Paddy McNair (Pictured) rescued a deserved point for Middlesbrough on a frustrating afternoon for the home side against a tired but battling Cardiff City.
There was little attacking from City but they did carve out the best two chances of the first half. Harry Wilson's free kick was well saved by Marcus Bettinelli but the Boro keeper was rooted to the spot when Sean Morrison muscled his way into position to head Will Vaulks' long throw in to the net.
Boro looked the stronger but weren't as clinical in the first half and the game saw periods of play where defences were on top with Cardiff's back three in the action with multiple clearances.
Just when you though Neil Warnock's side were going to be frustrated by the dogged Cardiff defence they made a breakthrough. Another clearance, this time from Aden Flint, hit Tavernier, the ball looped up for Akpom to head towards goal only for it to drop to McNair who couldn't miss from a few feet away in the 82nd minute. Disappointed not to hold on but considering we had no shots in the second half and no corners in the whole game we did well to get a point.
A decent return this week for Cardiff. I would have taken four points on the road at play off rivals (yes we are now a play off chasing team).
Another big week coming up. Tuesday home to Derby and on Friday away at Huddersfield in front of the Sky cameras. Derby and Huddersfield are struggling a bit. If we intended to stay in play off contention, and we can freshen things up a bit without losing momentum it could be an interesting seven days.