Middlesbrough and Watford shared the spoils in the Sky Bet Championship at the Riverside Stadium on Monday lunchtime.

Yannick Bolasie's header cancelled out Ismaila Sarr's opener to give Neil Warnock's men a point against promotion-chasing Watford.

  • Story of the match

The first chance of the game fell to the visitors, Sarr played in Kiko Femenia on the right and his cross found Ken Sema who failed to convert.

In the opening 25 minutes of the encounter there hadn't been any real cut chances for both teams, however, seconds later  Marc Bola's cross was cleared by Adam Masina, before Nathaniel Chalobah get the games first yellow card, for a sliding challenge on Sam Morsy.

Not long after the injury to Morsy, the visitors took the lead, Sema forced Marcus Bettinelli into a smart stop,  Philip Zinckernagel's shot from the edge of the area hit Sarr and went into the back of the net, despite appeals for offside, replays showed Sarr was played onside by Darnell Fisher and Djed Spence and the goal was allowed to stand.

The last meaningful action from the first half saw Spence meet a deep cross at the far post but he could only loop the ball into the arms of Daniel Bachmann.

The first chance of the second period fell to the hosts and they had a goal disallowed, Bola delivered a beautiful cross which found the head of George Saville but his header, which looked like it may have gone in, hit Duncan Watmore who put the ball into the net but the flag was raised as Watmore was just offside.

Watford went close again as Joao Pedro broke down the left, his looping cross got a touch by Fisher allowing Bettinelli to make a smart stop, at the other end, Watmore found a pocket of space on the left, however, his cross was cleared by Francisco Sierralta.

Watford went close again soon after, Zinckernagel fired an effort towards goal but his effort was blocked, before another neat move by the Hornets followed, Pedro collected the ball from Sema whose ball into the box went just wide.

Middlesbrough deservedly equalised with 11 minutes to go, Fisher won a free-kick following a foul by Sema, Paddy McNair delivered a superb free-kick into a dangerous area and Bolasie heads home from close-range.

There were no more clear cut chances for either side as the game ended all square.

  • Takeaways

Good point for Boro

The result proved to be a good point for Middlesbrough as they look to make the play-offs at the end of the season with a big point against Watford.

It looked as though Ismaila Sarr's opener would give promotion-chasing Hornets a victory but a superb header from Bolasie means the points are shared and it was a fair result on reflection.

  • Teams

Middlesbrough: Bettinelli, Fisher, Hall, McNair, Bola, Howson (capt), Morsy (Coulson 30), Spence, Saville, Kebano (Bolasie 73), Watmore (Akpom 73).

Subs (not used): Archer, Johnson, Mendez-Laing, Fletcher, Coburn.

Watford: Bachmann, Femenia, Troost-Ekong, Sierralta, Masina, Chalobah (capt), Hughes, Zinckernagel (Gosling 77), Sarr, Joao Pedro, Sema (Success 83).

Subs (not used): Foster, Ngakia, Lazaar, Cathcart, Kabasele, Sanchez, Gray.

Referee: Tim Robinson
Assistants: Mark Dwyer and Andrew Fox
Fourth Official: Tony Harrington