BEVERLEY produced a woeful performance to go down 18-6 to Middlesbrough.

They lacked any oomph up front, were trounced in the lineouts, the decision making in the backs was simply dreadful and support play was virtually non-existent.

Their day was summed up by the fact that, apart from scrum-half Chris Infield, the only backs to emerge with any real credit were Jerry Barnes and Freddie Oakey on the wings, and they received only about one usable pass between them all afternoon.

Mike Kigannon got them off to a good start with a well struck penalty after only two minutes but almost immediately Beverley’s customary indiscipline set in and they conceded the first of 16 penalties.

Within the space of three minutes Simon O’Farrell for Middlesbrough had two penalty attempts at goal, the second one sailing between the posts to level the scores.

Beverley were briefly back in front with another Kilgannon penalty when Middlesborough were caught on the wrong side of a ruck but that was as good as it got.

Sheer carelessness cost Beverley a try and the lead which they never recaptured.

As the Beverley forwards sauntered back for a lineout in their own half Middlesbrough took a quick throw-in and, with no Beverley defender in sight, Rob Bellerby ran in for a simple try.

Beverley were not short of possession and had numerous chances to re-take the lead, but their midfield could produce very little co-ordinated movement with the result that Beverley’s two wings waited in vain for the ball.

A try was there for the taking when a simple pass would have allowed Oakey to stroll over but Richard Bussey inexplicably chose to hang on and was tackled.

A try then would have recaptured the lead for Beverley and possibly taken them on to victory because Middlesbrough were making numerous errors of their own.

A second penalty for O’Farrell at the start of the second half gave Middlesbrough an 11-6 lead and five minutes later they virtually settled matters with a try in the corner from Gordon Bland which O’Farrell converted.

Beverley’s best chance of salvaging a win lay in the determined running of David Worrall, Tony Riby-French and Scott Cameron who never gave up foraging.

With the game in its final quarter Barnes at last got a decent pass when Ian Archibald from fullback put him away down the right wing.

A sprint and chip ahead brought a lucky bounce and Barnes was within a cat’s whisker of going over. That was the nearest they got apart from one burst for the line by Oakey which would have brought a try had the final pass to him been takeable.

A late skirmish between the two packs briefly breathed life into a fairly tepid affair and a yellow card for Middlesbrough’s Ian Warsama for delaying a Beverley penalty proved to be the final action of a disappointing afternoon.