It was third against second at the Riverside Stadium on Saturday as Middlesbrough and Watford fought out a 1-1 draw in the Sky Bet Championship. The home side dominated proceedings for the first hour and took the lead through Spanish striker Kike, but were lucky to come away with a point after Watford laid seige to their goal following Troy Deeney's equaliser.

Patrick Bamford has been disappointing in recent games for Boro but showed no sign of that today, providing the main attacking threat in the first half as the hosts started brightly. Both Bamford and Lee Tomlin tested Watford keeper Jonathan Bond - a late change for the Hornets after Heurelho Gomes was injured in the warmup - in the opening exchanges but could not find a decisive finish. Sebastien Bassong and Matej Vydra had the away side's best chances but neither could beat veteran keeper Dimi Konstantopoulos in the Boro goal.

Evidently satisfied with what they had seen from their sides, neither manager made any changes after the interval but once again it was Boro who came flying out of the blocks. With less than five minutes of the second half played, Bamford and on-loan Tottenham full-back Ryan Fredericks came close to opening the scoring before fan favourite Kike did just that. Adam Clayton sent Fredericks clear down the right wing and he pulled the ball back for Bamford, who flicked it onto his strike partner. The former Real Murcia man shrugged off a defender and lashed the ball into the back of the net from close range.

However, the game changed on 52 minutes with the introduction of last season's top scorer for the Hornets, Troy Deeney. Within ten minutes of the big striker replacing Fernando Forestieri, Ikechi Anya beat Boro defender Daniel Ayala and squared for Deeney to power home a low shot from six yards out. Watford's best spell of the game followed, with Joel Ekstrand hitting the post with a header from a costless kick and Vydra failing to connect with an acrobatic effort when left unmarked at the far post.

The last 15 minutes were end-to-end with Juan Carlos Paredes and Dean Whitehead coming closest to settling the affair, but neither side could fashion a clear-cut opportunity and the match finished all-square. Both teams had worked hard throughout and played some good football which evidenced their lofty positions in the Championship table. Though either side could have gone top of the table with a win, Watford remain inside the automatic promotion places as Boro drop down to fifth. Just three points separate the top six as things stand, and only a further two separates sixth-placed Norwich from Ipswich in tenth.

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About the author
Sam France
Former Deputy Editor-in-Chief and Features Editor at VAVEL UK, part of the VAVEL team 2014-2018.