HAVING been placed in charge of Covid-compliant goal celebrations, Marcus Tavernier spent part of last week coming up with a routine that did not involve any unnecessary bodily contact. In the end, though, the Middlesbrough midfielder need not have bothered.

In suffering their first home defeat since November at the hands of a Birmingham City side they had thrashed at St Andrew’s less than a month earlier, Tavernier and his team-mates ensured that post-goal social distancing was rigidly maintained. Play at home, protect the NHS, don’t score. Neil Warnock will be hoping it is a public-service message that does not catch on.

Warnock and his players have first-hand experience of the threat posed by Covid of course, so while Saturday’s lacklustre performance might have been disappointing, there were mitigating factors to consider.

One week earlier, and Warnock had been unable to name up to dozen senior players for Middlesbrough’s FA Cup game at Brentford, with the club’s Rockliffe Park training ground still shut down in an attempt to contain a major coronavirus outbreak that had swept through the first-team squad.

Yes, all of those players were back for the visit of Birmingham, enabling Warnock to name a full-strength side. But with Rockliffe not having been fully reopened until Wednesday, and with training at the back end of last week having been further disrupted by the wintry weather, preparations for Saturday’s game had been understandably chaotic.

Some players – most notably Britt Assombalonga and Duncan Watmore – were only considered for substitute duty because of concerns over their physical wellbeing, and as other clubs – most notably Newcastle United - are learning, just because a player records a negative test and appears back to normal, it does not mean they have shaken off the long-term physical effects of Covid.

“For two of three of the lads, (Friday) was their first training session,” said Warnock. “We’ve had two weeks of hell and there are so many excuses we can give, although that doesn’t stop you from competing.

“I’ll give them an excuse today, but there are no excuses now. We’ve got three games a week for the foreseeable future, and hopefully we’ll get back into the swing of things.”

Given the circumstances, Warnock was right to give his players a free pass, although that does not mean some of the warning signs that were apparent in Boro’s play should be completely ignored.

As the Boro boss rightly notes, there have been precious few occasions where his players have been found so badly wanting this season, and even on Saturday, a lack of effort was not the key concern.

Boro’s players tried hard enough, even if their physical stats might subsequently reveal a post-Covid downturn. Instead, it was a lack of quality, particularly in the final third, that was more of an issue, and Covid or no Covid, that has to be a worry when it comes to assessing the likelihood of Warnock’s side forcing itself into a play-off position come the end of the season.

We have passed the mid-point of January now, and Warnock’s transfer messaging has already become increasingly downbeat. From wanting attacking players in early, the 72-year-old has moved past the point of acknowledging that arrivals would be more likely at the end of the month to a position where he appears to be grudgingly accepting that it might prove impossible to sign anyone given the financial impact of the pandemic and the reluctance of Premier League clubs to allow their fringe players to leave.

That is a concern on the evidence of Saturday’s display, which highlighted many of the attacking limitations that have troubled Warnock all season. Not for the first time, Chuba Akpom offered next to nothing during his 45 minutes on the field, and while things improved marginally following Assombalonga’s introduction at the interval, Boro’s skipper has now managed just four goals in 22 appearances in all competitions this season.

Ashley Fletcher’s imminent return will help, but while the fact that Duncan Watmore is currently Boro’s leading Championship scorer might be a heart-warming tale, it is also a fairly damning indictment on the performance of the club’s strikers.

Marvin Johnson and Marcus Tavernier have helped provide a goal threat from the wide attacking positions, but on Saturday, the pair looked like what they realistically are – square pegs in round holes doing a fairly decent job of plugging a gap. As Warnock readily concedes, neither finds supporting a central striker especially natural, but unless reinforcements arrive in the next two weeks, it will be the job they are tasked with for the remainder of the campaign.

“We can all hope for this and that, but I can’t see much (transfer) activity anywhere at the moment,” said Warnock. “So we’ve just got to get on with it. There have been times when I’ve stood on the touchline and couldn’t see us scoring a goal, and today was one of those days.

“We had too many forward players that weren’t at it. I thought the front four were poor in the first half – it wasn’t as if it was one of them, it was all of them really.”

In fairness, Boro still created a handful of chances, with Sam Morsy heading against the inside of the post in the first half, Assombalonga firing past the post at the start of the second period and Watmore drilling a shot straight at Neil Etheridge when he burst into the left side of the area with 15 minutes left.

Warnock also felt the visitors should have been reduced to ten men in the first half, with Ivan Sanchez having aimed a kick at Paddy McNair that was missed by all of the match officials. "He's lashed out at him," said the Boro boss. "So how they don't sent him off, I don't know."

Birmingham were no more threatening than Boro in the main, but the visitors produced the game’s one moment of real quality midway through the first half to settle things.

Sanchez played a wonderful reverse pass to release Maxime Colin into the area, and the full-back slid the ball across the face of the six-yard box for Scott Hogan to slot home.

After that, Aitor Karanka’s side adopted one of their manager’s trademark rearguard actions, and with the returning George Friend outstanding at left-back, the visitors claimed a much-needed win.

Friend was adamant he still had something to offer when he turned down Middlesbrough’s offer of a 12-month contract in the summer, and this was a performance that provided categorical proof that his talents remain.

“I think he was maybe a little bit sad that he was so good,” said Karanka, who was claiming his second Riverside win as a returning manager after previously guiding Nottingham Forest to a victory on Teesside. “Beating Boro, I think he was almost blaming himself.

“He is a top person. When I signed him, I always said that I was not just signing a player for the pitch. I was signing a top man, and a top person for the changing room.”