Middlesbrough have now played more than 10 hours of Championship football without scoring following Saturday afternoon's goalless draw with Leeds United.

It was a lacklustre affair at the Riverside Stadium as Leeds seemed content with a point, while Boro just couldn't get going in the attacking third.

Here, Sports Mole looks over the match between two sides hoping to make a late dash for the playoffs.

Match statistics

Middlesbrough
Shots: 11
On target: 3
Possession: 56%
Corners: 6
Fouls: 7

Leeds
Shots: 7
On target: 0
Possession: 44%
Corners: 2
Fouls: 8

Was the result fair?

Absolutely. Neither side did anywhere near enough to win the game. It wouldn't have been right had it finished anything but goalless.

Middlesbrough's performance

It's truly astonishing that Boro haven't scored a deserved goal of their own or even had one with a huge slice of luck in over six games of league football. One could see why today, though, and January addition Danny Graham did very little to break his duck. Lee Tomlin made his long-awaited debut from the bench but didn't have enough time to impact the match. They knocked the ball around nicely enough in midfield and were solid in defence, but were restricted to predominantly long shots from distance. The one clear-cut chance they did have fell to substitute Albert Adomah, but he couldn't beat Leeds debutant Jack Butland. Aitor Karanka's men are now 10 points shy of the playoff places and will need an almighty run in the last 14 games to sneak in.

Leeds's performance

Brian McDermott's side missed the chance to close in on the top six and prospective owner Massimo Cellino, who was in the stands with his son watching, won't have seen much to excite him. As one can see from the stats above, Leeds failed to get a single shot on target and will certainly be happy with the point and look to the next game. The league's top scorer, Ross McCormack, looked isolated up front and didn't have a single sniff at goal. Leeds added wingers Jimmy Kebe and Cameron Stewart in January and that looked to be the one area that needed addressing, but today both men were poor and provided very little from the wide areas. The one positive for Leeds was the assured performance of Butland.

Sports Mole's man of the match

Jack Butland: It was hard to pick out a man of the match as no-one really did enough to deserve it, but we're going to credit Butland for his composed display between the sticks. His save to deny Adomah was a brave one and certainly the most decisive moment of the match.

Biggest gaffe

No real gaffes in this one but we're going to mention Stephen Warnock's almost-gaffe. Early in the second half the left-back, who had an excellent game, almost swiped a clearance inadvertently into his own net, but luckily it hit Butland right in the belly and Leeds survived.

Referee performance

Anthony Taylor didn't have a difficult afternoon with the whistle but could have awarded Leeds a penalty in the first half when Chelsea loanee Kenneth Omerou clattered into the back of Noel Hunt when both men were challenging to meet Stewart's cross.

What next?

Middlesbrough: Boro will look to find the net at last when they travel to Sheffield Wednesday in a week's time.

Leeds: Next up for Leeds is a trip to Loftus Road to face Queens Park Rangers next Saturday.