Middlesbrough 2-0 Burton: Britt Assombalonga hits double

Britt Assombalonga began the job of repaying his price tag with the first goals of his Middlesbrough career in a 2-0 Sky Bet Championship win over 10-man Burton.

Assombalonga arrived as Boro's record transfer recruit for £15million from Nottingham Forest this summer, and quickly set about ingratiating himself to the Riverside faithful against Albion.

Burton entered the game amid claims from chairman Ben Robinson they would offer former sprinter Usain Bolt a trial - and looked every bit a team needing inspiration. Indeed, Nigel Clough's men slipped to a third successive defeat to begin their campaign as Assombalonga netted either side of half-time.

A bad night was compounded with 12 minutes remaining when substitute Hope Akpan was sent off for a two-footed lunge on Lewis Baker.

Middlesbrough boss Gary Monk picked the same XI that controversially overcame Sheffield United 1-0 on Saturday, with forwards Rudy Gestede, Patrick Bamford and Assombalonga interchanging in a fluid 4-3-3.

Burton, who made three alterations to the side that lost 4-1 at Hull, two of which were enforced by injury and suspension, edged the opening exchanges. Yet the visitors were architects of their own downfall as Assombalonga netted in the 23rd minute. Kyle McFadzean was caught on the ball by Gestede, who freed the forward to slide home from a tight angle.

It should have been 2-0 moments later, Bamford heading Adam Forshaw's delicious centre wide with the goal gaping. Middlesbrough's striking triumvirate were suddenly causing Albion all manner of problems and Gestede was next to threaten when heading straight at Stephen Bywater.

Assombalonga almost picked up where he left off after half-time, only to side-foot wide when one-on-one with Bywater following a delightful Bamford through-ball. And Boro were thankful to stay ahead soon after, with Cyrus Christie called upon to deny Palmer from six yards via a sliding challenge.

That appeared to reawaken Middlesbrough, who added their second when Assombalonga tapped into an empty net after Bywater had parried Gestede's effort into his path. The goal appeared to knock the wind out of the sails of Burton, whose night went from bad to worse as Akpan was given his marching orders.

Middlesbrough mercifully took their foot off the pedal thereafter, although Baker went close to a third when curling narrowly wide. The on-loan Chelsea forward then spurned an even better effort, hitting into the side-netting after good work from fellow substitute Adama Traore. However, his misses mattered little as Boro cruised to the points.

The managers

Garry Monk: "I am happy with the result. It's always good to put back-to-back wins together. Overall, I didn't think we started too well and gave Burton a little bit too much confidence. But once we got that first goal we stepped it up a gear. We are playing in patches at the moment, but we look incredibly dangerous in those good patches. And we are also looking good defensively, giving opponents very few chances - which is good.

"We are striving for a complete performance, but it's still early days. It's nice to be winning when we are striving for that. It is still very early days for this group. I like to play aggressive football on the front foot and be good defensively. Striking that balance is a work in progress."

Nigel Clough: "We are delighted with how they played. We can take so much encouragement from that.
"We kept going and I thought, considering the opposition and the team we had, we played well."