Aitor Karanka insists he is “very pleased” with Middlesbrough’s league position heading into the last three games of the Championship season.
His side endured an entertaining but nervy 2-1 win over Wolverhampton Wanderers at the Riverside, as other results solidified the position of the top six in the Championship on Tuesday.
That was good news for winners Derby County and Ipswich Town, in fifth and sixth and fighting off Wolves and Brentford for the last two play-off places. It was great news for Bournemouth, still top after beating Reading and second-placed Norwich City who were victorious in Leeds.
Less so for Middlesbrough, who sit one point behind Norwich and two behind Bournemouth for one of the automatic promotion places to the Premier League.
“We’ll see where we are in two weeks,” Karanka said.
“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 eight minutes later, volleying in to become Middlesbrough’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 Middlesbrough 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.”
Derby manager Steve McClaren, meanwhile, followed the 4-0 crushing of relegated Blackpool with a call for two wins from their last three games to secure a play-off place and yield “the necessary momentum” to put last season’s Wembley disappointment behind them.
Derby, who lost 1-0 to QPR in last season’s Championship play-off final, swept Blackpool aside and McClaren was beaming as he claimed: “That was the real Derby back again.
“The Derby that played against Brentford last weekend was not us. That wasn’t our way. We got a point but we had a real off day. This was the genuine article.
“We kept a clean sheet, we worked, we passed and moved, we played at a good tempo and we got our reward.”
McClaren reserved special praise for striker Darren Bent, whose double against Blackpool made it 12 goals in 15 games, and said: “Thank heaven we managed to get him on loan from Villa in January. He’s been phenomenal for us.”
Ipswich manager Mick McCarthy said: “We might not be the best team but we are as tough as anyone and a real threat.” They moved three points clear of seventh-placed Brentford and eighth-placed Wolves for the final play-offs position with a 3-1 win over Cardiff City. Ipswich and Wolves face off in a crucial test on Saturday.
“After seeing the results, we are delighted but we go to Wolves on Saturday. I know someone will get a slap in the last game of the season.”
Summing up the results on the other side of the coin was Brentford manager Mark Warburton, who expressed his disappointment at losing 1-0 to Sheffield Wednesday, especially as his side had created enough chances to get a draw. He maintains, though, that the play-offs push is still on.
He said: “You saw it on Saturday, where we couldn’t get a second goal despite a very good performance at Derby and again I thought we had good chances either side of half time and goals change games, it’s very simple.
“There’s no use complaining about it. You want to come and get three points but there are a lot of twists and turns still to go. We are capable of getting 80 points, which is a very very strong total. In other years I think 72 has been the average and the highest in the last five years has been 75 I think.
“You saw the results tonight with Derby and Ipswich winning and Wolves losing so there will be more twists and turns. Wolves play Ipswich on Saturday and that’s just the nature of the division.”
Norwich, relegated from the Premier League last season, continued to work their way back up against Leeds United, as former Leeds captain Jonny Howson set them on their way with a well-taken 58th-minute opener, and Graham Dorrans atoning for his first-half penalty miss with a late clincher.
“It was a tough match and at times I felt we needed to move the ball quicker, but then the first goal was the crucial point in the match,” said manager Alex Neil.
“I wasn’t happy with some things in the first half but in the second, after the goal, especially, we were the better side and we deserved to win.”
At the other end of the table, Millwall grabbed at a possible relegation lifeline by beating Wigan Athletic 2-0 in a dramatic win-or-bust encounter.
Goals from Jimmy Abdou and Magaye Gueye settled a bad-tempered clash which looks certain to spell the end of Wigan’s stay in the Championship.
Both sides learned on Monday that Rotherham United, the team directly above them just outside the drop zone, could face a three-point penalty for fielding an ineligible player.
And it was Millwall who came out on top to cut the deficit on Rotherham, who travel to Fulham on Wednesday night, to four points.
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