Job's final flourish gives blunt reply to Blackburn

Middlesbrough 1 Blackburn Rovers

For 90 minutes, Blackburn bludgeoned Middlesbrough with a blunt instrument, but for all their possession the visitors could not cut through the home defence and showed no sharpness in front of goal.

The game was destined for a scoreless draw when the public address system announced two minutes of injury time to go. At exactly the same stage last week, Middlesbrough had allowed Fulham to score twice and snatch a draw, so it was with some apprehension that the crowd entered added time. Yesterday, though, the boot was on the other foot. Within seconds of the announcement, Nils-Eric Johansson failed to trap the ball on his chest and it fell invitingly to Geremi. He raced down the right and crossed perfectly for his fellow Cameroonian Joseph Job to side foot home.

"Football can be cruel," said Graeme Souness, the Blackburn manager. "Nil-nil would not have been great for us, but for us to get nothing is hard to take."

Middlesbrough's Steve McClaren said: "It was important after what happened last week not to get beaten and the players looked apprehensive. Last week's performance was excellent but today was one of those days when it had to be ground out."

Blackburn passed and passed all day, with David Dunn desperately trying to pick a way between Gareth Southgate and Ugo Ehiogu. Southgate was as composed as ever and remained so throughout, snuffing out Dwight Yorke in the 29th minute with an unfussy but expert tackle. Ehiogu was more unorthodox, underhitting a back-pass, kneeing a cross over the bar and somehow sliding his body between Andy Cole and Damien Duff's cross.

Mark Schwarzer, in the Middlesbrough goal, was untroubled until the 40th minute when Cole finally drew a diving save. In the 51st, Cole headed Duff's cross limply over and, late on, Dunn powered a 30-yard free-kick, which the keeper held on to. Despite the ball being so close at hand for so long, this was Schwarzer's only serious work all afternoon.

The home side emerged for the second half with an extra defender, Colin Cooper, replacing the ineffective Carlos Marinelli. "We were lucky to go in 0-0 at half-time but it is up to Blackburn to take their chances," said McClaren. "In the second half we stemmed the flow and evened it up."

Geremi did get in a close-range header that Brad Friedel had to be at his very best to turn away and then the Middlesbrough's players' apprehension spread to the crowd when McClaren repeated last week's substitution of replacing Maccarone with Job with 10 minutes remaining. The Cameroon international appears to have lost his middle name, Desire, from the Middlesbrough team sheet but he clearly still relishes the game: within minutes of coming on he unleashed a screaming drive from the edge of the area, which must have deafened Friedel as it whistled wide.

The stalemate, though, appeared to be unbreakable, until the PA made its announcement. Job, now in his third season at Middlesbrough, was on hand to turn in his fourth goal for the club.

Middlesbrough 1 Blackburn Rovers 0
Job 90

Half-time 0-0 Attendance: 28,270