Stoke City 0-0 Middlesbrough: Teams share points in a game of few chances
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Middlesbrough have lost just once in seven games against Stoke in all competitions
Stoke City and Middlesbrough took a point each from a game of few clear-cut chances in the Championship.
There were only two efforts on target throughout the match, with the Potters' Tyrese Campbell shooting wide after being put through on goal.
Boro's Duncan Watmore slipped at the crucial moment when trying to tap the ball in, while team-mate Andraz Sporar smashed a volley over the bar in the second half.
Stoke remain in the play-off places in sixth, with Middlesbrough three places below them.
Mario Vrancic's half-volley was deflected off-target early on for the Potters, but it was the visitors who truly cursed their luck after an agonising miss saw Watmore fail to properly connect with a low cross from six yards out.
Vrancic then threaded the ball through for Campbell - a move which produced the opener in the Potters' previous game at QPR - but this time the striker was unable to find the net after rounding goalkeeper Joe Lumley.
At the other end, Sporar showed great skill to fire a shot at goal from a long ball over the top, but keeper Adam Davies gathered to make sure the score stayed level at the break.
The Slovenia international striker was then wasteful in sending his strike high and over after a brilliant cross from Boro substitute Onel Hernandez, as both sides were frustrated by their inability to break the deadlock.
Stoke City manager Michael O'Neill told BBC Radio Stoke:
"We won the ball back in the middle third of the pitch in good areas and we just probably didn't capitalise on that final ball at times.
"Tyrese gets in, he will be disappointed and maybe should have done a little bit better.
"That was the nature of the game. They probably had the clearest-cut chance that Watmore doesn't take.
"I felt second half, both teams sort of cancelled each other out."
Middlesbrough manager Chris Wilder told BBC Tees:
"We can be delighted with our day's performance. Joe has made a couple of good saves.
"We have missed a couple of good chances, to be a bit greedy from my point of view.
"But we have come to a team that has established Championship stroke Premier League players that are expected to go well.
"To come to their backyard and get a deserved result, in my opinion, is good for everybody."
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