Aitor Karanka's Middlesbrough have been held scoreless by Fulham in the first 45 minutes at the Riverside Stadium.

Ryan Tunnicliffe almost gave the away side the lead after nine minutes, shooting at Dimitrios Konstantopoulos who scrambled the ball away with his legs.

Ross McCormack almost latched on to the rebound but Daniel Ayala's sliding tackle cleared the danger.

Carlos de Pena and George Friend then combined down the Boro left to offer David Nugent a shooting opportunity but the former Leicester striker saw his effort blocked.

Lasse Christensen could have given Fulham the advantage with 10 minutes remaining but lost his footing at the crucial moment in the Boro box.

Immediately afterwards, Nugent did find the net only to see his strike ruled out by the linesman for offside.

Tunnicliffe found himself in the referee's notebook just before the half-time whistle due to a late sliding tackle on Diego Fabbrini.