Middlesbrough stumbled again without leading striker Will Lankshear as they lost top spot in the Championship following a goalless draw with Watford at Vicarage Road.

Just three days on from a first defeat in nine against Wrexham, Kim Hellberg's Boro huffed-puffed and threatened, dominating possession and carving out plenty of chances, but could not find the net.

A point, though clearly no disaster for the visitors, was not enough for Boro to retain pole position with Birmingham taking over at the top of the second tier on goal difference.

For Watford, a draw against the league leaders follows two wins in their past four to ease building pressure on manager Alessio Dionisi, and was enough to keep them five points clear of the relegation zone.

It will be of some concern to the Boro manager Hellberg that his side have appeared so reliant on the league's leading scorer Lankshear, missing here for a second game with a minor muscle injury.

On balance of play, Boro dominated control of the ball and created the better opportunities but either found their composure in front of goal lacking or could not get the better of Hornets goalkeeper Federico Ravaglia.

The Watford keeper produced an excellent save on 13 minutes to deny Jeremy Sarmiento and was on hand again to keep out a header from Callum Brittain eight minutes later.

The lively Sarmiento failed to get on the end of a cross flashed across the goalline from David Strelec just after the half hour mark and Sam Byram hit the post with an effort early in the second period.

Watford became emboldened, partly by luck and partly growing belief as the second half wore on and despite conceding significant ground in terms of match statistics alone did carve out a couple of chances with Iker Bravo going closest to winning it for the hosts.

The return of Lankshear, who has 13 league goals in this campaign, could well be the key to releasing the floodgates again for the Teesside outfit on the other side of the international break.

Watford manager Alessio Dionisi told BBC Radio Three Counties:

"I am very proud of my players and very happy for everyone - the supporters, coaching staff and everyone. It was difficult to play against them.

"They have qualities and it is very difficult. In the first half it wasn't easy and in the second half, the same.

"Sometimes we had courage and we played in [the] opponents' half and we had positive and good situations.

"We worked for this and it was difficult to defend with wingers today because they wanted to play inside and it was important to defend well inside. It was also important to have the quality in the middle.

"Federico Ravaglia probably had his best game [of the season]. But it is not easy to speak about just one player. All players today were our best player."

Middlesbrough manager Kim Hellberg told BBC Radio Tees:

"I am very happy with the performance. We knew Watford were strong at home and have beaten some very good teams.

"We were so disappointed after the Wrexham game because it was the first game where we didn't look like ourselves. We know this was going to be a tough challenge but we showed everything we want to be.

"A lot of people will be disappointed over the chances and the fact we didn't score but in terms of the performance it was exactly what we wanted in how we run and take control of the game.

"There were five or six different players who ended up with big chances for us. With this performance we should win the game - you don't need to be a science man to understand that."