A BITING tackle only three minutes after his introduction as a substitute was evidence of Massimo Maccarone's determination to silence his Riverside detractors.

John Curtis was on the receiving end of the Italian striker's rash challenge and referee Barry Knight raised the yellow card.

But Maccarone raised the rafters when he triggered Boro's astonishing stoppage-time fightback with a shot that squirmed in at the near post off the leg of former Newcastle defener Nikos Dabizas.

And Maccarone was still snapping at the heels of Curtis in the dying seconds when the under-pressure Leicester right-back turned Gaizka Mendieta's hooked centre into his own net.

Boro manager Steve McClaren last week called for "more fight'' from Maccarone - and the club's £8.15m record buy jumped to attention.

Maccarone, a massive disappointment since his arrival from Empoli in the summer of 2002, has been linked with a loan return to his old club.

McClaren has appeared reluctant to play him after he was barracked by a section of the Riverside crowd; it is now over a month since he started a game, in the Carling Cup quarter-final shoot-out win at Tottenham.

But with Boro short of attacking options, Maccarone must surely be one of the first names on McClaren's teamsheet for tomorrow's Carling semi-final, first-leg visit to Arsenal.

Maccarone, who fought off the claims of teammate Danny Mills to convert a penalty consolation in Boro's 4-1 defeat at Highbury a week earlier, proved on Saturday that he has gone through a dramatic transformation.

"Maccarone is a different player to the one he was six weeks ago,'' acknowledged McClaren. "Two weeks running he has shown conviction. He has ability and potential and his attitude in this game from the first tackle was fantastic.

"His confidence has been knocked, he's a young player and we're looking to see how he bounces back from that. He showed here, and the previous week, that he has reacted very well.''

Dabizas, a recent free transfer recruit by Micky Adams, admitted his touch took Maccarone's effort past goalkeeper Ian Walker. "I got a touch to it,'' said Dabizas. "I deflected it and the ball changed direction.''

But Maccarone was claiming only his third goal of the season and would be justified in taking some of the credit for Boro's equaliser moments later.

Such an act of escapology - one of which former Boro boss Lennie "Houdini'' Lawrence would have been proud - should, however, never have been necessary.

Boro contrived to throw away a first-half lead and were facing a shambolic defeat until Maccarone's intervention.

It was a day for mistakes, particularly those of the goalkeeping variety.

Walker's casual ninth-minute clearance struck Joseph Job and broke to Juninho, who celebrated his 100th Premiership start by homing in to notch his fifth goal of the season with a neat, angled finish.

Walker atoned when he performed a brilliant double point-blank save, first to prevent Dabizas from diverting the ball into his own goal, and then to deny Stewart Downing.

Boro ought to have increased their lead just before the interval after the accident-prone Dabizas wrestled Job to the ground in the heart of the box.

Dabizas later pleaded his innocence, saying: "He caught me on the sock and I slipped. It was definitely not a penalty.''

But it was immaterial as Job's penalty lacked power and Walker sprang to his left to save.

Mills then made a crucial goalline clearance to foil James Scowcroft on the stroke of half-time, but Leicester were back in it only four minutes after the restart.

Another former Newcastle player, Steve Guppy, swung over a right-wing corner which went through the legs of Scowcroft at the near post, and there was a definite suspicion of handball as Paul Dickov bundled the ball in.

Guppy, in his second spell with Leicester, was also the architect of their second goal in the 65th minute. His free-kick to the far post was knocked down by Riccardo Scimeca and skipper Dickov forced in from close range.

Another goalkeeping gaffe gifted Leicester a 3-1 lead, though Mark Schwarzer was hardly helped by Andrew Davies' ungainly backpass under pressure from irritant Dickov.

Schwarzer miscontrolled the ball then stretched in vain to reach it with his leg before Marcus Bent stole in to stroke into an empty net.

Maccarone and a slice of good fortune rescued Boro. But McClaren, who was without skipper Gareth Southgate and Ugo Ehiogu in central defence and had to call on teenager Davies to partner Chris Riggott after Colin Cooper added to the injury woe in the opening period, labelled it "a non-performance''.

Opposite number Adams said: "That sort of result will get us relegated. Boro were missing their two centre-backs and I think the two young lads learned a lot about Premiership football here. That will stand them in good stead.''

Guppy confided: "The manager said you must be mad to come back here - well he was right. We looked like finishing a fairytale after working so hard to get in front. It's a bitter pill.

"We have to learn to close games out, or else. The warning signs are there. I haven't experienced finishes like that at Celtic too often in the last three years.''

There was an alarming sense of dj vu for Leicester, who this season lost 4-3 at Wolves after leading 3-0.

The Foxes have now dropped 19 points this term in games where they were leading. Dickov, the heartbeat of the team, admitted: "To be 3-1 up away from home and never look like conceding another and end up 3-3 is just mind-boggling.

"That's twice this season we've scored three goals away from home and thrown points away.

"This feels more like a defeat than a draw and everybody is devastated. We have to cut out the errors.

"It would kill you if you thought about all the points we've dropped. Even the Middlesbrough coaching staff wouldn't have begrudged us three points because we thoroughly deserved them. It's hard to take.

"At the start of the season, the manager called us a bunch of misfits - and that's what we are. A lot of us have a point to prove.''

After this display, so too have one or two people at Boro.

Result: Middlesbrough 3 Leicester City 3.

Middlesbrough mourn McCullagh

FLAGS were at half-mast at the Riverside on Saturday in tribute to former Middlesbrough chairman Mike McCullagh, who has died at 67 after a long illness.

On the day Steve Gibson's ten-year tenure as Boro chairman was recognised with a pre-match presentation, there was a minute's silence before the game against Leicester as a mark of respect to McCullagh, who invited the haulage tycoon to join the board in November 1984.

McCullagh, who became a board member in 1973 and was chairman from 1983-85, is best remembered for appointing the flamboyant Malcolm Allison as manager.

McCullagh stood down as chairman in 1985 and later left the board following a disagreement with successor Alf Duffield over a decision to raise money for the club through a share issue.

Read more about Middlesbrough here.