Preston North End manager Darren Ferguson will walk away from The Riverside with his head held high after a spirited performance by his side.
The Lilywhites, despite slipping to a defeat, threw all that they could at Middlesbrough in what was a complete one sided game in favour of the Whites.
The result means North End slip down one place in the Championship table to 15th but remain ten points off the play-off zone.
Delighted with his team's performance level thorughout the game, Ferguson said: "We deserved to win. That was a top drawer performance from my team, we were excellent from start to finish.
"We started the game really well and we'd spoke about starting games on the front foot and frustrating them. To be fair after 20 minutes the place was silent, so we'd done our job in that respect. We just didn't get the goal, and then conceded a sloppy goal, but the overall team performance I was pleased with.
"The penalty doesn't matter does it, the referee hasn't given it. It looked to me as if he was about to blow his whistle. I asked him about it and he said the linesman was in a better position. I think it's a penalty, but he hasn't given it.
"I'm really pleased with the lads. Listen, I'd rather play badly and win obviously, but I can only take away what I see from my players performance, and I thought it was top drawer. A really tough place like Middlesbrough, and they've been going okay recently, Gordon's turned them around this past month or so.
"I feel like the last part of the game we've dominated, obviously we're chasing it, maybe leaving gaps, which you would expect, but I felt it was a game we should have won."
One man Ferguson had particular raise for was Scottish winger Ross Wallace. Wallace played the full 90 minutes over on the right hand side and gave the Middlesbrough defence a rough time all evening, even hitting the post with a spectacular left-foot volley.
Ferguson went on to say: "Ross was excellent. If you get the ball to him then he's a really gifted footballer. We moved him to the right because we felt he could get at their left back, which proved the case. In the end we got a lot of the ball to Ross, all night really he caused them problems. It was hard on Chris Sedgwick because he did nothing wrong on Saturday, it was just a tactical thing.
"I felt I couldn't really have any complaints about any of my team, and I said that to them in the dressing room. I said if we play to that standard then we've got a great chance of winning most of our seven games that are left. But it's still no conselation. Anyone that was here would say we've performed well.
"I said to them at half time we need to be a little more clinical in the last area of the pitch. Then obviously they've got to chase the game and not the other way around. That's a disappointing aspect for me. It's a soft goal to concede, and we're conceding far too many soft goals.
"Really disappointing result, we don't like losing games, but I'll take the positives, and it's a game we should have won.
"We've lost a sloppy goal, I don't know what's happened there, I'l have to have a look at the video, but I just stressed not to change anything second half and be patient. To be fair the lads did that, and never mind a draw, we should have won.
"I don't want to be known as a team that play well but don't win games. I can't have a go at Ross for that last goal, he was magnificent today. It's a must win tonight."
