Birmingham City vs Middlesbrough. Sky Bet Championship.
St. Andrew's StadiumAttendance17,823.
Report and free match highlights from the Sky Bet Championship clash between Birmingham and Middlesbrough at St Andrew's as two goals from Matt Crooks and a late third from Chuba Akpom sealed Boro's win.
Monday 2 January 2023 18:52, UK
Red-hot Matt Crooks inspired Middlesbrough to victory at Birmingham as they charged back into the Championship's top six.
The midfielder bagged a quickfire second-half double and set up Chuba Akpom's late clincher as Boro sealed a 3-1 win.
Crooks now has four goals in his last five games with Boro up to fifth in a congested and competitive Championship - having reached the play-off spots for the first time this season last week.
They held off a Birmingham comeback following Tahith Chong's goal and have won six of their last seven games with boss Michael Carrick guiding Boro from fourth-bottom after his October arrival.
The former Manchester United midfielder's methods have quickly paid off and they were more cohesive than their hosts, although Akpom's deflected header was the best they could conjure in the opening 25 minutes.
Inconsistent Birmingham, without the injured Dion Sanderson and Scott Hogan, have exceeded expectations this season with boss John Eustace keeping them away from danger amid a backdrop of off-field issues.
Yet they lacked confidence and intent against Boro who, while they needed to find their own spark, were comfortable at St Andrew's.
Despite Crooks' and Akpom's recent form, it was initially easy to see why Carrick wants another forward in January as they struggled to create and Riley McGree's weak header was easy for John Ruddy.
Lukas Jutkiewicz fired a dipping 30-yard drive over to rouse the hosts but Boro took control soon after the break.
Ruddy needed to be alert to keep Marcus Forss out after Darragh Lenihan's deep ball sent him clear yet it barely delayed Boro.
They had found good positions only to be let down by their final ball before Jonny Howson finally produced the perfect cross after 57 minutes for the unmarked Crooks to nod in.
Just 137 seconds later it was 2-0 when former Middlesbrough defender George Friend made an awful mess of clearing a high ball and Crooks ran through to score.
Before the opener Krystian Bielik had planted a free header wide for Birmingham and they pulled a goal back with 16 minutes left when Chong nodded in Auston Trusty's knockback.
Boro survived Blues' comeback attempt and added a third with five minutes remaining when Crooks broke and produced the right pass for Akpom to round Ruddy and score his ninth goal in 10 games.
Middlesbrough's Michael Carrick: "It's never enough, we said that at half-time and after the game. I'm really proud of the lads but it's never enough.
"We have to keep pushing and there is half the season to go. I'm enjoying it, it's a great place for me to be every day. We have great spirit and we have to keep building on that.
"You can look both ways at the table because there's not much there. You have to see it in a positive way but there's no point looking at the league just yet, nothing's finished.
"Now it seems like it's compacted even more, we see that as an opportunity."
Birmingham's John Eustace: "We've had a really tough week, we have to put things in perspective. It's the first week we've had problems.
"It's been a fantastic six months, the boys have overachieved possibly but this week has been a really difficult three games. It's a week in our season.
"We are down to the bare bones, we have injuries to our top players. It's been a difficult week but I said we'd have ups and downs. The attitude of the boys was very good, they kept going.
"I was really pleased with the effort of the group. We made it difficult for Middlesbrough but the goals we conceded were very sloppy."
