A failure to preserve the lead given to them by Barry Robson's superb volley after quarter of an hour leaves Boro six points adrift of the top six this morning.
It is a situation made worse by the fact that at one stage last night there was just a point separating Boro from the occupants of that final play-off spot, Cardiff City.
But after witnessing Derby's Chris Porter and Michael Tonge score two goals inside seven second half minutes to overturn the lead, Strachan was instead relieved to see Leroy Lita head in a last-minute equaliser.
The Boro boss, however, claims his team need to find a new ruthlessness in their game, suggesting that a failure to maintain high standards for 90 minutes is costing them dear.
It's a missed opportunity because at one-up we could have been out of sight, said Strachan. But I would put their first goal down to concentration and we can't afford to do that.
For the first hour I thought it was fine and that we could go on to win it. But we have shown that we miss chances in big moments of the game.
You don't get too many chances and when you do you have to take them.
We can only have ourselves to blame. A lack of experience and sometimes a lack of concentration can cost us. If we can rectify that we will be a right good team.
We can't keep losing goals in the way we do. It will make it impossible to progress if we do. It's possible we can progress if we can do that.
Middlesbrough have now picked up just six points from their last 18 available ahead of Saturday's visit of Reading to the Riverside Stadium.
But Strachan was frustrated to see one of his four fullyfit midfielders sent-off for a rush of stupidity last night.
With just three minutes remaining and already on a yellow card, Rhys Williams lunged into defender Dean Leacock and was issued with a red card.
He lost focus, he was emotional and that's no good for us, said Strachan. We are now missing him for Saturday, we are down to three. I have spoken to him.
You can't get emotional.
It's good to have it, but you have to stay focused. It is OK having passion, but it hasn't helped us here.
Strachan did pay tribute to the way Lita emerged from the bench to nod in the equaliser, after the former Reading striker has been on the periphery in recent weeks.
Leroy has given us a point and we knew he would be useful when he came on, he said.
He is a threat when he comes on and we could have done with killing the game off.
I think we could have wrapped it up well before Derby got their goals. I was disappointed. They kept making us work. To lose a man and get a draw I suppose we have to be happy with a point.
Source: Northern Echo
Source: Northern Echo