United's reserves never recovered from being three goals down within the first 48 minutes at a chilly Riverside Stadium on Monday, and at that stage it looked like being more with two near misses and then the bar coming to United's rescue.

However they somehow gained a foothold in the game due to some LuaLua magic, and after he left the field a slightly more coherent toon side managed to reduce the deficit further with a fine effort.

That belatedly woke the Boro up though, and they ended the scoring with another breakaway effort to give the result a slightly fairer look.

On a night when nobody took the eye, the non-displays of former Ipswich pair Bramble and Ambrose were particularly dispiriting. The former looked most uncomfortable against what was no more than a combination of academy forwards and no-mark former Mancs and mackems, while the latter just looked dreadfully small and easy to knock off the ball. Quinn and Taylor were also struggling at full-back.

Those who thought that Ambrose would slot straight in the side in place of Solano or someone else may just wish to see him play before they urge Bobby to bring him in. A couple of jinking little runs with the ball, but nowt really to grab the eye, and he was never within sight of the goal to try and emulate his debut strike from last week. One for the future we'll say, and leave it at that for now.

To be fair to him though he was in good company, as the likes of McClen ambled their way through the evening and Chopra was isolated in the first half while Lua wandered round the pitch with the ball, and unconvincing in the latter stages.

And after categorically stating in the past that we never thought Ameobi would have enough in him to prosper in the first team, we'll try and jockey along the progress of Calvin Zola by saying he'll never be a footballer as long as I have a hole in my proverbial.

A night best forgotten then, and definitely no fish and chips for the lads on the way home - there were enough taties on the field.....