Middlesbrough 2 Wolves 1: Aitor Karanka 'very pleased' with Boro position
Wednesday 15 April 2015 19:32, UK
Aitor Karanka insists he is "very pleased" with Middlesbrough's league position heading into the last three games of the Sky Bet Championship season after beating Wolves 2-1.
Despite a nail-biting but entertaining 2-1 win over Wolves at the Riverside, other results again went against the Teessiders, who are third in the Sky Bet Championship.
Bournemouth are top after beating Reading at the Madejski and second-placed Norwich were victorious in Leeds.
"We'll see where we are in two weeks," said Karanka.
"But today we're on 81 points, so we're very happy with that. I'm very pleased with that.
"We're third with three games to go and this was the aim at the beginning of the season."
Belgian striker Jelle Vossen gave Boro the lead in the third minute, side-footing Patrick Bamford's lay-off past Carl Ikeme.
And Bamford bagged his 17th league goal of the season eight minutes later, volleying in to become Boro's highest-scoring league player since Fabrizio Ravanelli 18 years ago.
Wolves pulled a goal back through Bakary Sako in the second half and pressured Boro for an equaliser, with Rajiv van La Parra hitting the bar.
Karanka added: "The first half was amazing, we played very well. But in the second half they showed they're a strong team.
"From the first second they showed they wanted to win the game, and the last minutes under pressure they were brilliant.
"Now we have to rest and to learn from the last three or four games, and get ready for Friday night.
"We have to learn from the last two away games at Watford and Bournemouth and we need to prepare well.
"We made mistakes and we can't make these mistakes if we want to be a Premier League team."
Wolves refused to lie down after the two goals and arguably deserved something from the game.
But boss Kenny Jackett admitted: "We played against a ruthless Middlesbrough side, in both boxes.
"Again defensively we need to improve. Middlesbrough are very good, they have the best defensive record in the league, but we're disappointed with the goals against.
"There was an early period when we had some good possession up and around the halfway line, and from there we needed to pass it quicker, but we'll learn from these things and we'll keep improving.
"We were disappointed with the start we made, but after that we showed a lot of character and spirit and it could have gone one of two ways.
"We fought back and all the way to the end, but it was Boro's night.
"But that fighting spirit and that effort is something we have to continue with and that we need in the last three games."
The Championship promotion and play-off contests looks set to go down to the wire, with Jackett adding: "It's an exciting race and the games are of a high quality."
