Watmore dropped, disjointed display and 'disgraceful' changing rooms – four big talking points from Middlesbrough's 1-0 defeat at Stoke

A game of few chances was settled by Nathan Collins’ 19th-minute header from Morgan Fox’s cross as Boro remained 10th in the Championship table with 24 points after 16 games.

Meanwhile, Stoke rose to fifth position, just three points behind league leaders Norwich City on 31.

Here are the key talking points from the game…

No Watmore

Changing a winning team risks asking for trouble. And that’s just what Neil Warnock did at Stoke as Wednesday night’s two-goal hero against Swansea City Duncan Watmore dropped to the bench in favour of George Saville.

After being denied his hat-trick against the Swans by being immediately subbed off following his second goal, there was more frustration for the former Sunderland man as he would have to wait over an hour to get involved.

Given Watmore’s well-documented injury history, you can see the thought process behind resting the winger, particularly with a busy festive schedule fast approaching.

But everything Watmore gave Boro on Wednesday, they lacked on Saturday. Conviction, decisiveness and most importantly goals at the right end of the pitch were all missing as the side have now failed to score in four of their last seven Championship matches.

The incoming Saville had Middlesbrough’s best opportunity of the game as Marvin Johnson’s 20-yard strike was parried by Josef Bursik into the midfielder’s path but he could only hit the post from close range.

Johnson’s tame effort was Boro’s only shot on target over the 90-minutes.

Disjointed start

Aside from the goal after 19-minutes, very little actually happened over the course of the game. Middlesbrough huffed and puffed as they tried to find an equaliser but never really looked like threatening the Stoke goal after Saville struck the post.

From the start, the match was a disjointed affair. Inside the opening five minutes, Sam Morsy’s foul on Stoke’s Sam Clucas led to a stoppage as the Potters’ captain had to be withdrawn.

A failed Chuba Akpom headed clearance then allowed Fox to put in a teasing delivery which was promptly headed in by Collins to give Stoke the lead out of nothing.

From there, very little football was actually played as referee Jeremy Simpson was quick and keen on the whistle throughout.

A total of 34 fouls and offsides were given over the course of the 90-minutes, 19 against Stoke and 15 against Middlesbrough.

In the second half, Danny Batth and Nick Powell were both forced off for the hosts due to injury as the game failed to gather any momentum whatsoever.

Triple change

As we passed the hour mark, Warnock opted to introduce some attacking flair to proceedings with a triple change.

Britt Assombalonga, Watmore and Patrick Roberts were introduced for Akpom, Morsy and Johnson as Boro searched for an equaliser.

All three showed some intent and endeavour to try and get Boro back into it but at this point, Stoke were happy to sit on their lead and play on the counter-attack as Middlesbrough struggled to find ways to break them down.

Dael Fry saw a handball penalty appeal rightly turned down and a few decent crosses into the box were cleared with relative ease by the hosts.

Lewis Wing and Sam Folarin were introduced late on as the fourth official held up the board for seven minutes of stoppage time but Stoke were able to hold on without much of a fight from their opponents.

There was little to choose between the sides overall, two below-average teams on the day struggling to play any real football.

Crucially, Stoke got their goal but they didn't have to do anything special to get the three points as Boro’s lack of conviction in the final third made things relatively easy for the home side.

Dressing room disaster for Boro

Neil Warnock’s press conferences are not to be missed and Saturday’s post-match debrief was no different as the Boro boss launched a remarkable attack on Stoke for the ‘disgraceful’ changing room conditions at the bet365 Stadium.

With coronavirus and social distancing guidelines in place, clubs are often more tolerant of less than ideal changing room conditions but Warnock felt Stoke took things a step too far.

The Boro boss felt his players would have been better getting changed out on the pitch instead of the portacabins on offer in Staffordshire.

As Warnock sat down in the press room after the game, he said: "It’s nice to get in here, where it’s quite warm.

“Those changing rooms were a pigsty. In fact, pigs would have seen it and run away. They stuck us in a little portacabin. Now you can’t tell me with social distancing we wouldn’t have been better off in the dressing room.

“The toilets don’t work, they’re blocked. We had fumes coming in before the game and we had to get the maintenance guy in. Why didn't they look at that before we arrived?

“The showers were leaking, water everywhere on the floor. It’s an absolute disgrace. I didn’t say anything to the players before the game because you don’t want to make excuses, but it was an absolute disgrace today that.”

Keen to exact revenge on Stoke for the reverse fixture in March, Warnock suggested that he’d pay to put Stoke in a portacabin himself opposed to the away changing facilities on offer at the Riverside.

He added: “There’s no way we’re giving them a dressing room when they come up our place. If our chairman won’t, I’ll pay for a portacabin!”

If there’s one way to detract from an uninspiring away loss, that was certainly it.

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