As expected there was a place for Carlos Marinelli in the starting line-up as Steve McClaren opted for a flat back four, the only other change being Colin Cooper, in for Franck Quedrue who was suspended.
Boro were given a dream start by stand-in left back Cooper, who put Boro ahead after only eight minutes.
It appeared to be a well worked set-piece as Gareth Southgate and Gianluca Festa made the Fulham defence fully aware of their presence by stopping Marinelli from taking the free-kick. As they were picked up by their markers Cooper stole in at the back post to head home Marinelli’s deep in-swinging free-kick.
Fulham were almost level minutes later, Mark Crossley made a fine save from Steve Marlet then Barry Hayles missed a seemingly open goal with the rebound.
Fulham dominated the proceedings and Boro only had one other scoring opportunity in the half when Noel Whelan pulled a low shot wide of the post, from outside the box.
The last five minutes of the half were to be a disaster for Boro, Louis Saha brought the home side level with a free header from a Steed Malbranque free-kick wide on Boro’s left. Saha had only been on the pitch four or five minutes, after an injury to Sylvain Legwinski required an early substitution.
Deep into first-half injury time Boro were dealt a major blow when Marlet connected with a Saha cross and beat Crossley from close range. The Boro players were incensed that the linesman did not flag, Paul Ince receiving a booking after a lengthy dispute with both linesman and referee.
Boro’s travelling fans were disappointed to say the least, but Fulham’s Cravenettes brought a smile to their faces with a raunchy number in the adjacent goalmouth.
Crossley and Paul Baron did not know where to look as the Boro keeper held his half-time warm up, surrounded by a dozen or so scantily clad young ladies performing hip-thrusts in time to the music.
Boro made an early change in the second half bringing on Phil Stamp for Hamilton Ricard and for a while Boro were on top but it soon fizzled out.
Fulham began to dominate again and almost wrapped up the points after an hour, Saha again was given a free header that beat Crossley but fortunately Boro had Robbie Mustoe on the line to clear the ball.
Minutes later Boro had their best chance of the half, Whelan skipped past a defender on the left edge of the box and was very unfortunate to see Edwin Van der Sar somehow get his fingertips to the ball.
Boro threw on Dean Windass and finally Szilard Nemeth in a desperate attempt to salvage a point but failed to get that elusive second goal.
In fact it was Fulham who looked more likely to score again as they went close on several occasions, Crossley making a couple of smart saves to deny Marlet and Malbranque.
A thoroughly disappointing afternoon after such a promising start. Surely McClaren can see the problems upfront, he cannot continue to take any positive points from poor performances.
The league table doesn’t lie, Boro are now only one point from the drop zone, and with Ipswich flying at the moment it‘s easy to see them going above Boro in the not too distant future.
Boro’s saving grace at the moment is that Leicester and Derby are worse than us and Bolton are in free-fall. That makes their visit to the Riverside next week a big six-pointer.