We're down, aren't we? There isn't going to be some improbable turn-around in form. One win in twenty games (!) and, faced with one of those Must Wins against a team not exactly playing great football right now, we got smashed to pieces.

I think most Boro fans have, by now, grown used to the idea of playing in the Championship next season. It's not quite as painful as it was to see us slump to yet another humiliating defeat. There's only so long you can stand the hurt before you go numb.

This wasn't a capitulation because the players did fight hard, but it was certainly suicide as three of the four goals were down to ridiculously poor defending. We have a former England defender as a manager and a fellow defensive legend as his assistant and we've getting ripped to shreds at the back. You can't blame blunt attacking play when you concede four goals. Things are going wrong everywhere.

There were the inevitable consequences- more shouts for Southgate to depart, a few rather ludicrous calls for Juninho to come and manage the team in a replication of Alan Shearer's appointment up the road, and even a few musings that it might be better in the Championship because we'd actually win some games. That, to me, is a bit optimistic, given how we haven't beaten anyone in the bottom half of the Premiership for about five months and that’s before we sell off all our best players.

There really are no excuses for our defending. Ricardo Gardner's cross should have been cut out before it fell to Kevin Davies for the opening goal, Gary Cahill could have set up a small farm in the open space he somehow managed to find in a packed penalty area for the second and the third… well, you don't need my cutting analysis to illuminate why it's bad defending to let a free kick drift into the area, bounce in the six yard box and nestle serenely in the top corner. Any defensive coach will tell you that defensive players should always assume their team mates will slip up and be prepared to cover that mistake, yet Brad Jones gambled all his money, his house and any chance of a Boro recovery on Robert Huth cutting out the teasing ball. Oops.

The fourth goal I'll forgive because we were dead and buried by that juncture, and although Gardner was in miles of space it was a good finish from a good delivery by the gifted Matty Taylor while Bolton were breaking. It didn't really matter, as our goal difference is far too wretched to count in keeping us up and I seriously doubt we'll pull any 3-0 wins out of the bag to change that in the next seven games. What matters more is finding out why we crumbled at the back. Pogatetz, the captain, went off injured towards the end of the first half but I don't think his presence would have prevented such schoolboy errors. Let's hope not, anyway.

The last goal made the match look more emphatically one-sided than it was, because our attacking play yielded a decent number of chances. Our goal was quite lovely one-touch play around the area and Tuncay had several good chances, including a goal ruled out for offside. Alves also managed to hit the post with an excellent free kick in the first half. No matter how nicely you play, however, the old platitudes they teach at punditry school still apply: at this level you have to take your chances. We didn't.

I said a few weeks ago that we needed to win at least two of the next four games to have any chance of survival, and we duly lost the next two to do us no favours. If we don't beat Hull at the Riverside next weekend we're written off. It's that simple. Yes there are seven games left and yes it's still quite close at the bottom, but if we can't get anything against Portsmouth, Stoke or Bolton then why would we expect to get anything from Manchester United or Arsenal?

Of course, this being Boro, you can expect some spectacular victory over one of the Champion's League teams after meek surrenders against opposition we should beat. That's been the way of it for at least half a decade now, and who knows where this club might be if the team had any application or consistency in that time? The players and even the coaching staff have changed radically, but this pathetic lack of motivation has persisted. Even this season, victories over Liverpool and Aston Villa, a bright start to the season and some very nice play at times has shown that the quality IS there. It makes results like Saturday's all the more galling.

Phil Brown has already said that the Boro – Hull game is a "must not lose" for them, so expect a frustrating, defensive match next weekend. At least that means we're unlikely to get thumped by four goals again, but if our toothless strike force don't rediscover their taste for goal, that won't be much consolation.