The chants from Middlesbrough fans about Southampton’s spying are likely to linger in the memory far longer than a playoff semi-final that promised far more than it delivered. While Southampton will start Tuesday’s second leg as favourites, Boro cannot be discounted after dominating large tracts of a tie thoroughly overshadowed by a spying scandal.

Slate grey rain clouds shrouded the Cleveland Hills and it seemed emblematic of the chill gloom enveloping the visitors after Middlesbrough accused one of Southampton’s analysts of spying on a training sessions and resulted in a misconduct charge from the Football League.

Southampton will face an independent disciplinary commission chaired by a barrister. If the charge is proven potential punishments include fines, point, deduction and expulsion from the playoffs.

As anyone who has crossed Boro’s outraged owner, Steve Gibson, will testify this all seems unlikely to be brushed under carpet. Suggestions that Southampton could be reprieved after laying the blame on a “lone wolf analyst” appear extremely unlikely to wash.

Moreover, Fifa banned the former Canada women’s head coach Bev Priestman and two of her staff for 12 months after a charge that Canada had spied on opponents at the 2024 Paris Olympics was upheld. In 2019, Marcelo Bielsa got away with a reprimand and a £200,000 fine the Leeds manager paid out of his own pocket after one of his staff was caught spying on Derby, but a new, tougher, EFL rule has been introduced since then.

A brief handshake and an absence of eye contact between the two managers preceded an excellent beginning from a Boro side whose fans unfurled a giant “take us back where we belong banner” before kick off. Southampton could barely escape their own half as Boro swarmed all over them.

Along the way their high pressing won plenty of second balls and produced some lovely pass-and-move cameos while creating a series of half-chances. Clearcut opening were somewhat rarer, with Morgan Whittaker directing a left-foot shot inches over the bar.

It all meant Finn Azaz barely got a kick. The former Boro forward joined Southampton last summer and spent most of the first half either being jeered by his former public or suffocated by Luke Ayling and his fellow defenders.

As much as the intricate trigonometry of the home side’s play was a joy to watch and the sheer number of corners they forced hugely impressive, they too often lacked a killer final ball. Unfortunately for Boro, the midfielder that invariably provides it watched, once again, from the sidelines.

Hayden Hackney is capable of unpicking the most awkward of defensive locks, but although the Championship’s player of the season had recovered from a calf injury sufficiently to make the matchday squad for the first time since March he was not quite fit enough for a place on the bench.

It took a tremendous block from the excellent right-back, James Bree, to deny Tommy Conway just as the Boro forward looked certain to score from inside the six-yard box. Conway probably regrets taking a steadying touch when shooting first time would surely have resulted in a goal.

Shortly afterwards, Conway shot first time after surging clean through only for the ball, to end up hitting a post.

Tellingly, despite Boro hogging 76% of possession and creating 17 chances to Southampton’s none in one of the most one-sided first halves you are likely to see, goalkeeper Daniel Peretz remained relatively underworked. One decent save from Matt Targett apart, he was well insulated by an amalgam of home profligacy and some stalwart defending.

With Southampton improving considerably in the second half – and Taylor Harwood-Bellis succeeding in directing a header against a post before Samuel Edozie bent a shot fractionally wide of the far post – Peretz continued to be similarly well protected.

On this evidence, both sides should start preparing for penalties in Tuesday’s second leg at St Mary’s.