KIM Hellberg was a "little bit worried" and he won't have been the only one.
For this was a game that had been seen before. And the feared outcome felt increasingly inevitable.
Hellberg's Middlesbrough had dominated the first half against Queens Park Rangers and were good value for their lead. But their lead was slender.
And that had also been the case at Burnley a few days earlier and at Blackburn a couple of weeks earlier and Boro had gone on to pick up just one point from a possible six there.
In fact, prior to Saturday's trip to Loftus Road, Boro had taken the lead in their last six away games but failed to win any of them, a run that stretched back to Easter weekend and the draw at Swansea City and also includes the draws at Ipswich and Wrexham last season and the play-off semi-final defeat to Southampton.
Little wonder, then, that was an air of anxiety in the Boro dugout and away end when Hellberg's side spurned several good opportunities to extend their lead against QPR and then found themselves on the back foot as the hosts improved, upped the pressure and started to create chances and ask questions.
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This time, though, Boro saw it out: a first clean sheet of the season and a first away win of the season. And doing so - given all of the above, and against a good side that hadn't lost prior to Saturday's game - felt significant.
Hellberg admitted as much.
"You look at our games now since we started the season: it's five wins, one draw, and one loss, so it's an unbelievable start in terms of that," he said.
"We score a lot of goals and create a lot of chances. But it was important to see a game out against a team that created the most chances in the first four games.
"It always comes down to small margins, because if you have all those chances and kill the game off, it's an easier walk through it.
"But we didn't, and normally when you face a team that has so much confidence and quality, you need to score from all those chances. "Today, we could seal it through very good defending. Keeping a clean sheet away from home and doing all those things was very important."
Boro are averaging two points a game. These are obviously early days but if that can be maintained over the course of 46 matches then a top two finish would be extremely probable.
And to be on that trajectory while still some way shy of what you hope would be Boro's best is encouraging.
We saw in three successive seasons under Chris Wilder and Michael Carrick how damaging a slow start can be. Stuttering out of the blocks cost Boro automatic promotion once and a play-off place twice. Flip that and last season's positive start under Rob Edwards proved to be a springboard. It set the tone. The same can be said of the start Sunderland made when they ended up winning promotion.
But Hellberg will know improvement is required. His side aren't yet as slick in an attacking sense as he'd like them to be, though several good chances were created on Saturday.
And there's still an element of inconsistency from one half to the next. The opening period against West Brom last week was very different to the second half, and that was flipped at Loftus Road, though QPR - much improved on last season - deserve credit for the way they adapted and came into the game. The introduction of former Boro youngster Rumarn Burrell made a difference.
Standing firm against a side that had scored seven goals in their first four games was a big box ticked.
Will Lankshear is already on seven goals in all competitions - halfway to the tally that saw Morgan Whittaker finish last season as top scorer. That's quite remarkable considering it's only the first week in September, and Hellberg revealed after Saturday's game that Lankshear climbed out of his sick bed to fire Boro to victory on Saturday, his latest goal another example of predatory instincts being rewarded.
The striker - and Boro - should have scored more but one was enough thanks to some fortune - Harvey Vale hit the post - but also fine defending and goalkeeping. Radek Vitek made a couple of crucial second half saves and Neto Borges in particular was outstanding at the back.
"If you look at the game over the first 65 minutes, we scored the goal, but we were also one-against-one with the goalkeeper four times," said Hellberg.
"When you don't score on those chances, you're always a little bit worried because they didn't create much up to that point.
"Then, of course, they get one or two chances that the home team is always going to get, and Neto did some unbelievable things to be fair; I think he was absolutely brilliant.
"Then we needed to defend the last 20 minutes in a very good way. You could almost see everything you want to see in a football team: good with the ball, good in transitions, good defending, and being able to do different things while being very strong in it."
On this occasion, there was no need to worry...
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