THE season might have begun, but the key date in Middlesbrough’s campaign remains just over two-and-a-half weeks away.

Michael Carrick might not have wanted to attribute yesterday’s home defeat to Millwall to the failure to complete the club’s transfer business ahead of the opening weekend, but it is surely impossible to dispute that the team that kicked off the current campaign is inferior to the one that ended last season in the play-offs against Coventry City.

Admittedly, the return of Chuba Akpom, who was an unused substitute at the weekend after missing the whole of pre-season with a knee injury, will help. But Middlesbrough desperately need a new ‘number nine’ to lead the line and offer the kind of goalscoring threat that was alarmingly absent at the weekend as well as a left-back to replace the departed Ryan Giles, who was such a big part of the club’s creative arsenal last term.

Bring them in before the transfer window closes at the end of the month, and it should be all systems go for another promotion push. Fail to successfully recruit, however, and it will be hard to avoid the conclusion that the club have taken a backward step this summer.

It looked that way yesterday, with Carrick’s side failing to seriously threaten Millwall goalkeeper Matija Sarkic despite enjoying significantly more possession than their opponents.

Morgan Rogers looked exactly what he is – an unproven 21-year-old who openly admits he is having to ‘learn on the job’ as a central striker, having spent the majority of his fledgling career playing in a deeper or wider attacking role. It is hardly Rogers’ fault that he was thrust into such a pivotal position on the opening weekend of the season, and Carrick has steadfastly refused to question any of Boro’s transfer business this summer.

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His refusal to stray from the party line is commendable, and given the gulf in ability levels between strikers currently available on the open market and forwards who could potentially become available in the next couple of weeks as Premier League clubs firm up their loan plans, there is a logic to Boro’s recruitment team keeping their power dry. Nevertheless, this felt like the season beginning before the Teessiders had their ducks in a row, something that was perhaps inevitable given the scale of the rebuilding job that was always going to be required this summer, but that still felt regrettable as Millwall’s players celebrated their victory at the final whistle.

The visitors’ success was deserved, highlighting the scale of the challenge Boro will face this season as they look to improve on last season’s fourth-placed finish. Very few pundits have been tipping Millwall for promotion this term, yet they only missed out on the play-offs in the most remarkable of fashions in May and have bought intelligently to improve their squad this summer. Remaining ahead of the likes of the Lions over the course of the next nine months is not a given.

The main opening-day positives for Boro were the performance of Seny Dieng in goal, with the summer signing from QPR making a superb second-half save to keep out Kevin Nisbet’s low shot and looking calm and assured whenever he had the ball at his feet, and the classy showing of Hayden Hackney, who glided around in central midfield popping off passes and dictating the pace of the home side’s play.

The problem was the final third, with neither Rogers nor Matt Crooks really offering any kind of a goal threat, and the ease with which Millwall’s players dissected the Boro defence when they got their counter-attacking right.

Nisbet, Zion Flemming and Duncan Watmore had all gone close before the visitors claimed their winner with 11 minutes left. Aidomo Emakhu skipped past Paddy McNair on the left flank before sliding a low cross across the middle, and his fellow substitute, Romain Esse, curled a superb first-time finish into the top left-hand corner.