We threw away two points, says Tony Mowbray

Jan 2 2011 by Mark Douglas, Sunday Sun

FRUSTRATED Tony Mowbray reckons Middlesbrough might have "forgotten" how to close out games after watching them toss away two points in a harrowing final two minutes at Leeds.

Boro seemed set for a significant win at Elland Road when Justin Hoyte was delivered the ball in acres of space and with just the keeper to beat on 92 minutes.

But Hoyte missed and Leeds levelled after a desperate counter-attack applied pressure to Boro’s creaking defence.

Although it was a fine performance, Mowbray summed up the disappointment by branding it two points lost for the Teessiders – and he wondered if it was a psychological thing for his struggling side.

“The overriding emotions are disappointment and frustration that we didn’t win the game. Our inability to defend long, diagonal balls into the box cost us two points.

“We did OK defensively. I can’t remember too many times when the goalkeeper has had to make a save. “When a team hasn’t put a winning run together for so long – and we haven’t put together a run like the one Leeds are on for a long time – you get used to losing football matches. It is habit forming, just as winning football matches can be habit forming too.

“Ultimately as we go along we’ve got to learn to see off games like that.

“When teams are putting you under pressure late on and 60-yard diagonal balls are being put into your box, yet you break away and should score it’s frustrating.

“Twenty seconds before the goal we had three men in their penalty area and yet the boy slips on his backside. That would have been 2-0 and finished – but that’s football.”