JONATHAN WOODGATE thinks Middlesbrough would have been better off facing Fulham with 11 men after watching his side fail to see off the promotion hopefuls at the Riverside Stadium.

The Cottagers were delighted to climb up to fifth with a goalless draw despite being reduced to ten men on Teesside with 73 minutes to play when goalkeeper Marek Rodak was instantly red carded.

Referee Peter Bankes decided to dismiss the Slovakian in the 17th minute for deliberate handball when he came rushing out of his area to stop Jonny Howson from going through.

Middlesbrough, who have the second worst scoring return in the Championship with 11, couldn’t come up with a winner and slipped into the relegation zone courtesy of Huddersfield’s win over Barnsley.

“I'd have preferred it to be 11 v 11, I know that sounds strange,” said Woodgate. “That's because we had the game plan set out for how we wanted to play and I thought we executed that well and we had chances before he was sent off and once he was sent off, especially after half-time, we sat back and didn't have the creativity in the team to break it down, it's as simple as that.

“I wanted them to move the ball quickly through the pitch and they were taking time with their passing, they weren't moving it the way I wanted them, from side-to-side quickly and getting balls into the box, that didn't happen. We lacked that creative edge to break them down. From what I saw, I haven't seen the replay, was it a red? I wished he'd stayed on.

“What pluses can you take out of that? Before the game would you have taken a point against Fulham? Probably, because they are a really good team. But when you have the opportunity then it turns itself on its head and that's an opportunity missed because they went down to ten men. We've got to capitalise on that.”

But Woodgate didn’t want to blame his two strikers, Ashley Fletcher and Britt Assombalonga, who conviction in the final third and look low on confidence.

“You have got to sit them down and speak to them but you need to look at yourself as well as a player to find that confidence,” said the Middlesbrough boss.

“If you’ve got a manager backing them, I’m not slating them, I’m backing them because I believe in them, but it’s got to come from yourself at times.

“It’s happened to me before as a player and you have to look at yourself and find confidence and build from that and work as hard as you can.

“If you don’t do the little nitty, gritty things in the game it will come back to bite you, but if you’re giving everything week in week out something will fall to you.

Fulham boss Scott Parker believes his side have proven they have the character to stay in the promotion mix after leaving with a point.

“It’s probably the proudest I have been of my team since sitting in this position,” said Parker. “I have been in this job for six months and when you look at this division, we top most of the stats, but what a number can’t measure about the players is the desire, passion and effort, and a mentality about them which is going to define us.

“l think this is a massive moment for us, it feels like a massive moment for me. Part of me is disappointed because I felt in control, but we limited them to a very few chances. I think their first effort on target was in the last attack of the game. The players need to know how big of a moment this is.

“Marek said it hits the top of his shoulder. I have not seen it again. It would be unfair on me to comment. We will appeal if we need to appeal.

“That was the turning point. With 11 men we were very good. We showed a real quality about us, looked every bit a team that would go and win the game. We had to show a different side to us. We also had that threat, we looked like we could cause them a few problems.”

Boro were booed after the final whistle by their fans after they dropped into the relegation zone in the Championship for the first time since Christmas 2010.

Before that Fulham, looking to climb into the play-off zone, had looked the better side and played some nice stuff, even though Middlesbrough’s young goalkeeper Aynsley Pears wasn’t asked many questions.

Fletcher, without a goal since August, wasted the best chance when he fired over after Marcus Tavernier had managed to play him in behind the Fulham defence early on.

Assombalonga, whose only goal since August against Preston was credited to him by the EFL’s dubious goals committee, also wasted a free header at the back post when Wing picked him out.

Fulham’s Aleksandar Mitrovic, fresh from his hat-trick against Luton in midweek, had his team’s best chance when he headed over from eight yards.

While Wing did strike the foot of the post with a free-kick from 25 yards and McNair rolled the first shot on target of the afternoon in stoppage-time at Bettinelli.

MIDDLESBROUGH (5-3-2): Pears; Howson, McNair, Fry, Ayala, Coulson (Johnson 67); Wing, Saville (Browne 64), Tavernier; Fletcher, Assombalonga. Subs (not used): Mejias (gk), Dijksteel, Clayton, Bola, Liddle.

FULHAM (4-3-2-1): Rodak; Odoi, Mawson, Ream, Bryan; Reed, Onomah (Bettinelli 18), Cairney; Cavaleiro (Le Marchand 84), Decordova-Reid (Knockaert 80); Mitrovic. Subs (not used): McDonald, Johansen, Sessegnon, Kamara.