Joe Nicholson's verdict: The key areas Middlesbrough must improve ahead of crucial Stoke City clash after Swansea horror show

Maybe it was a Christmas present you thought you were getting, yet the person you’d been hinting at for months bought something completely different.

Maybe it was a hyped-up movie or the final episode of a TV series which you were really looking forward to - only it turned out to be rubbish and left you feeling totally let down.

Or maybe it was the thought of football coming back after the season had been suspended for 15 long weeks. The thought of watching the team you support again after several weekends of no live sport was a welcome distraction.

For Middlesbrough fans, though, any anticipation they may have felt were dashed inside 34 chastening minutes of their Championship return. Maybe that movie wasn’t so bad afterall.

The Teessiders were torn apart by a quicker, sharper and better-prepared Swansea side, as two goals from Liverpool loanee Rhian Brewster and an Andre Ayew penalty gave the visitors a 3-0 lead before half time.

Boro may have managed to keep the score down and not concede any more goals after changing formation at the break, yet the contest was already as good as over. Swansea appeared to take their foot off the gas.

So where did it go so badly wrong for a Boro side which were showing some shoots of recovery back in March?

Jonathan Woodgate’s side should have beaten promotion chasers Nottingham Forest in their last home game, before claiming a valuable win at Charlton.

Against Swansea, Woodgate stuck with the 4-2-3-1 system which had worked well in those two games, yet his side were well off the pace.

Of course it’s easy to be wise after the event, yet, despite the consistency in terms of formation selection, eyebrows were raised when the team sheet was unveiled.

Woodgate defended his decision to leave attacking trio Britt Assombalonga, top scorer Ashley Fletcher and Patrick Roberts, who is still recovering from a hamstring injury, on the bench, instead selecting Rudy Gested and Lukas Nmecha in forward positions.

Yet Boro looked toothless up front throughout, lacking the penetration and pace which Swansea possessed at the opposite end.

That was where Boro’s porous backline was brutally exposed, especially down the flanks where Ayew and Aldo Kalulu regularly found space to run beyond full-backs Jonny Howson and George Friend respectively.

In the centre, Swansea playmaker Conor Gallagher, on loan from Chelsea, consistently picked up dangerous positions in front of Boro’s back line before feeding Swansea’s lively attackers.

The main threat came from Brewster, though, as Boro’s centre-backs failed to cope with the 20-year-old’s clever runs inside the penalty area.

Something had to change at half-time, and Woodgate’s decision to switch formation to a back three with wing-backs at least made his side harder to break down.

The damage had already been done, though, and the Teessiders must now pick themselves up quickly for two crucial games against relegation rivals Stoke and Hull.

Boro supporters will hope those crunch fixtures bring more joy. This one certainly wasn’t worth the wait.