Will Lankshear stepped off the bench to inspire Middlesbrough's stirring second-half fightback in their 2-2 draw with 10-man Cardiff at the Riverside.

The Bluebirds stunned high-flying Boro in the first half and led 2-0 at the interval after goals from Jack Moylan and Ollie Tanner.

Lankshear, the Championship's top scorer, was surprisingly rested but the striker was brought on by Kim Hellberg at half-time, and within 16 minutes of his introduction Boro were level.

Tommy Conway halved the deficit before Lankshear struck his 11th goal of the season in all competitions.

Cardiff went down to 10 men with seven minutes to play when Gabriel Osho was given a straight red card for a reckless tackle on Lankshear, but Boro - who are now unbeaten in nine league games - could not force a winner.

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Middlesbrough started well and threatened a breakthrough inside two minutes when Callum Brittain broke down the right but Krystian Bielik did well to intercept his cross and deny Kyle Joseph - leading the line in the absence of the rested Lankshear - a tap-in.

The visitors settled and were dominating possession but after Joseph pounced on some sluggish defensive play, Aidan Morris and Amario Cozier-Duberry both had shots blocked inside the penalty area. Neto Borges then blazed over after a Brittain cut-back.

Boro were made to pay for their missed chances when Cardiff took the lead midway through the first half. Tanner was allowed to advance towards the Boro box before Moylan skipped past Borges and Morris with ease and beat Radek Vitek at his near post with a low drive.

Cozier-Duberry had a close-range shot blocked by Alex Robertson before Nathan Trott denied the Brighton loanee with an acrobatic save.

Boro should have levelled on the stroke of half-time when Cozier-Duberry squared for Joseph but the striker's attempt at a back-heel flick was blocked.

Instead, they found themselves two goals down after Cardiff punished the hosts in a slick counter-attack from a Boro corner. The impressive Tanner was set away down the right, cut inside Adilson Malanda and curled beautifully into the far corner.

Hellberg called on his top scorer at the break, with Lankshear introduced alongside United States midfielder Sebastian Berhalter, and the changes had the desired effect.

Thirteen minutes into the second half, Conway met Brittain's low cut-back from the right and drilled home to halve the deficit. And just three minutes later, Lankshear curled into the bottom corner from the edge of the penalty area to draw Boro level.

Osho was given a straight red for a tackle on Lankshear right in front of the technical area, but the Bluebirds clung on for a point.

The managers

Middlesbrough's Kim Hellberg:

"We needed fresh legs up top in some way to press a team that has been, up to this day, the most ball possession team and with the most in-the-box touches.

"They're very high in terms of creating chances in the league and we needed to match that in terms of energy.

"It doesn't matter if you're Real Madrid or Middlesbrough, if you're going to pick the same 11 players, we're going to say in three months that we have no depth.

"You need to manage your players in this league and look into numbers. We have a lot of players that have no pre-season. Will is one of those who came late and has been doing a lot of good things. He's been absolutely brilliant and sometimes you need to also protect him.

"It was very difficult for me to do that with Hayden [Hackney] last season - he had to play every minute, every second. So trying to find that balance is very difficult. It helps if you win the game when you do it, because otherwise you get a lot of criticism for it. You just take it and move on."

Cardiff's Brian Barry-Murphy:

"It was a very tough game for ourselves, as we expected.

"In the first half, I felt we were dangerous when we had our moments. We would like to have had more of those. And in the end, obviously, when Middlesbrough come back into the game and have such momentum, it's difficult to stem the tide.

"We showed great resilience and character to be able to secure what was a hard-earned point."

He added: "I've been in those positions where you come to a stadium like this against a team like this, and at half-time when you're 2-0 up, you want to be conservative and hold on to what you have, but we have to push our players and our intention was to be even more aggressive in the second half and try and push on.

"It wasn't possible but it wasn't because we didn't try."

What the result means and next fixtures...

• Championship fixtures

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