For the second away game in a row, Boro have lost and Aitor Karanka has accused his players of lacking desire.

In his post match reaction at Blackburn on Tuesday night, he said: “It took us 75 or 80 minutes to wake up.

“It is really difficult for me to understand why a team like Blackburn, which is in the middle of the table with nothing to fight for and a team that has played five games in the last two weeks wanted it more than us.”

Then, a week later at Rotherham, he said : “They showed the desire to win, they fought for every single ball as if it would be their last, and they're fighting to stay in the Championship.

“We didn't play with the same desire, we didn't score and we didn't win the game.”

Strong stuff but, at Rotherham, it could also be argued Millers boss Neil Warnock made a first half switch to nullify Boro's threat and, as a consequence, won the tactical battle and the game.

Philip Tallentire discusses Karanka's comments and other talking points from the match in the video above.