Stoke City 1 Middlesbrough 0

The Boro boss launched into an angry three-pronged rant - first at the ‘pigsty’ temporary changing facilities Stoke provided for the visitors, secondly at the referee for not punishing the home team’s time-wasting tactics and thirdly at his own players for sloppy defending that led to the only goal of a niggly, bad-tempered game.

Warnock was frustrated after seeing his team fail to prise open a packed and stubborn defence after dominating much of the game.

He refused to blame the state of the portacabin that served as the away dressing room - in use because the normal area has been closed as a precaution during the coronavirus pandemic - for only Boro’s fourth defeat of the season but didn’t hold back on his criticism of the facilities.

“We got changed in a pigsty,” fumed Warnock. “If pigs had been in there they probably would have run away. It’s an absolute disgrace. The toilets were blocked, the showers were leaking, there was water on the floor, and we had get the maintenance man in to see about the fumes coming in from an engine outside.

“We were so close together surely we would have been better off in the dressing room like we do at the Riverside.

“No way are we going to give them a dressing room when they come up to our place. If our chairman won’t pay, I’ll hire a portacabin when they come up to our place - and chuck some water on the floor! I didn’t say anything before the game to the players because you don’t want to make excuses but we took some pictures because surely Stoke City, who have been in the Premier League recently, can do better than that.”

As for the action on the pitch, Warnock confronted referee Jeremy Simpson for five minutes after the final whistle for not cracking down on the Potters’ time-wasting.

He added: “We are not allowed to go into his room now after the game because of social distancing rules.. I think it’s better to go on the pitch and talk to them than waiting for them walking off with security guards and everybody else around in the tunnel, you get more answers then and he actually thanked me for being ‘responsible.’

“There were one or two things I wanted to ask him - like why he booked Marc Bola and why he didn’t take their goalkeeper’s name for time wasting. He said he had warned him four times and I told him if he had given him a yellow card he wouldn’t have to warn him anymore.”

Sam Morsy set the tone for a bruising game with an early foul on Sam Clucas that forced the Stoke midfielder to limp off after only six minutes. It was the first of numerous hefty challenges in a stop-start encounter but Warnock felt his players were more sinned against than sinning.

“Well, it was a bruising game if you were a Middlesbrough player,” he added. “I think there should have been more yellow cards issued but it wasn’t to be so it became a bit of a free for all. And we are not as good as Stoke at that.”

The only goal of the game from Nathan Collins after 19 minutes stemmed from uncharacteristically sloppy defending by Boro who failed to clear their lines following a free-kick.

Chuba Akpom’s weak header was picked up by former Sunderland winger James McClean. He turned the ball back to the supporting Morgan Fox who was given too much room by Marcus Tavernier to swing over a cross that defender Collins converted with an unchallenged header.

“It was a series of mistakes that really disappointed me,” said Warnock. “Chuba should have had a call to hold the ball because there was no-one near him but he heads it and loses it, then Tav should have stopped the cross coming in and Bola left his man in the box.”

Akpom almost compounded his mistake when he came close to what would have been a spectacular own goal. He got his attempted headed clearance from a free-kick all wrong and the ball was heading for the top corner until Marcus Bettinelli spared his blushes with a flying save before the keeper picked himself up quickly to block James Chester’s effort from the loose ball.

Boro came close to equalising before the break when George Saville struck the post after Marvin Johnson’s shot had been parried by Joe Bursik and it was largely one-way traffic in the second half with Michael O’Neill’s team happy to sit back and soak up the pressure and play on the break with Tyrese Campbell a constant threat with his pace.

Even Warnock’s decision to make a triple substitution midway through the second half - with Patrick Roberts, Britt Assombalonga and Duncan Watmore all coming on - failed to do the trick although Boro had appeals for a penalty when Chester appeared to handle Dael Fry’s close-range shot waved aside by the over-worked Simpson.

“It’s difficult, “ said Warnock. “Once Stoke go in front, you know they are going to defend well.”