MIDDLESBROUGH fans were angry yesterday after the club lost its appeal to restore three deducted points.

The supporters' club secretary, Simon Bolton, said: "I thought Middlesbrough had a good chance with the appeal. The Premier League were unreasonable in the first place.

Middlesbrough would have had to throw in six or seven kids and that would not have been fair on supporters who pay good money to watch good football.

"Neither the fans, nor the players had done anything wrong. A club fine would have been sufficient. That would not have directly affected supporters.

"The supporters' club organised a 10,000 signature appeal and 20,000 postcards were signed in another campaign.

"I still think Middlesbrough will stay up. They have shown enough in recent games to justify that confidence. They were leg weary against Nottingham Forest this week but they still battled to the final whistle."

Derby manager Jim Smith, who has been critical of Middlesbrough all along over the matter, welcomed the decision to reject their appeal.

Smith said: "There is an argument that you only lose points on the playing pitch, but I disregard that in the light of not turning up for a game.

"I cannot believe that a professional club cannot turn out a team and I think the decision to take away three points was correct.

"If a team in the Sunday morning league had acted like that, they would have been thrown out."

West Ham manager Harry Redknapp admitted he had a certain amount of sympathy for Middlesbrough and said: "It's difficult. I feel sorry for Bryan Robson but at the same Derby's manager, Jim Smith (left), who has been critical of Middlesbrough, and the West Ham manager, Harry Redknapp, who admits he has a certain amount of sympathy for the club time we are all selfish and, let's be honest, everyone is only interested in their own team.

"Every manager in the bottom seven apart from Bryan will be saying that's a good result."

Redknapp, who expressed surprise at the verdict, has said that he would have happily accepted just a £50,000 fine to call off West Ham's first game of the season at Arsenal.

And he added: "I'd be a hypocrite and a liar if I said I was disappointed with the verdict. But I don't know all of the ins and outs of the case although I thought the rules were pretty clear."

And managing director Peter Storrie admitted: "My initial reaction is one of surprise. Most people thought they would get something back and although no one wants to see anyone have points deducted a rule has been broken."

Nottingham Forest chairman Irving Korn urged the Premier League to clarify the issue and avoid future controversy.

He said: "It's a matter that needs to be thrashed out at the highest level to make sure that all clubs know where they stand.

"I don't know the finer details of the Middlesbrough case but everyone realises there has to be a deterrent otherwise clubs could go around postponing matches every time they ran into difficulties."

Southampton boss Graeme Souness, himself a former Middlesbrough player, spoke for most of Middlesbrough's rivals also threatened by relegation from the Premiership when he said: "I think the decision is only right.

"I think if they'd been awarded the points then it would have been open for everyone to go down that road. There are rules and regulations and they are there to be obeyed.

"Middlesbrough are one of my old clubs and I have many fond memories of my time there. But at the end of the day the correct decision has been made and all the teams down at the bottom will have been given a lift by the verdict."

Middlesbrough striker Fabrizio Ravanelli expressed his disappointment at the verdict from Italy's World Cup training headquarters in Florence.

"I'm disappointed because everything seemed to indicate that we would get the three points back and I believed that Bryan and the club had received assurances that they could call the game off," he said.

But the situation was best summed up by Blackburn's caretaker manager, Tony Parkes, who greeted the news of Middlesbrough's pull out with the withering question. "Are we playing Sunday football now?"

Blackburn last night confirmed they would still be seeking compensation following the decision to pull out of the game just before Christmas.