Middlesbrough 0 Leeds United 1 - Battling Boro fail to halt United’s promotion push

With the business end of the season starting to convene, it was the sort of fixture against a bruised Middlesbrough side for whom the spectre of relegation is increasingly real that any automatic promotion seeking side like Leeds United needs to tick off with a win.

As is their wont, Leeds showed their propensity to fail to make life easier for themselves by spurning a plethora of opportunities – but a third successive clean sheet and 1-0 victory is also the mark of a side destined to be celebrating come May.

Boro took on board beleaguered head coach Jonathan Woodgate’s missive to ‘fight for their lives’ on the back of a grim eight-match winless league run, yet there was a chasm in class between these sides, with a fair chance that they may be two divisions apart come August.

The scoreline was by no means as emphatic as Leeds’s 4-0 drubbing of the Teessiders in November, but there was no doubting their dominance if not on the scoresheet with Mateusz Klich’s third goal of the season against Boro reinforcing the fact that Marcelo Bielsa’s side look to be over their winter wobble.

For Boro, salt was applied by virtue of victories for Wigan and Barnsley and they now reside out of the bottom three on goal difference only.

It was a first half in which Boro did their level best to get back onside with supporters by emptying the tank in terms of energy and work-rate – with their application far removed from their passive efforts in games which had more ramifications for them against three immediate rivals in Barnsley, Luton and Wigan. It represented a minimum requirement.

With the likes of the unflagging Hayden Coulson and Leeds-born Marcus Tavernier setting the tone, it spooked Leeds initially.

But all the while, the lingering impression was that Leeds’s quality would shine through and so it proved.

A combination of alert goalkeeping from Aynsley Pears, some examples of habitual poor finishing and one touch of bad luck thwarted Leeds before Klich restored the hegemony moments before the interval.

Boro were stretched, not for the first time, and the Pole netted with a deadly low finish after a smart interchange with Pablo Hernandez, who had shuddered the post moments earlier. It was a goal that had been coming with the hosts, despite their spirit and heart, eventually worn down.

Shortly before Klich’s strike, well-stationed keeper Pears had thwarted Jack Harrison and ex-Boro forward Patrick Bamford, who was also guilty of a poor early miss. His body language was telling after he weakly headed straight at Pears following Luke Ayling’s pinpoint cross, with the Boro keeper also denying a wasteful Stuart Dallas after Boro were opened up.

Blushes were eventually spared, while at the other end, Boro posed a few dramas of their own for Leeds, but lacked the polish to match their work-rate, with their best moment seeing Lewis Wing drag a shot wide.

After a bumpy start, the game seemed well in Leeds’s grasp.

The first second-half development came at the other end, with Boro finally, finally mustering their first effort on target in comfortably over two and a half matches, with Kiko Casilla kept honest to make a timely tip-over to keep out a pinpoint long-ranger from George Saville.

Leeds took the hint and normal service was resumed when Pears continued his strong night to block Hernandez’s swerving strike before referee Gavin Ward was unmoved after former Boro loanee Harrison went down under pressure from Clayton, also afforded the benefit of the doubt in the first half after not being punished after challenging Costa.

With Boro forced to push forward as the game wore on, the potential for Leeds to pick off their struggling hosts was rich, more especially given the energy that the hosts had expended.

That said, a scare for Leeds did arrive when a lovely curler from Tavernier – out of sync with their low quality levels in the final third – clipped the woodwork.

The luck that failed to befriend Boro there then arrived in their own box with Ryan Shotton getting in the way of a pull-back from Ayling with his block deflecting off Bamford and into the grateful arms of Pears. Boro persisted and Casilla held Tavernier’s effort, but it was the final source of alarm for the visitors.

Middlesbrough: Pears; Howson, Moukodi, Shotton, Friend (Johnson 63), Coulson; Saville (Nmecha 67), Clayton, Wing; Tavernier, Fletcher (Assombalonga 72). Substitutes unused: Mejias, McNair, Spence.

Leeds United: Casilla; Ayling, Cooper, Berardi, Dallas; White; Costa, Hernandez (Shackleton 73), Klich, Harrison; Bamford. Substitutes unused: Meslier, Douglas, Alioski, T Roberts, Stevens, Casey.

Referee: G Ward (Surrey).