Middlesbrough vs Stoke City. Sky Bet Championship.
Riverside Stadium.
Report and highlights from the Sky Bet Championship clash between Middlesbrough and Stoke City at the Riverside Stadium as goals from Grant Hall, Paddy McNair and Nathaniel Mendez-Laing steered Boro to victory.
Saturday 13 March 2021 18:34, UK
Middlesbrough kept their Sky Bet Championship play-off hopes alive by beating Stoke 3-0 at the Riverside Stadium.
First-half goals from Grant Hall and Paddy McNair set Boro on their way to only their second home win of the year.
Hall's opener in the 21st minute arrived out of the blue and from there the hosts never looked back, with McNair adding a second five minutes before half-time.
Substitute Nathaniel Mendez-Laing wrapped things up with the third with two minutes left.
The defeat was Stoke's fourth in five matches and left them five points behind ninth-placed Middlesbrough, who remain eight points off Barnsley in sixth.
Middlesbrough's poor recent home form encouraged Stoke to start on the front foot and Jacob Brown was inches away from putting the visitors in front when his cross hit a post 22 seconds in.
Stoke kept pressing and were clearly intent on establishing an early advantage, but Michael O'Neill's side were unable to turn their possession into a goal.
The only other opportunity they created came when full-back Tommy Smith cut inside Neeskens Kebano and sent a curling effort wide of the near post.
Five minutes later Middlesbrough, whose decision to change formation and switch McNair from defence to midfield paid off, went ahead against the run of play from the first serious threat on Angus Gunn's goal.
Chuba Akpom brilliantly flicked Marc Bola's corner on at the near post and Hall was quick to pounce ahead of Smith to side-foot the opener over the line from close range.
Stoke continued to enjoy plenty of the ball without really threatening, James Chester heading over from Jack Clarke's corner as close as they came to a leveller.
That came 10 minutes after Kebano had brushed the side-netting with a shot at the other end and, after he had flashed another effort wide, McNair added Boro's second in style.
Yannick Bolasie played him in down the left and McNair took a touch before opening up his body and rolling a finish inside the far post.
Middlesbrough almost had a third just before the hour mark when Bolasie's headed flick invited Gunn to race out of his area to clear. The ball ended up at the feet of McNair and his strike brushed the side-netting rather than drop into the empty goal.
Middlesbrough, content to sit on their lead, invited Stoke pressure and Marcus Bettinelli made a strong-handed stop from Steven Fletcher's volley.
And with two minutes to go Boro put the game to bed as Mendez-Laing, seven minutes after coming on, ran on to Sam Morsy's through-ball and chipped Gunn to score.
Middlesbrough's Neil Warnock: "We had to win today. I said to the players we have to try to get wins on the board and I thought once we sorted the first 10 minutes - the system was cock-eyed, we changed completely - we were on our game. We dominated certain areas, broke quickly. Even in the second half we broke at pace and could have had a few more. Marcus Bettinelli made two important saves, it might have been nerve-wracking if they had gone in.
"We just have 10 games left and we have to win every game, try to win every game. We are capable of winning every game, but we are capable of losing them too with inconsistencies. There were some massive pluses today. We looked strong once we changed. Paddy getting that freedom and he finished really well for the goal. Mendez-Laing, I couldn't have asked any more from him. He is working his socks off. Every day off he's working and he's not had much of a look in - 15-20 minutes here and there. If he gets up to scratch he will score goals."
Stoke's Michael O'Neill: "I'm extremely disappointed with the result. I thought we controlled parts of the game. But we defended the corner poorly for the first goal and then it was a difficult game for us. They will slow the game down. We didn't defend it well enough. We just didn't do enough with it. We had no cutting edge. We had nothing in the final third, it is very difficult to win the game like that.
"We had chances, the keeper made a couple of good saves, but we played them in. We didn't have the guile or the quality to break them down. "he third was poor. We made it easy for them. It's a very frustrating day because up to that first goal we were clearly the most dominant team. Dominance doesn't win you games unless you put it on the scoreboard. We didn't create enough opportunities. We are in a more comfortable position than we were last year but we want to be a team that can challenge at the top end of this league and at the moment we are not that."
