Mansfield's leading scorer went so close to adding to his 15-goal tally and enhanced his growing reputation in front of a national TV audience.
He struck the woodwork and had another effort clawed away from under the bar by the keeper in 60 frantic first half seconds. Then in the second half he again threatened to shock the high flying Boro, before the star-studded team sealed victory with a late goal.
Afterwards Boulding talked to Chad about the moment his first half 20-yard strike was acrobatically tipped onto the bar by the flying Mark Schwartzer to deny the Stags a deserved equaliser.
He said: "I thought it was in. I saw it start to dip inder the bar and could see that it was also moving in the air. I thought it was in, then the keeper somehow got a slight touch on it and the ball hit the bar.
"That's the quality of the Premiership for you."
From the following corner Boulding again might have levelled when his header was clawed away from under the bar by the Australian international keeper.
The striker went on: "I didn't think there was enough power on it when I headed the ball. But then nobody seemed to react and again I thought it might go in, but the keeper got across and saved.
"I had another good chance in the second half from a Matty (Hamshaw) cross. I tried to get ahead of the defender, but I couldn't quite get my foot around the ball and it went wide.
"Middlesbrough are a big side and put in some strong challenges, but we expected that and I thought coped well.
"We started brightly, put them under pressure. But we are not happy with the goals we gave away, as a team we didn't defend them well."
Boulding felt the full force of one of those challenges, when Robert Huth won the ball and followed through with a kick to the striker's midrift.
But afterwards he would only add: "It was a strong challenge and a bad tackle, but that has gone now."
He also admitted that strike partner Simon Brown 'made a meal of' a second half tackle which led to loud home penalty appeals.
"The defender did catch him, but he probably made a bit of a meal of it and it wasn't given.
"That would have changed the whole game, if we had buried the penalty it would have been 1-1, but it wasn't to be."
Boulding also had words of praise for the fans as 6,258 supporters packed into Field Mill.
"They were brilliant. That is the best atmosphere I have played with here (at Field Mill).
"It would be great if we could pick up form in the League and play with that sort of backing every week."
The striker, like all the players after the match, stressed that the team is now focussed on the relegation fight, starting with the trip to Lincoln on Tuesday.
He added: "We have got to take positives out of today and now everything is focussed on the League.
"It would be nice to go to Lincoln and get a result. This (the cup tie) was a one-off.
"Tuesday is a lot bigger game and our bread and butter. Players are playing for their livelihoods."
The full article contains 616 words and appears in n/a newspaper.
