Huddersfield and Middlesbrough slog to goalless draw which changes little at bottom of Championship

• Huddersfield Town 0 Middlesbrough 0

This was a scoreline only goalkeepers dream about, and while it was a night that the two inexperienced goalkeepers can remember with fondness, it is unlikely that anyone else will.

Ryan Schofield, the teenager making his league debut for Huddersfield Town, had to work hard for his clean sheet; he was helped by a Middlesbrough side who were startlingly profligate.

A forgettable contest between two Championship strugglers was summed up by one incident five minutes into the second half. Marvin Johnson’s superb low free-kick from the right was flicked goalwards by Paddy McNair; Schofield reacted brilliantly to save from close range, but the rebound appeared a formality for Ashley Fletcher. However, the former Manchester United youngster somehow cleared the crossbar from three yards.

Schofield, playing in place of ill first-choice goalkeeper Kamil Grabara, had his tricky moments, most notably in the first half, when he completely missed a McNair corner and was grateful to see the ball bounce to the safety of Daniel Ayala, the visitors’ captain.

All the same, he did enough to convince Huddersfield manager Danny Cowley that he has a first-team future, on a night when the home side as a whole performed poorly despite extending their unbeaten run to five matches.

“Ryan is going to be a top goalkeeper,” Cowley said. “It was his first Championship game tonight but it certainly won’t be his last. He’s definitely given me some food for thought.”

At the other end, Middlesbrough goalkeeper Aynsley Pears, making his Football League debut, had a relatively straightforward night, comfortably gathering two long-range first-half efforts from Karlan Grant and Lewis O’Brien.

Pears, whose father Stephen was the club’s goalkeeper for a decade, was only seriously worried when Adama Diakhaby’s free-kick bent just wide shortly before half-time. The 21-year-old's assurance in goal was a welcome sign for manager Jonathan Woodgate, with Darren Randolph ruled out because of a thigh injury and the timescale of his recovery unknown.

Woodgate, in an attempt to pull Middlesbrough away from the relegation zone, has made his side more solid in the short term, scrapping the expansive 4-3-3 set-up with which he started the season in favour of a back three and a midfield diamond.  Having made life awkward for division leaders West Bromwich Albion last Saturday, they took a similar approach in West Yorkshire and the clearest chances in a tight match came from set pieces.

Ayala headed wide from an early McNair free-kick, and somehow steered a Johnson corner straight at a relieved Schofield in the second half.

Middlesbrough came away with only their second point in six matches. They remain one point and one place above the bottom three, in which Huddersfield still reside.

But the visitors should have ended their winless run, and their manager knew it.  “We’re creating chances to score goals, and that’s the big thing for me,” Woodgate said. “We need to take those chances. But it will happen.”

Match details

Huddersfield (4-2-3-1): Schofield; Simpson, Elphick, Schindler, Brown; Chalobah (Bacuna 55), Hogg; Diakhaby (Campbell 63), O’Brien, Kachunga; Grant. 
Substitutes: Coleman, Hadergjonaj, Stankovic, Mbenza, Mounie. 
Booked: None

Middlesbrough (3-5-1-1): Pears; Fry, Ayala, Shotton; Howson, McNair, Wing, Saville (Clayton 90), Johnson (Coulson 76); Tavernier; Fletcher (Assombalonga 64). 
Substitutes: Mejias, Dijksteel, Liddle, Browne. 
Booked: Fry, McNair, Saville

Referee: Tony Harrington (Cleveland) 
Attendance: 22,839