Chris Wilder was a relieved man after watching Middlesbrough grind out a 1-0 derby victory at residence towards Sunderland. Riley McGree’s first-half winner proved sufficient to carry Boro out of the relegation zone.
McGree struck within the twenty fifth minute, controlling Ryan Giles’ low cross earlier than firing previous Sunderland keeper Anthony Patterson. Boro had begun the match on the entrance foot, with Patterson clawing away Jonny Howson’s free-kick at his close to put up and McGree sending the rebound over the bar moments earlier than scoring.
Sunderland struggled to create clear openings within the absence of Ross Stewart, who was injured within the warmup. Boro regarded the extra prone to rating within the second half, with Patterson saving from Rodrigo Muniz and Duncan Watmore. Ultimately, McGree’s strike was sufficient to earn Boro their second league win of the season.
“One of many issues I fairly like and I exploit to the gamers – there’s no image on a golf scorecard,” Wilder mentioned afterwards. “I’m unsure that they actually grasp what I’m saying, perhaps the clever ones in our group, which clearly isn’t many – however I say it to the unintelligent ones, which we’ve acquired fairly a couple of of.”
“It was a extremely aggressive sport, probabilities at each ends,” the supervisor added. “The 2 aims for us tonight have been a clear sheet, and that offers you a chance of getting a win. We acquired that clear sheet. Nonetheless we did it, we simply wanted to do it.”
The brand new Sunderland head coach, Tony Mowbray, admitted that Stewart’s late withdrawal threw his pre-game plans into disarray. “We needed to attempt to readjust all the things we’d labored on for 2 or three days in a two-minute chat,” the previous Middlesbrough supervisor mentioned.
“You’re asking the lads to virtually overlook about all of the stuff we’d simply performed for 2 days and go and play a unique sport,” Mowbray added after his facet missed the possibility to climb again into the highest six. “That’s not meant to be an excuse, it’s simply the truth of it, dropping your talisman who’s scoring the targets and looking out an actual risk each sport.”
Mowbray, who additionally misplaced the defender Dennis Cirkin to a second-half hamstring damage, concluded: “It was a good sport. I assumed we most likely did sufficient to not lose it, and but we did.”
