A few groans rumbled around the Riverside as the referee brought the game to a close yesterday.
Thankfully, they weren’t because Boro had slipped up against relegation threatened Rotherham in a game that was simply must-win.
They all are. Karanka admitted as much after the game.
Instead, the groans greeted the news that Norwich City had grabbed a last gasp winner at Bolton.
A blow, yes, but as I stroll head first into the cliché that gets rolled around at this stage of the season, all Boro can do is focus on winning their own games.
The boss reckons four wins from the final four games will be enough. That, of course, would include a victory over the Canaries next Friday night in a game that’s growing in importance by the day.
Four wins. Twelve points. There’s every chance that would be enough to take goal difference out of the equation.
Ah, goal difference and Boro’s struggles to keep up with their rivals in the column that suddenly shows its face at this stage of the season.
Goal difference is to blame for a few of the other groans late on. Patrick Bamford’s unconvincing penalty offering a stick to beat Boro with after a game in which they could, should, have scored more.
They did miss chances and it was hard not to feel sick to the stomach after hearing of Norwich's late winner.
But we can take heart from the fact Boro got the job done, that they bounced back from the deflating defeat at Watford with a win on home turf against a team that are still scrapping for their lives.
Potential slip-up avoided - and serial goal-grabbers against Boro Matt Derbyshire and Conor Sammon barely had a kick between them.
Still in the race, next up Wolves.
But before that, here’s what we learnt from the win over Rotherham:
Daniel Ayala, welcome back
Powerful, assuring and confident at the heart of the defence. We were even treated to an audacious acrobatic overhead kick up the other end of the pitch that would have been a contender for goal of the season had it been directed either side of the stopper.
The big defender went even closer from a header that was cleared off the line.
But it wasn’t his ability to ruffle feathers in the opposition box that made Boro’s faithful so happy to see Daniel Ayala back in Boro’s starting XI yesterday - it was the impact he has on the team from the centre of the defence.
The Spanish tower was superb. Back alongside Ben Gibson in Aitor Karanka’s first choice central defence pairing, the duo rarely looked troubled and coasted through the game.
Daniel Ayala in action against Rotherham
Twitter almost crumbled to a halt when he was replaced in the second half.
“Is Ayala injured again?!” “Will that be the end of his season?!”
Aitor Karanka reassured all those concerned that it was nothing of the sort. The fact the boss replaced him in the final stages as a “precaution” shows just how much Ayala means to this side - that he’s fully fit and ready to go again on Tuesday night.
Ayala has suffered defeat just once in a Boro shirt since the middle of October - the 2-0 humbling at Ipswich Town.
Four games to go, how vital it is that the centre-half plays in every one of them.
Adam Forshaw took his chance in the middle of the park
Steve Evans had a point.
“You can’t always replace someone like him,” he said of Grant Leadbitter’s absence in the Boro engine room yesterday.
Well Adam Forshaw certainly had a good go at doing exactly that.
It’s been a frustrating few months for the 23-year-old since he signed from Wigan in January. He’s largely had to settle for cameo appearances here and there as opposed to having an opportunity to nail down a spot in Karanka’s first choice XI.
That’s understandable. Leadbitter is a must in the midfield and Clayton has established himself as the go-to man alongside him this season since signing in the summer.
Aitor Karanka talking to Adam Forshaw
But Forshaw will have looked at the game yesterday and the visit of Wolves on Tuesday night as an opportunity to get two games under his belt and to show the quality that tempted Boro into coughing up £2m for his services.
And he certainly took his chance. While Clayton dropped deep, Forshaw looked to set the tempo for Boro in the middle of the park, spraying passes around the Riverside pitch.
He showed he had the bite as well, crunching into a challenge in the second half that Leadbitter would have been proud of.
The missing midfield man will undoubtedly come back in on Friday but Forshaw will be looking for a repeat display against Wolves that would give the boss something to think about for the final trio of fixtures.
It’s two from four for the automatic places
Both Derby and Wolves had quite the task on their hands if they wanted to somehow force their way into the top two before a ball was kicked this weekend.
Now it looks like mission impossible, leaving, as we expected, the four teams fighting for those two gold-plated spots.
In the wild world of the Championship something odd happened this weekend - all four sides at the top won.
No slip-ups, no shocks. Hopefully that won’t repeat itself four more times from now until the end of the campaign.
Boro players celebrate against Rotherham
For Boro find themselves in a position of hope - hope that the league has a couple of twists and turns still to come.
On paper, all four sides had games you would expect them to win this weekend. They all have tougher tasks to come.
So much on the line and so little room for error.
While Boro welcome Wolves on Tuesday night, Watford face a testing trip to Forest and Norwich travel to Leeds. Bournemouth, the leaders, head to Reading.
Four teams fighting with four games to go. There’s every chance of a similar situation with just 90 minutes of the season to play.
The next week could well determine whether Boro will have their destiny in their own hands by then.
