Tigana and Sava a match for Maccarone's magic

Middlesbrough 2 Fulham

A star was born on Teesside as the £8.1m Italian import Massimo Maccarone departed in the 83rd minute. Adulation was deservedly pouring from the terraces on to his bald head, as he had scored two goals on his home debut to put his team in an apparently unassailable position.

But within six minutes, that star had been eclipsed as Middlesbrough's hitherto unflappable defence fell apart and allowed Fulham to share the points by scoring twice inside 60 seconds.

"There's shock and there's devastation,'' the Middlesbrough manager, Steve McClaren, said. "But that's football. It teaches you lessons. We will lick our wounds and walk away.''

It was truly extraordinary. Fulham looked as if they would not score all season. But, in the 89th minute, Rufus Brevett's low cross from the left caused consternation to Gareth Southgate and Ugo Ehiogu, who until then had looked unbeatable. Louis Saha missed the ball, a ricochet fell to Shaun Davis, and he tucked away an unlikely goal.

In the next move, Steve Finnan's low cross from the right caused further flapping in Boro's rearguard. Southgate, already grounded, hacked clear only for the ball to hit a red shirt and bounce back. Ehiogu, amazed at what was happening, stood frozen with fear and the Argentinian substitute Facundo Sava tucked away the equaliser.

"Middlesbrough played a good game but as they lost focus we had the ability to react quickly to the two chances and we arrived at a beautiful draw,'' Fulham's assistant manager, Christian Damiano, said.

To be fair, Fulham had racked up eight corners in the first half and, with Sylvain Legwinski winning everything in midfield, and Davis calmly directing play, they were the more composed side for the first half hour.

How Boro missed the snap and snarl of the departed Paul Ince in the middle. The normally docile Jonathan Greening was the home side's most aggressive player, as he duelled with Brevett. In the 31st minute, however, seconds after Legwinski had powered Fulham's first chance just over, Greening's cross caught Brevett.

The bounce skimmed off Andy Melville's scalp and fell to Maccarone on the penalty spot. Last week, the 22-year-old Italian had been withdrawn after 75 minutes of his disappointing debut at Southampton; this week, he fired unarguably home, wrong-footing Edwin van der Sar in the process.

Suddenly at home on Teesside, the Italian than danced around four defenders and whipped in a wicked cross, although he did finish the first half by disappointingly misjudging a return ball to Alen Boksic at the end of a thrilling Boro break.

But in the 50th minute Greening burst onto a pass from Carlos Marinelli. The former Manchester United player drove to the by-line and flighted in a cross with his left foot to the near post, where the bald head of the former Empoli player powerfully headed in the second goal.

Maccarone nearly completed his hat-trick four minutes later. He caught Melville dawdling 40 yards out and was soon bearing down on goal. With a skilful shuffle of his feet, he out-witted Alain Goma, drew Van der Sar but pushed his shot wide.

"I'm trying to reflect on the whole 90 minutes and, for 75 to 80 of them, I was very very pleased,'' said McClaren. "We were 2-0 up and could have scored three, four or five.''

Then came the disappointment. Time was running out, the plot winding down as McClaren made his substitution, withdrawing Maccarone, who had just banged another chance straight at Van der Sar's legs, to a standing ovation. That was Fulham's cue to rewrite the headlines.

Middlesbrough 2
Maccarone 32, 51

Fulham 2
Davis 89, Sava 90

Half-time: 1-0 Attendance: 28,588