Frenchman Franck Queudrue produced a textbook free-kick to deny Tottenham victory at Middlesbrough.

Queudrue drilled his 68th-minute shot low past Kasey Keller to level after Steffen Iversen had given the visitors a first-half lead.

It was just reward for a Boro side which for long periods enjoyed enough possession to dominate but created too few clear chances to win the game.

However, the point edges them that little bit closer towards manager Steve McClaren's 42-point safety target, and one more win will more or less secure their top flight status for another season.

Spurs played with the greater incision at times but could only beat Mark Crossley once to leave them wallowing in the mid-table backwaters.

Boro's shock win at Old Trafford last weekend to cap a run of much-improved form sent them into the game with confidence as high as has been this season, and it showed as they set off at a high tempo.

Indeed, the match unfolded as a surprisingly open affair as Benito Carbone for the Teessiders and Tottenham's Darren Anderton took up the creative reins for their respective sides.

However, for all that there was plenty to admire in the build-up work of both sides, there was little genuine goalmouth action.

Gustavo Poyet fired a third-minute volley into Crossley's midriff after the Teessiders allowed makeshift right-back Ledley King too much time and space to cross, but it was the impressive Carbone who went close for Boro two minutes later when his long-range effort was headed over his own bar by Ben Thatcher.

Gareth Southgate gave Iversen a sniff with an underhit 14th-minute back-pass, but Crossley got his defender out of trouble, but Boro had assumed control of the game.

Chris Perry had to block a Boksic piledriver and Anthony Gardner blazed a 25-yard effort over Crossley's bar, but neither keeper was particularly busy.

However, that changed with 32 minutes gone when Matthew Etherington produced a teasing cross from the left which caught the Boro defence flat-footed and Iversen gleefully slammed his shot home off Crossley to open the scoring.

Carbone volleyed into the side-netting four minutes later as the home side stepped up another gear, but Iversen was only denied a second by Ugo Ehiogu's challenge after he had run on to Poyet's long ball and rounded Crossley.

Franck Queudrue wastefully fired over from 15 yards after the Spurs defence only half-cleared a Carbone corner, but McClaren's side left the field at the break knowing that they would have to get more men into the box more often if they were to find a way back into the game.

Boro stepped up a gear after the break, but for the opening 15 minutes of the second half, it was Tottenham who looked more likely to add to their tally as they stretched the home defence, by now comprising a trio of Southgate, Ehiogu and Queudrue, at regular intervals.

Ledley King survived a penalty appeal after Boksic controlled the ball on to his arm, but Etherington was denied a second goal for the visitors when Crossley did well to block his far post effort after Tim Sherwood and Iversen combined to pull Boro apart, Poyet rattling the bar with a close-range header from the resulting corner.

But the tide started to turn and after Boksic had tested Keller with a shot from a tight angle, Boro finally forced their way back into the game.

Gardner was penalised for a push on Boksic 25 yards out and after Carbone and Jonathan Greening had run over the ball, Queudrue smashed an unstoppable free-kick past Keller's dive and into the bottom left corner of the net.

Substitute David Murphy flashed a header wide from a 71st-minute Carbone corner as the balance of play shifted heavily in Boro's favour.

However, Ehiogu got away with a slip six minutes from time when substitutes Simon Davies and Teddy Sheringham combined to feed Etherington, but his drive was blocked by Crossley and smuggled away by his defenders.

Sheringham was only inches away from reaching Etherington's 90th-minute cross, but Boro survived to hang on to their point.

Teams

Middlesbrough: Crossley, Southgate, Ehiogu, Stockdale, Queudrue, Mustoe, Greening, Wilkshire (Murphy 58), Whelan (Windass 90), Carbone, Boksic.

Subs Not Used: Beresford, Marinelli, Gavin.

Goals: Queudrue 69.

Tottenham: Keller, Perry, Thatcher, King, Gardner, Anderton (Davies 78), Sherwood, Poyet, Etherington, Iversen, Rebrov (Sheringham 72).

Subs Not Used: Herschfeld, Clemence, Richards.

Booked: Poyet, Thatcher, Perry.

Goals: Iversen 32.

Att: 31,258

Ref: P Dowd (Stoke-on-Trent).