A magnificent display by Watford goalkeeper Federico Ravaglia denied high-flying Middlesbrough victory in a 0-0 draw at Vicarage Road and cost them top spot in the Championship.

Despite a dominant performance, Boro drew a blank for the second time in four days and they will look upon this as two points dropped.

For under-pressure Watford head coach Alessio Dionisi, a third consecutive clean sheet at home was reassuring, but in truth he had Italian compatriot Ravaglia's heroics to thank for the small mercy of a point.

Ravaglia's catalogue of fine saves kept the Hornets afloat when, for long periods, Boro, who slipped below Birmingham on goal difference, looked like blowing them away.

Stung by the loss of their unbeaten league record at Wrexham in midweek and rocked by 15-goal top scorer Will Lankshear's absence through injury, Boro were assertive from the start and Jeremy Sarmiento's deflected effort sailed just wide in the opening 75 seconds.

The Ecuador international was soon denied from close range, and then from distance, by Ravaglia's sprawling saves as the Teessiders dominated territory and possession.

Ravaglia's reflexes came to Watford's rescue again as he beat out Callum Brittain's header from six yards, denying the Boro skipper his second goal of the season.

To head coach Kim Hellberg's manifest frustration, Amario Cozier-Duberry wasted a three-on-two break as the home side scrapped and scrambled for every ball with little to suggest they had the firepower to hurt Middlesbrough in the final third.

First-half bookings for Brittain and Sam Byram were neither a fair reflection of Boro's aggression nor Watford's perpetual retreat.

Keen to turn their 81 per cent possession in the opening 45 minutes into tangible reward, Hellberg hooked Cozier-Duberry at the interval.

The one-way traffic towards Ravaglia's goal soon resumed, Riley McGree heading Sarmiento's cross narrowly wide before Byram's snapshot rebounded to safety off a post.

In a rare outbreak of Watford threatening Boro's goal, midway through the second period, Radek Vitek made a sharp save at his near post to deny Iker Bravo.

But the excellent Ravaglia was alert again to keep out Boro substitute Kyle Joseph. It was arguably the pick of his saves and the visitors, perhaps sensing it was not to be their day, never seriously threatened again.

Due to a rash of injuries and last-minute transfer business, Dionisi has been operating with thin resources all season and for the seventh time this term he named two goalkeepers on the bench.

As if to prove Dionisi's luck was out, striker Myron Boadu failed a late fitness test before Senegal full-back Krepin Diatta limped off inside a quarter-of-an-hour.

But the depleted Hornets, with Mattie Pollock - son of Boro cult hero Jamie Pollock - also outstanding at the back, held firm.

The managers

Watford head coach Alessio Dionisi:

"It's a very good point for us. I don't know if it's the best one this season, probably yes, but I'm very happy because it was difficult for everyone.

"I'm very proud of the performance, for the supporters and the coaching staff, because playing against Middlesbrough is very, very difficult. They have a lot of quality and the first half was crazy.

"Probably it was Ravaglia's best game, but it's not easy to speak about one player because everyone played well.

"Martin Payero, for example, only trained with the team for 20 minutes because he had a fever and he had never played at number six before in his life, but he did very well.

"It's been a good week. I'm very happy for another clean sheet, but now it's important to recover some of our injured players because it is hard to play without six, seven, eight players every match."

Middlesbrough head coach Kim Hellberg:

"I'm very happy and proud of the players' performance. We were angry, devastated and disappointed after the game at Wrexham.

"We didn't look for one minute in that game as we want to look and it was important for us to bounce back to being the team we want to be.

"Here we controlled the game, we ran forward, we didn't concede many chances and we created loads of them. Everyone who watched the game knows we were the dominant side.

"It's tough when you don't have the top scorer in the league and there's no place to hide from that. But we should be - and we are - good enough to score goals and, although we didn't score again today, there were six or seven players who had big chances.

"Overall I'm very happy with how we've started the season - 14 games in, I'm happy with how brave we've been and how many points we have got.

"We were not good enough, or perform how we want to look, at Wrexham, and the performance here in terms of energy was so important for us.

"Of course when I look at the scoresheet and see it's 0-0, my honest answer is that I'm very angry and disappointed over that because with all those chances created, all those beautiful attacks we had, it's disappointing we didn't win the game."