Middlesbrough players rue missed chance

Robbie Mustoe launched the hard-hitting dressing-room inquest into Middlesbrough's latest defeat, at Spurs on Thursday, which left the Teessiders still five points adrift of the safety mark with only four games in the space of nine frenetic days next month to avoid the nightmare double of two Wembley cup finals and relegation.

But Mustoe made it clear there was no time for any of the Boro players to feel sorry for themselves and suggested they had all let themselves down. "We should have given a stronger performance than we did. Too many of us were on cruise control," Mustoe said.

"I thought we'd prepared for the game properly, even though we've played so many games, and the sharpness shouldn't have been a problem.

"But as a team we didn't give everything we could have. Mentally we could have been different and the fans deserve better than that."

The self-criticism seemed harsh as it needed an outstanding display by goalkeeper Ian Walker to keep Spurs in the game before Andy Sinton stole in to grab all the points.

But Mustoe's words showed the scale of the problems now facing Bryan Robson's side, who meet Aston Villa at the Riverside Stadium before ending their campaign with trips to Manchester United, Blackburn and Leeds.

"We've got to pick ourselves up, and at least we've got a nice little break now before the Villa game," Mustoe said. "That's a must-win game for us. We've got four left and we need at least a couple of wins. But we're not dead and buried yet."

Robson shared that defiance, pointedly refusing to criticise his players publicly, although his goalkeeper Ben Roberts revealed the manager had not been quite so calm in the privacy of the White Hart Lane dressing- room. "The gaffer was angry with us, but he had every right to be because it just wasn't good enough," said Roberts, who again deputised for the injured Mark Schwarzer.

"He didn't lose his head in a big way because that's not his way, but he told us the truth, that we'd been lethargic and let three points get away. We all know he was right to say it as well. It just reinforced it in our minds. It wasn't as if we didn't have the chances, just that we didn't put them away again."

"We just keep on getting beat 1-0 in games we should be winning, and this is the time when we really have to start getting points on board. It's happened all season really. Whenever we've got an early goal, we've gone on to dominate games and win well."