Toffees leave Boro supremo Southgate in a sticky position

GARETH SOUTHGATE really ought to have known better. After his programme notes provided chapter and verse on how Middlesbrough’s home form will be the key to their Premier League survival, the manager watched his anaemic side comprehensively dismantled by an Everton team with far more lofty ambitions.

While an uninspired first hour provided a compelling case for the merits of a mid-season break, and certainly the large number of empty seats suggested that home supporters had decided on a winter recess of their own, the visitors belatedly found reserves of energy to settle the contest with two goals in the space of six minutes midway through the second-half.

A single defeat in their last 10 road trips has helped Everton to fifth in the Premier League table, and once Andy Johnson had broken the deadlock with an angled drive on 67 minutes, David Moyes’ men looked in little danger of relinquishing the points.