RUDY BLUES
Gestede’s late miss summed up this tense, edgy draw as Boro's inability to score looks like dooming them to relegation
WELL, what did you expect from a relegation six-pointer which was always going to be tighter than a squirrel’s jar of peanut butter?
Nobody was going to score if we had all stayed at the Liberty until midnight.
Ultimately, Boro’s sixth goalless draw of the season was as much use as a chocolate teapot to Teesside’s great entertainers.
They remain five points from safety and they won’t survive, even if they sign Bear Grylls, if they come unstuck in another pivotal scrap at Hull on Wednesday night.
Boro missed their opportunity to burgle all the points in added time when former Cardiff and Aston Villa striker Rudy Gestede headed wastefully wide from Alvaro Negredo’s exquisite pitching-wedge chip to the far post.
Swansea looked the smoother side and threatened occasionally but, for satisfaction, this was like watching soft porn with the sound turned down.
Boro head coach Steve Agnew said: “Rudy is a terrific lad and on another day he scores from that chance, but the attitude and intensity of the players was there for all to see.
“We came here to win and we’re disappointed we’ve not come away with the three points.
“The players were a little bit flat initially when they came in after the game.
“But they will gain confidence and belief from the performance and we’ll take that on to Wednesday night. It’s good that the game comes around so soon.
“They were a threat from set-pieces, but we were solid and we were dangerous when Traore took the ball up the pitch and Gestede and Negredo combined.
“It just didn’t quite drop for us in the box but I saw lots of things we can take encouragement from.”
Boro are surely not one of the three worst teams in the division but statistically they are the dullest. Without a win in 12 Premier League games, and just four goals since their 3-0 win against the Swans in December, they have been dragged into the quicksand by former boss Aitor Karanka’s cautious approach.
Agnew may claim they showed more sense of adventure here, but that was like commending hermits for collecting the milk from their doorstep. For all Adama Traore’s twinkling feet and electric pace, Lukasz Fabianski did not have to make a meaningful save, and much of Boro’s best work was at the back, where skipper Ben Gibson and Bernardo Espinosa were resolute and excellent.
Swansea, missing the injured Fernando Llorente, looked the likelier winners for long periods, Tom Carroll’s longrange shot shaving a post and Gylfi Sigurdsson’s bending shot requiring urgent intervention from Victor Valdes.
Five minutes from time, when the Icelandic pied piper’s set-piece took a nudge off Adam Forshaw’s right elbow, they might have had a valid penalty claim.
But, on this evidence, Boro are doomed if they lose at Hull, and Swansea will have little margin for error when the music stops.