Middlesbrough moved to within a point of league leaders Brighton & Hove Albion thanks to a 3-0 victory over Leeds United at The Riverside Stadium this afternoon.
Yesterday, Chris Hughton's Seagulls were held to a 2-2 draw away at Bolton Wanderers and Boro took full advantage in front of a 27,694 crowd on Teeside, with first-half goals from David Nugent and Leeds defender Giuseppe Bellusci, who put the ball into his own net, and a late strike courtesy of substitute Diego Fabbrini sealing the three points.
Boro had not won any of their previous four meetings with Leeds, but there were only 122 seconds on the clock when Nugent capitalised on some slack Leeds defending to put his side in command.
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Boro's Uruguayan attacker Christian Stuani worked his way to the right byline, from where he sent over a cross. There were a number of visiting defenders inside the area, but the ball dropped for Nugent and having taken one touch, the former England international sent his third goal in four outings bouncing into the roof of the net.
As the half progressed it was Leeds that carved out the better of the chances, but neither Mirco Antenucci nor Tom Adeyemi were able to force anything other than routine saves from Dimitrios Konstantopoulos in the home goal.
Luck then also deserted the visitors up the other end when in the 31st minute they fell further behind. There did not appear to be much danger when George Friend crossed from the left, only for Bellusci to divert the ball beyond his own goalkeeper Marco Silvestri.
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It meant that Boro took a two-goal lead into the break, but 10 minutes after the restart came the game's decisive moment. Antenucci thought that he had halved the deficit when his effort from close range was initially awarded, but following consultation between referee Neil Swarbrick and his assistant, the goal was chalked off.
It sparked a period of domination by Uwe Rosler's visitors, but they were unable to capitalise and eventually fell three goals behind nine minutes from time.
Leeds captain Sol Bamba was the guilty party as he was robbed by Fabbrini, who rounded Silvestri to fire a rising shot into the net, thus securing a seventh successive win in all competitions for the pre-season promotion favourites.
Liam Apicella
