Middlesbrough boss Gareth Southgate was able to breathe a little easier after seeing his side end their miserable home run with a 2-0 win over Derby.

Adam Johnson's double ended a sequence of three successive defeats at the Riverside Stadium which had left supporters calling for the manager to be sacked.

Southgate insisted he had never considered the possibility of yet another demoralising reverse, but admitted the consequences were abundantly clear.

He said: "There would obviously been more speculation and we would have been probably four or five places lower, which would have made life very difficult, I am sure, for all of us.

"I have had lots of games like that since I have been manager here where you wonder about the consequences of defeat, but we were very positive in the way we approached everything.

"We thought about how we could win the game. We didn't really consider the possibility of defeat, but you know all the while a fourth home defeat on the bounce would have been very difficult for people to accept.

"None of us wanted to go through that and we didn't want to put our supporters through that more than anything.

"We want them to see us winning at home and as the season goes on, we have got to make sure we do it regularly if we want to go up."

The Teessiders had lost their last three home games to West Brom, Leicester and Watford, without scoring.

That situation was addressed within 22 minutes when, after luring central defender Shaun Barker into an injudicious challenge inside the box, Johnson converted from the penalty spot to end a 297-minute wait for a Middlesbrough goal at the Riverside.

It was his seventh goal of the season and his eighth 14 minutes after the break oozed real class.

Picking up possession wide on the left from full-back Joe Bennett, Johnson cut inside and carved a path between the white shirts before curling a superb right-footed shot past goalkeeper Stephen Bywater.

The win, coupled with defeats for top two West Brom and Newcastle, left Boro just a point off the summit.

But for Rams boss Nigel Clough, who arrived on Teesside with several players missing through injury and left with midfielder Jay McEveley having suffered a suspected fractured cheekbone and striker Kris Commons nursing a hamstring strain, there was little comfort.

Clough said: "We conceded a soft penalty having had two turned down on Saturday which we thought were probably more of a shout than that one given tonight.

"The first goal was going to be very important, primarily for us having not got a win away from home this season and Middlesbrough on the back of three defeats.

"Once that one went in, it changed the game."