Middlesbrough 4 Shrewsbury Town 3 – Ashley Fletcher’s double sees Boro safely through

Middlesbrough claimed their first home win since Boxing Day as they edged a seven-goal thriller with Shrewsbury 4-3 in the first round of the Carabao Cup.
Middlesbrough's Marvin Johnson celebrates scoring his side's opening goal against Shrewsbury Town.Middlesbrough's Marvin Johnson celebrates scoring his side's opening goal against Shrewsbury Town.
Middlesbrough's Marvin Johnson celebrates scoring his side's opening goal against Shrewsbury Town.

Ashley Fletcher scored twice, with Marvin Johnson and Marcus Tavernier also finding the net as Boro made a winning start to the new season.

However, Shrewsbury more than played their part in an entertaining affair, with goals from Scott High, Jason Cummings and Rekeil Pyke ensuring the home side were never able to relax.

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Shrewsbury’s last competitive outing was back in early March, but the Sky Bet League One side showed little sign of ring rust as they claimed an early lead, High smashing a superb 25-yard finish past Dejan Stojanovic.

FResh faces: Boro boss Neil Warnock wants to add a couple of strikers to his squad.FResh faces: Boro boss Neil Warnock wants to add a couple of strikers to his squad.
FResh faces: Boro boss Neil Warnock wants to add a couple of strikers to his squad.

Boro restored parity midway through the first half thanks to a horrendous goalkeeping error from Harry Burgoyne, who fumbled Johnson’s volley from Lewis Wing’s cross.

Ten minutes later and the home side were ahead, with Johnson’s cross converted by Fletcher.

The hosts were indebted to Burgoyne, with the Shrews keeper making his second bad error shortly before the hour mark to enable Middlesbrough to extend their lead.

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This time Burgoyne scuffed a dreadful attempt at a clearance to Tavernier, and when Wing fired a 40-yard effort against the post, Fletcher, who was following in, bundled home the rebound.

Cummings pulled a goal back, but Boro restored their two-goal lead, Tavernier picking up a loose ball following a free-kick and drilling in a fierce finish that beat Burgoyne via a hefty deflection.

However, Shrewsbury were still not beaten and the visitors made it 4-3 as Pyke beat the offside trap to slot home.

Neil Warnock was delighted to see his Middlesbrough side hit their goalscoring stride in the opening game of the season - but the Boro boss still wants to sign another couple of forwards before the transfer window closes despite impressive performances from Fletcher and strike partner Britt Assombalonga.

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Middlesbrough scored four goals in a game for the first time since January 2019 as they edged a seven-goal thriller with Shrewsbury.

Warnock said: “We’ve got to score more goals. I hate the thought of being the lowest scorers in the league - I like excitement, and I like crosses and shots and headers. We could even have had one or two more tonight, but scoring four is very, very good at such an early stage of the season.

“The strikers have really put a shift in. Ashley deserved his two goals and I thought he was the pick of the crop, but they share it out. Britt did a lot of work and together they look good. But we are looking at other players to come in to help out because they can’t do that week in, week out.”

Similarly, Boro will not be able to defend as they did when they come up against Sky Bet Championship opposition, but Warnock did not want to be too critical of his side given that he had openly admitted he was treating the Carabao Cup match as his side’s final pre-season game.

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He said: “It was certainly open. I said to the lads it was the end of pre-season today. I’m not going to tell them off. I wanted them to get as much running in as they could, and we didn’t really work on shutting this down or shutting that down.

“We just said, ‘Let’s have a go’, and as has been the case in pre-season, we played some good stuff. Discipline wise, I don’t think we can play like that next week against Watford, they’ll get double figures. But we’ll be more disciplined next week.”