Middlesbrough made it five games unbeaten on Friday afternoon, thanks to a late equaliser.
Michael Carrick‘s side made the long trip to St Mary’s, to take on promotion hopefuls Southampton.
Things started badly for ‘Boro, with Adam Armstrong giving the hosts an early lead, after Jony Howson failed to clear his lines.
However, Middlesbrough would snatch a point late on, when Emmanuel Latte Lath headed home an Alex Gilbert cross in the final minute of normal time.
Even so, that result means ‘Boro are now nine points adrift of the play-off places with just seven games to go.
Reaching the play-offs therefore now looks to be a very big ask for Carrick and his team. That will be frustrating given they would have been looking to secure another shot at promotion after last season.
One positive from this result though for Middlesbrough, was the performance of Seny Dieng in goal.
Seny Dieng impresses at Southampton
One of the reasons Latte Lath’s late goal was an equaliser rather than a consolation for ‘Boro, was Dieng.
The Middlesbrough goalkeeper made a number of excellent saves throughout the game, that stopped the hosts from running away with the game.
That is something that was not forgotten at full time. Writing about Dieng’s performance at St Mary’s, The Teeside Gazette said:
“Particularly in the second half as Boro chased an equaliser thus leaving a little more space, Dieng had to make a number of excellent saves to keep Boro in the game, including a magnificent double save. It left Boro with the platform to grab a late equaliser.”
As a result, Dieng was given a rating of 9/10 for his efforts against Southampton on Friday.
According to SofaScore, the Middlesbrough goalkeeper made two saves and completed one punch during the course of the match.
He prevented an expected 0.22 goals and was successful the one time he made a run out of his area.
On the ball, the Senegal international recorded a pass success rate of 82%, with four out of his nine long balls successful. His distribution was therefore reliable as well.
This therefore, does look to have been a key performance for Middlesbrough from their goalkeeper.
Middlesbrough summer move justified
It looked like an eye-catching move from ‘Boro when they signed Dieng from QPR back in the summer.
The 29-year-old has been one of the best goalkeepers in the Championship in recent years.
It is performances like this one for Middlesbrough, that show just why he is so highly rated.
Having a goalkeeper who can make the sort of contributions Dieng did here, will win a side more points than it costs them this season.
Indeed, there was one double save here that was particularly impressive. Admittedly, it is probably now too late to get ‘Boro into the play-offs.
However, a strong end to the season may at least offer something to build on for the next campaign.
In Dieng, Middlesbrough will surely have one position where they will not want anything to change between now and the start of next season, after showings like this.