After a week of prank phone calls to ex faulty Spanish waiters, US elections drawing closer, James Bond making an illustrious return, guess what? None of that really matters as Christmas decorations are being put up in the town centre and Boro get 5 points out of a possible 9.I was feeling confident before the game; the anticipation in me was encouraging but with when you have all this feeling it usually it leads to a little bit of doubt which is almost like a tumour the more closer you get to the Riverside.

Gareth decided to stick with the same side that featured against Blackburn and Man City. He had to do that; performances were promising since the Chelsea charade and this game needed to fall under the bouncebackability bracket (take the author out and shoot him, now Ed)

Now onto the game in question, the first half was flat we were pushing trying to push forward but seem to be left running back to do emergency defending against the counter-attacking West Ham. From what I saw West Ham seemed to be playing in the similar way to Man City I.E Hitting the ball up to the little minx (ooooooooooh cheeky Ed) of a forward and hope for the best. Unfortunately for us Bellamy seemed to be a little more switched on than Robinho in midweek, not sulking and actually being quite productive in play rather than being a wimp and a sulk.

West Ham’s opener came through Hayden Mullins, slips, trips and miss kicks finally led to a rattling off woodwork before finding the Boro net. Disheartening was the only word to describe that, which summed up the whole first half.

Second half began and we seemed to have a bit more punch, with forwards warming up on the touchline it gave me a couple of minutes to reflect on the forwards who were playing. Alves was slipping into anonymous mode. Tuncay had spells of his usual work rate but nothing seemed to work for him. Lack of service frustrated everyone alike and that killer ball was needed.

Mido eventually came on for Alves; giving everyone a good lift in which, he was brought on a little later than what we would have hoped. Beforehand however Julio Arca came on and is striving to be back in the fold, constantly feeding the wingers and fullbacks, Hoyte who had come on at half time for Wheater showed attacking prowess and was always an option.

The goal however was a relief; a relief that it wasn’t another drone 0-1 defeat in a desolate game from both sides. A well-taken free kick from Mido was enough to take a point.

Referee had his part to play, ‘you want respect yer avin a laugh!’ was certainly true in yet another dismal performance from officials, apart from giving us the free kick, which led to a goal.

5 points from 9 is certainly encouraging and it might look good being 8th in the league, it doesn’t look good that we are 3 points adrift from danger.

Onwards and upwards!