WATCHING Town’s 2-0 defeat at Middlesbrough on Saturday brought on a distinct feeling of déjà vu.

The game followed almost exactly the same narrative as the loss by the same scoreline at Aston Villa a fortnight beforehand.

Solid if unspectacular frustrating of the home side for the first 40-ish minutes? Yep. Series of defensive errors leading to the key opening goal not long before half-time? Check.

Changes of personnel made to try to show more of an attacking threat? Indeed. Opposition allowed to score another sloppily defended goal before the subs could make an impact? Tick.

Town subsequently unable to make much headway against expensively-assembled former Premier League opposition with their tails now firmly pointing upwards and their previously nervy crowd now well behind them? Very much so.

Most of my report and manager Mick McCarthy’s post-match comments from one game could, after changing a couple of details and a few names, just as easily have applied to the other.

For 36 minutes at Villa and 44 at Boro the afternoon went as McCarthy would have planned.

The opposition had been nullified and the home crowd were getting restless. Had the scoreline remained level at the break they would have gone in well satisfied with their 45 minutes’ work.

But, as McCarthy admitted on Saturday, giving away poor goals has been the Blues’ Achilles’ heel.

At Cardiff at the end of October the Town boss said his side had taken conceding soft goals to a “whole new level”. I suspect he feels they’ve surpassed those heights since.

While some may claim the Blues are set up too negatively when playing away, more so than when they’re at home where they have successfully taken the game to the opposition in recent weeks, I think it’s understandable that they have taken a more circumspect approach when travelling to face the likes of Villa, Boro and Derby, beaten 1-0 in the away game which sandwiched the other two.

All three have squads put together for fortunes compared to Town - Boro spent £40m in the summer, for example - with their wage bills several times larger than the Blues’.

The win at Pride Park was an illustration of the game plan being carried out perfectly. The Blues defended solidly at one end but were also a threat on the counter-attack, Callum Connolly grabbing the early winner.

Town also had chances at Villa and were beginning to impose themselves more on the game having frustrated the home side during the first half hour or so, although at Boro they made less of an impression going forward.

Defending resolutely, something which has been Town’s stock in trade for much of McCarthy’s time as boss, is vital to the approach and it is entirely undermined when players - and the blame can be spread widely - make the kind of errors they did at Villa and Boro.

Once that Plan A had failed, the Blues were disappointingly unable to implement a Plan B in both games.

Getting anything out of either match at that point was always going to be very difficult but neither Villa nor Boro were ever put under any sort of pressure and both seemed more likely to add a third than the Blues were to reduce the deficit.

Plenty for manager McCarthy and his staff to ponder with Town’s next away trip in eight days’ time even tougher, a visit to Molineux to take on his old club Wolves, who are currently leading the table by five points.

However, three of the Blues’ final four 2017 matches are at home where they have won two of their last three - only failing to win the third due to Sheffield Wednesday’s undeserved injury-time equaliser - while scoring nine goals.

Boxing Day’s traditional game sees QPR, who are languishing in 19th, visit Portman Road with fourth-placed Derby following them two days later looking to avenge last month’s defeat at Pride Park.

First, Reading are in Suffolk tomorrow. The Royals were defeated in the play-off final on penalties by Huddersfield last season but have struggled to make a similar impact this time around and are 14th in the table.

Despite this they have a fairly decent record on the road, winning four, drawing two and losing four.

It’s the type of game Town need to win if they’re to make a serious top-six challenge and based on their recent home form one they should.

Repeating the 4-2 victory over Forest a fortnight ago would bring a much more welcome feeling of déjà vu.