For one member of the club's playing staff, however, the memory of the afternoon's events is still enough to send a shudder down the spine.
Joe Bennett, a teenage leftback with limited first-team experience, boasted one senior start in the space of five months when he was asked to play out of position on the left of midfield.
He is the first to admit he struggled, although he was far from the only member of a misfiring Middlesbrough squad to under-perform during a poor opening period.
What happened next, though, was somewhat out of the norm. And it is fair to say the subsequent fall-out does not reflect well on the supposedly well-honed man-management skills of former Boro boss Gordon Strachan.
It was difficult, said Bennett.
I was brought off at half-time and that was really hard to take.
I couldn't really get my head around that for quite a long time.
It was his (Strachan's) decision so I can't really complain about it, but it was obviously hard to take and it was never really explained.
For a young lad, it was really difficult. I didn't know what I'd done wrong, and I just wanted to be given a chance.
I played at Chesterfield in the Carling Cup at the start of this season, so thought maybe that was the start of something again.
I thought I did well, but then that was that when it came to the first team.
I think Gordon Strachan mainly fancied the experienced lads. I don't think he wanted the younger lads in the team.
It affected me. There were times when I was really down and I probably needed an arm around me. But that arm wasn't really there.
Different managers have different styles, and Strachan's tendency to rule with an element of fear no doubt owes much to his schooling under Sir Alex Ferguson at both Aberdeen and Manchester United.
But young players, especially young players who have suffered a setback in their career, surely require a certain level of support and understanding.
Bennett is keen to avoid a personal attack on Strachan, but the inference from a conversation with the Northallerton- based 20-year-old is that the support he needed was not forthcoming.
It was hard as a young lad,
he said. Sometimes, as a young lad, you just need an arm around your shoulder, but if that's not happening, you just have to get on with it.
The last manager decided he didn't want me in the team, so there was nothing I could do about that. But a new manager has come in and put me in the team straightaway, so things have changed right around.
It's nice to be wanted again. The new manager has come in and put me straight in the team and that's great for me.
Fairly early on, he told me, Go out there and enjoy your football'. That's what I'm doing at the minute.
It's nice to know that someone believes in you I haven't had that for a long time. I think the last time I had it was under Gareth Southgate. He believed in me, but there was obviously a time when the manager at the club didn't.
In part, Mowbray's approach is no doubt pragmatic.
With Andrew Taylor and Jonathan Grounds both having left Teesside on loan on transfer-deadline day another of Strachan's more baffling decisions Bennett is the only orthodox left-back on the club's books.
Yet while Strachan was reluctant to embrace Boro's hugely-successful Academy, and seemed intrinsically to trust experience and durability over youth, Mowbray already appears much more willing to buy into an ethos of player development that has been pioneered by experienced Academy boss Dave Parnaby.
There are young lads that are coming through and doing quite well again, said Bennett.
Both myself and Luke Williams have been starting games fairly regularly, and the new gaffer seems really interested in what the young lads are doing.
If you're good enough, I think you'll get an opportunity with someone like Tony Mowbray.
Bennett's next opportunity comes in this afternoon's home game with Hull City, a fixture that has assumed increased importance following back-to-back defeats to Swansea and Millwall.
We're obviously not where we want to be, said the fullback.
But there's still a real belief that we can string a few results together and start climbing up the league.
I know the results haven't been great, but I don't think we're miles away. You've just got to get your head down, believe in what you're doing, and things will soon start to turn around.
The league's hard, and you have to graft results out at times. Maybe that's where we've let ourselves down a bit so far.
Source: Northern Echo
Source: Northern Echo