Middlesbrough and Burnley have played out two draws in their league meetings this month
Burnley missed the chance to move into the Championship's automatic promotion spots as they played out a goalless draw with play-off chasing Middlesbrough.
A win would have taken them second after Sheffield United had earlier drawn with West Bromwich Albion, but Josh Brownhill spurned two great second half opportunities to take all three points.
Boro, whose best effort saw Finn Azaz bring a fine save out of James Trafford, did move back into the top six above Watford on goal difference with a point.
But it is now one win in six for Michael Carrick's side, a run which has included two draws with Scott Parker's Clarets in a little over three weeks.
Burnley's last visit to the Riverside in April 2023 saw them clinch promotion to the Premier League and after a brief stay in the top flight, the Clarets are chasing another promotion.
Connor Roberts, Josh Cullen and captain Brownhill all started that night and are now mainstays for Parker as they were under Vincent Kompany in that previous promotion campaign.
This time, confidence has been built on a rock-solid defence, the meanest in the division with just nine goals conceded in half a season.
Only leaders Leeds United have scored more than Boro, but their problems had been at the other end conceding three goals in three of their previous four matches.
That included letting a three-goal lead slip to draw at home to Sheffield Wednesday on Boxing Day. The loss of two points came at a heavy cost too, as they lost forward Tommy Conway and goalkeeper Sol Brynn to injury.
Brynn's dislocated shoulder meant a first start for Australian Tom Glover since February and Boro's third-choice keeper made a good smothering save to keep out Josh Laurent as Burnley started with confidence.
The visitors had more of the ball early on and looked threatening, but efforts from Jaidon Anthony and Brownhill were off target.
Boro striker Emmanuel Latte Lath headed over after good wing play from teenager Ben Doak but probably the best chance of the half fell to Delano Burgzorg.
For once, the visitors lost composure at the back as CJ Egan-Riley lost a header to Latte Lath, Trafford was robbed outside his area by Burgzorg, but the Dutch forward could not find the target from 25 yards.
Josh Brownhill missed two big chances to add to his nine Championship goals this term
The chance Burnley wanted arrived just before the hour-mark when under pressure from Zian Flemming, Glover only succeeded in punching the ball into the path of Brownhill.
He was about 10 yards out, but his effort was brilliantly blocked on the line by Dael Fry, with the ball striking the centre-half on the chest and going behind for a corner.
Azaz forced a fine save out of Trafford with a curling effort from inside the area as Boro threatened, before Brownhill missed an even better chance.
Anthony did excellently to get away down the right and pull the ball back for the on-rushing midfielder, but, from 10 yards out, he shot over.
And the way he held his head in his hands, Brownhill knew that he had wasted a glorious opportunity to take all three points back to Lancashire.
As it was, this was a sixth goalless draw of the campaign for Burnley and they will need to find a more ruthless streak in attack to go along with their defensive prowess to secure automatic promotion over the second half of the season.
'A good step forward' - reaction
Middlesbrough head coach Michael Carrick told BBC Radio Tees:
"That was a real, proper game tonight.
"I know it wasn't a high level in terms of entertainment or excitement or goalmouth action but there was a lot of top level stuff in the game, testing each other in different ways and having to deal with different problems and finding solutions.
"I really enjoyed the game. The boys were fantastic in what we asked them to do against a really good team and I thought it was a good step forward for us."
Burnley head coach Scott Parker told BBC Radio Lancashire:
"Over the course of the last two games, two very tough fixtures certainly in this Christmas period, these boys have been away from their families, not complaining but there have been real challenges.
"We managed to get three points in the last game but it was fine margins tonight and we didn't manage to be on the right end of that.
"Obviously we missed a big chance - we wouldn't have wanted it to have fallen to a better man on that pitch - but we didn't manage to execute and we walk away with a point and we're all really pleased with the last two games."
