BACK in late, late January, under-fire manager Steve McClaren saved Middlesbrough's season with four new signings just before the closure of the transfer window.

The arrivals of Malcolm Christie, Chris Riggott, Michael Ricketts and Doriva heralded the start of a turnaround in Boro's fortunes, who then recorded an eight-match unbeaten run.

That impressive run of form had fans of the Riverside club dreaming of a European place and McClaren was determined to maintain the momentum built up during that spell.

The Boro boss had urged his players to go down in history by recording the club's highest ever top-flight finish and achieve the highest number of points, which currently stands at 52.

But ever since the goalless draw at Manchester City on April 12, Boro's hopes of clinching a top-ten finish have all but disappeared - and with it a hefty sum of prize money.

Boro's capitulation at Birmingham City on Saturday was the Teessiders' third successive defeat and they remain on 46 points with just two games remaining - against Tottenham and Bolton.

And now McClaren has been left to consider what might have been and at what cost this dreadful anti-climax to the season has come at.

After the City game Boro were placed ninth, and following the 3-0 reverse at St Andrews they are now 13th.

And while that may not be a large enough drop to see Boro into a relegation scrap, it has cost McClaren a sizeable figure in his summer transfer kitty - which currently stands at 2m.

That is because every rung reached in the Premiership ladder is worth an extra 500,000, so McClaren will be keen to see his squad claim maximum points from their final two games.

Should Boro lose both and there will have been a repeat of last season's debacle when McClaren's side failed to win any of their last five matches - including the FA Cup semi-final defeat to Arsenal.

But the Boro boss, who has been drilling home the importance of improving on the 52 point target for quite some time, is now urging for more from his players.

"Fifty-three points may have gone but we have to equal 52 now," said McClaren. "We have got one home game against Spurs and we have to make sure we are ready for it.

"Our last two performances have been below the standards we have set ourselves and they have both been away from home.

"But we have the chance to put that right and we want to finish as high up the table as we can.

"We have amassed 46 points, we have never been in relegation trouble like last year and we have always been at times pushing for a place in Europe. We have made tremendous strides and progress. We would have liked to have finished with more points, that goes without saying.

"We have high hopes for next season, but we have got to make sure we finish this one well first."

Boro were second best throughout their trip to Birmingham, who deservedly secured their top-flight status for another year with a resounding win.

Without the creative influence of Juninho, ruled out with hamstring trouble, Boro struggled to put the Blues' backline under any real pressure.

And their task was made even harder after just 18 minutes when Frenchman Christophe Dugarry showed the visitors' out-of-sorts front two just how to finish.

Dugarry - who has now scored five in his last four games - was left in acres of space inside the penalty area when Stephen Clemence's ball into the box was taken down on the knee of the World Cup winner.

There were calls for offside, but Dugarry - who looked as shocked as the Boro backline that the linesman's flag stayed down - steadied himself before shooting low into Mark Schwarzer's bottom right corner. With Robbie Savage and George Boateng on opposite sides the midfield tussle was always going to play an important part. And it did, with Steve Bruce's Birmingham side gaining the upper hand.

On 40 minutes it was 2-0 when Stephen Clemence's low free-kick from 20 yards - after Dugarry's trickery had drawn Gareth Southgate into a foul on the edge of the area - left Schwarzer with no chance.

The two-goal lead was exactly what Birmingham deserved, but seconds before half-time lively midfielder Bryan Hughes had to be alert to clear a header off the line from former Aston Villa defender Ugo Ehiogu.

Boro changed formations after the restart when McClaren introduced Brazilian Doriva to bolster the midfield. This had a positive effect on Boro, who began to see more of the ball in the final third.

However, Birmingham stood firm and keeper Ian Bennett only had to make one save when he parried Christie's effort after 65 minutes and then Boateng headed over from the rebound.

Birmingham, who secured their fifth win in six games, made Boro pay with ten minutes to go when substitute Stan Lazaridis' header finished off a great move involving Clemence, Paul Devlin and Savage.

It was party time at St Andrews for Birmingham, while Boro are left to think themselves lucky that they have already recorded a respectable points total - otherwise in this form relegation could have been on the cards.

Result: Birmongham 3 Middlesbrough 0.

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