as frequent as failing to create clear cut chances for the forwards has.

It was hesitancy in the back four which prevented Middlesbrough from holding on to Grant Leadbitter’s fortuitous 27th minute opener, when his chip to the back post hit the woodwork and bounced off Michael Mancienne before dropping over the line.

Tomas Kalas, on loan from Chelsea until the end of the campaign, was happy to admit that he was partially responsible when Dexter Blackstock followed up Gary Garder’s 34th minute equaliser with a winner mid-way through the second half.

“We made two mistakes at the back and they scored two goals, Forest didn’t make a crucial mistake and that’s why they won,” said Kalas. “We know that we are going to come up against teams who will just play for the counter attack like this team did.

“Nobody will ask who played the better football afterwards; it will just be about the results in the newspapers that matter when we read them. We have to defend better than we did here and score goals better than we did here. I must learn from this and so must the team.”

While there were no evident howlers from an individual or team perspective, it was easy to see where Middlesbrough went wrong for both of Forest’s goals.

When Gardner, the brother of former Sunderland midfielder Craig, picked out the top left corner of Dimi Konstantopoulos’ net, everyone inside the City Ground could see what was coming. He was afforded far too much space to take aim by every Middlesbrough shirt looking on.

The second was equally poor from a defensive view. Powerful winger Michail Antonio, who could have had a penalty moments earlier when his cross was blocked by the arm of Kalas in the box, cut inside from the left.

He rounded Kalas far too cheaply before rolling a pass to Blackstock. The former Southampton man, who had scored just once in 17 months before the weekend, was then allowed to turn inside the box by Ben Gibson before side-footing a finish beyond Konstantopoulos.

Losing for the second successive Saturday – and suffering a third defeat in five league fixtures - was not how Karanka and his players had wanted to respond to climbing top of the Championship with the midweek victory over Millwall.

But, in truth, they never did enough to defeat Nottingham Forest. Despite the statistic stat Middlesbrough had 26 shots, the home side’s Newcastle-employed goalkeeper Karl Darlow was never really asked to make a serious save.

Kike, whose growing frustration could be seen by the way he took the wrong options later in the game, wasted a couple of half chances and he also hit the post from a decent position.

Kalas said: “It is frustrating on the pitch when you have that many shots but how many times did we actually hit the goal? Four! It is not the best stats when you look at the other team. They scored from just two or three chances. That’s not good enough in a match and we have to improve ourselves.

“We did something wrong otherwise we could have won. We tried to play as much as we could. You could see that we were playing the football and we were better in possession. It is difficult in these games, but we have to do better.”

Derby’s late collapse against Birmingham and Watford’s failure to beat Wolves means that, in many respects, Middlesbrough got away with it. With title contenders Ipswich, Derby and Bournemouth up next, however, they can’t afford many more slip-ups or a play-off place will suddenly become more likely than a title-winning promotion party in May.

“We bounced back after losing at Sheffield Wednesday so we have to do it again,” said Kalas. “We are making it hard for ourselves but we have to make it all better for ourselves in the next games.

“Whether you win or lose you always have to learn. If you take it as a player, and as a team, then it can help in crucial games at crucial times. I think the crucial time is now because we have to bounce back. It will be difficult against the three teams. We must show we belong where we are.”