Middlesbrough v Rotherham verdict: Boro and Millers confound expectations for surprising reasons.

What they would not have envisaged was getting the order wrong.

The division's glorious unpredictability precedes it. It is Rotherham United who find themselves in the play-off vicinity and not Middlesbrough. It is no fluke either.

Boro's current residence in the bottom three is no accident as well, it has to be said. Not at the minute.

After the feast of the opening stanza of the Chris Wilder era, Boro are now enduring a famine. The sun is not shining, Wilder admitted on Saturday evening.

Making mistakes and not taking chances has been an issue in their mediocre return of two league wins in ten. Wilder also acknowledges that the 'in between' has also not been free-flowing.

Plenty on his plate, then. But the experienced manager is confident he - and Boro - will get through it.

Just a second clean sheet of 2022-23 was at least something. Although Boro were maybe fortunate in the fact that Rotherham, with a day's less rest than Boro, did not go for the kill and looked a touch off it offensively. They were jaded by the end.

Taking away Duncan Watmore, who was comfortably the best attacking player on the pitch before tiring, Boro lacked spark and belief.

It did not flow and his team-mates were off in their timing and decision-making and it looks hard work at the minute. Most certainly for their bright young thing last season in Isaiah Jones, who looked to be over-thinking his game and is clearly out of sorts.

He and his fellow wing-back in Ryan Giles were stymied by Rotherham. Cohen Bramall and Brooke Norton-Cuffy had decent nights against them.

Wilder said: "He (Jones) had done fabulously well and broke into senior football last year and played a lot of games and has been good. It won't be the first time he’ll go through this little period. But he's having a go.

"You don't say 'don't do it, just play safe'. I have been in the game long enough and I am not going to give off negative vibes. There might be some times when the players need digging out, but in the majority of the time, you want to make them feel good and give them that belief and confidence.

"He (Jones) has a lot of good press and he's got to keep going and it will happen.

"When a little bit of doubt and belief goes missing at times and (there’s a) lack of confidence, then you doubt yourself in those positions. But all of a sudden, he will produce a cross out of nowhere and get himself back feeling good about himself, because he is a talent."

Like all sides doing it tough, luck deserted Boro when Watmore's lofted shot early in the second half clipped the inside of the post and somehow did not cross the line.

Watmore, who dropped off intelligently and found space, with his movement and pace causing problems, has natural assets. Finishing is not necessarily one of them.

He fired a good early chance over the top following an error from Richard Wood. The forward then showed his good side to set up Jones, who fired a crisp shot into the side-netting.

Wood would redeem himself in the second half to block Watmore's goalbound shot at the near post.

From an attacking sense, that was pretty much that for Boro, while the Millers had one opportunity in the first half following a quickly-taken free-kick routine, with Wood almost in after the recalled Zack Steffen parried Conor Washington's angled low shot.

A third successive clean sheet at the Riverside was comfortably the biggest tick in the box for the visitors.

It registered a fifth Championship shut-out of the season in just their ninth game. For context, it was not until late January in their last season in the second-tier in 2020-21 when they achieved that feat, ironically after a 3-0 win on Teesside.

For the punters and the watching TV viewers, the game as a spectacle was Saturday night torpor as opposed to Saturday night fever.

Rotherham's quick turnaround was a mitigating factor. It was much less burdensome than their recent visit up the road to Sunderland. They will be grateful for that.

For their part, Boro will be relieved that the defensive chaos of their midweek home episode against Cardiff was absent at least.

Millers chief Paul Warne said: "I thought there were a lot of tired bodies and I don't like Wednesday to Saturday (games).

"We limited them to very few chances and obviously I'd prefer it if we created a few more chances.

"But a point away from home at a team desperate to write the wrongs of midweek - and for us to take four points in a week - I cannot have any complaints. If I'd been offered that at the start of it, I'd have taken it.

"I appreciate the fans who came, considering it was on TV at the most unsociable time in the world's history. At quarter to eight on a Saturday night, no-one wanted to be here. The people on Sky were buzzing I got out so quickly (after post-match interview), so they could all go home."