BORO PROVE THEY ARE PROMOTION CERTS
Preston 2, Middlesbrough 2
GORDON STRACHAN will wake up feeling like it is Christmas after Boro proved they are promotion certs.
The Scot is expected to be announced as the man the Teessiders' supremo Steve Gibson wants to lead them back to the promised land this week.
And he cannot fail with this bunch. They are ready-made Premier League certainties.
All he has to do is pop them in the oven and wait for the ping!
Lucky old Strachan. How many managers walk into jobs at big clubs without a fire to put out?
Gareth Southgate, sacked on Tuesday night, must feel like a man who has lost the winning lottery ticket.
True, Boro did concede yet another late goal when Billy Jones netted deep into stoppage time.
Yet Strachan will consider that a minor blot on the landscape.
He was not on hand to watch this Gary O'Neil-inspired display, sending his deputy Garry Pendrey to make notes instead.
But he would have had a smile on his face when his No 2 reported in to tell him goals from O'Neil and Adam Johnson had proved enough to seal an important away point, after Paul Parry had scored Preston's first.
Stand-in boss Colin Cooper is handing over a team full of hunger to make sure their spell in the Championship is a very brief one.
Cooper said: "We're disappointed to concede the late goal and I'm pleased the lads feel that way.
"This was a game we should have won comfortably.
"We should be sitting here saying we are going back with three points.
"But we have come to a team doing well themselves and got a point that could be important."
Preston boss Alan Irvine took a pop at his team's defending but was just as quick to praise their desire to put right their wrongs.
He declared: "We showed great character once again and fantastic determination. But we were also really disappointed to concede both the goals.
"We conceded a goal in midweek at Sheffield Wednesday to an unstoppable free-kick. Their first goal here was not unstoppable.
"With the second goal, we had talked to the players and identified Middlesbrough's ability on the break and still that was how they ended up scoring.
"But the good thing about this team is they keep going and keep going and they should get enormous credit for it.
"It was a good, late equaliser for us. We worked on set-pieces on Friday and we were delighted to get a goal. Billy Jones is someone we use quite often in these situations, because he is good in the air."
Class
Boro oozed class from the off, with O'Neil looking lively as he tested Andy Lonergan with a long-range drive the keeper pushed past a post. Lonergan continued to keep a busy visiting side at bay by diving to his right to block a Marvin Emnes drive.
He then darted off his line to save at the striker's feet, after Billy Jones dropped a back-header dangerously short.
But Lonergan's earlier brilliance was quickly forgotten when he gifted Boro the lead just before the half-time. whistle Granted, O'Neil's free-kick flew through the Preston wall. But the keeper will certainly be kicking himself for letting the ball get underneath his dive and into the net.
O'Neil was unable to impress the referee just before the break, though, when he fell to the ground holding his face insisting Eddie Nolan had laid one on him.
Nolan was boxing clever by leaving his left-back spot to play a key part in Preston's first equaliser in the 61st minute.
Jon Parkin's header from Ross Wallace's cross was well saved by Brad Jones and Nolan was on hand to prod the ball to Parry for the winger to produce a crisp finish into the net.
Johnson impressed the many watching scouts with a sparkling strike - his ninth of the season - to nose his team in front again moments later.
He teased two defenders on the left side of the box before clinically smashing a left-foot drive into the far corner.
Rhys Williams smashed a shot against a post and Didier Digard hammered a drive over as Boro went in search of a third goal to kill the game.
But rather than seeing out the match, Boro's propensity to ship late goals came back to haunt them once more.
Wallace swung in a tempting free-kick and full-back Jones ran in unimpeded to head home a heart-breaking leveller.
It is a habit Strachan will want to break but there looks little else for him to worry about.
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