NO CHANGE AT TOP

Manchester United are still in pole position to prevent Jose Mourinho from making it a hat-trick of Premiership titles but they have picked a lousy time to begin to lose their way. Five points have been dropped in the past three games and the sense of foreboding at Old Trafford was so acute on Saturday that it was as if the club had surrendered any advantage.

Had Chelsea managed a goal at Newcastle yesterday the lead at the top would have been slashed from 12 points to one since John O'Shea's late winner at Liverpool on March 3. Happily for those supporters who watched United's least authoritative display of the season through their fingers, the scoreless draw at St James' Park meant that Middlesbrough's businesslike performance caused only superficial damage.

United's goal difference is so superior that they can afford even to lose at Stamford Bridge on May 9 provided they win their other three games. They have so many injuries, however, that nothing can be taken for granted other than that Milan should now be regarded as favourites to reach the Champions League final.

In total Sir Alex Ferguson has nine players, including his entire first-choice defence, on the injury list, plus a further dozen out on loan, at least three of whom - Jonny Evans and Danny Simpson at Sunderland and Phil Bardsley at Aston Villa - could have saved the United manager from the position where he may have to deploy a midfielder, Darren Fletcher, as an emergency right-back against the Rossoneri.

So much emphasis is given to the title race that it would be easy to overlook the impressive contribution of a Middlesbrough side who rose above Ferguson's strategic pre-match exhortations that Ronaldo would be kicked black and blue - "The referee was put under a lot of pressure," observed Gareth Southgate - and had the courage to take on United with an orthodox 4-4-2 line-up rather than packing their defence and hoping for the best.

Southgate was labelled "naive" by Ferguson earlier this season and, though nobody could use the same adjective to describe United's manager, there was a certain irony that this was a match in which the Premiership's oldest representative made two serious errors of judgment.

When, just before half-time, Rio Ferdinand indicated to the bench that he had suffered a recurrence of a groin strain, the logical step would have been to bring him off as quickly as possible. Instead Ferguson raised a clenched fist as if to say "grit your teeth until half-time" and within moments Ferdinand, reduced to a pedestrian, watched as Mark Viduka headed in Boro's equaliser. Closer analysis revealed that Wes Brown, who had a torrid afternoon, should have averted the danger but it was perverse for Ferguson to ask a player to try to run off a pulled muscle.

Equally bizarre was the decision to play the entire second half with Rooney on the right wing and Ronaldo switching to centre-forward when the Premiership's outstanding player would surely have been better examining the defensive attributes of Middlesbrough's young left-back, Andrew Taylor.

The last United side aiming for the treble were famed for their late goals but the present one created only two decent chances in the second half. Instead Middlesbrough seemed the more likely to score, denied only by some unforgivably gutless refereeing when John O'Shea brought down Dong Gook Lee inside the penalty area. When Ferguson scrutinises the league table today he will reflect that the leaders got off lightly indeed.

The Times

Sir Alex Ferguson's door is, apparently, always open to young managers seeking advice, although if it was only just ajar for Gareth Southgate before Saturday's visit to Old Trafford, it might have been slammed shut after Middlesbrough slowed the home team's progress in this most captivating of title races.

There has been no love lost between Ferguson and Southgate since the Manchester United manager announced his objection to the former England defender's appointment last summer as Steve McClaren's successor at the Riverside on the ground that he did not have the required coaching qualifications.

If that served as the prompt for a rift, the controversy surrounding Cristiano Ronaldo in the teams' three previous meetings this season has hardly improved their relationship, but if Southgate receives immense credit for masterminding a deserved draw on Saturday, he merits it for not rising to Ferguson's baiting. Indeed, if anything, Ferguson's attempts to put pressure on Peter Walton, a late replacement for Chris Foy as referee, by claiming that Middlesbrough may set out to hurt Ronaldo, backfired.

It was an Italian-style approach to the game from Middlesbrough, who married a disciplined defensive line to the kind of desire to hit on the break that had been lacking in their 2-0 defeat by Liverpool in midweek. The tactics might even have landed them a winning goal in the dying seconds had Walton been brave enough to have awarded a penalty for John O'Shea's lunge on Lee Dong Gook, but as Southgate said, such "borderline" decisions have not gone Middlesbrough's way against United this season.

After Ferguson's goading, Southgate must have wanted to give the Scot a piece of his mind, but it was with all the restraint of a diplomat that the Middlesbrough manager accepted a result that, while likely to ensure his team's Barclays Premiership survival, scarcely seemed plausible the moment United took a third-minute lead through Kieran Richardson.

Mark Viduka might not have been given the freedom to head home at the near post had Ferdinand not suffered a recurrence of a groin injury moments earlier, but as was clear in the second period, United's makeshift defence looks like an accident waiting to happen. Milan will sense blood, although it is doubtful that Southgate's heart is bleeding for Ferguson.

The Telegraph

It was, said Alex Ferguson, "obscene and almost criminal" that a team that had spent the season throwing points at clubs in the relegation zone as if it was some kind of subsidy programme should raise their game against Manchester United and wreck his hopes of the title.

What fired his anger was that United had been from the opening weeks of the season by far the best footballing side in England and yet their lead was being remorselessly ground down by a relentless side nobody much liked. Weighed down by an unremitting fixture list, back in 1992, United collapsed and Leeds became champions.

History always repeats, though it sometimes wears different clothes. Fifteen years ago, it was West Ham who derailed the celebrations. This time it was United's other great bogey side, Middlesbrough, a team who this season have handed Watford, Sheffield United and Manchester City 12 points.

In 1992 what did for United was that their attack seized up; now their defence appears on the point of collapse. Not in terms of conceding goals, although the timing of Mark Viduka's header seconds before the interval was critical, but in terms of numbers. For tomorrow's European Cup semi-final with AC Milan, they will have one first-choice member of their defence available and Patrice Evra cannot possibly be match-fit.

By not removing Ferdinand immediately when his groin appeared to go again, Ferguson was accused of making a critical error. Ferdinand was barely walking when Stewart Downing's fatal cross was delivered but Wes Brown, critically, found himself the wrong side of the in-rushing Viduka. The real error was in rushing back their one remaining high-class central defender far too soon after Ferdinand's injury in the FA Cup semi-final against Watford the week before.

His opposite number, Gareth Southgate, was saying much the same. The Middlesbrough manager could have pointed out that having conceded three penalties to United this season - two of which were debatable - Peter Walton's refusal to award a spot kick for John O'Shea's tackle on Dong Gook Lee would have been like drinking vinegar with a cut mouth. Southgate wisely preferred diplomacy, though sometimes you yearn for Neil Warnock, who was rather blunter when Gabriel Heinze brought down Luton Shelton on Tuesday night.