Brighton 0 Middlesbrough 2: Boro keep it clean to delight coach Karanka

Second-half goals from Albert Adomah and Danny Graham extended the losing streak for Oscar Garcia’s men, who missed a penalty when trailing 1-0, and left them four points adrift of a play-off spot.

Leonardo Ulloa’s badly hit spot-kick sailed over the bar into the home fans to cap a miserable day for the hosts, who have won only one of their last six home games in all competitions.

Karanka, however, said: “It’s my first season in English football and I’m very happy because everything is new to me.

“The potential is such that we have to work together to do the best. We have a good attitude and will be working to improve the squad in time. We have played a lot of games in recent times and played well, but haven’t won.

“We created some good chances in the first half and didn’t let Brighton play.

“We are playing in a very high tempo and deserved a slice of luck when Brighton missed their penalty.”

This was Boro’s 12th clean sheet in their last 19 games and Karanka felt his men were fully deserving of their first win in seven away games.

He said: “I am very happy that we won, playing against a very good team. We had a lot of the ball and we knew we needed to go for the game.”

Brighton & HA: Kuszczak, Saltor, Greer, Upson, Ward, Ince (March 73), Andrews, Lopez (LuaLua 59), Buckley (Forster-Caskey 33), Ulloa, Lingard. Unused substitutes: Dunk, David Rodriguez, Calderon, Ankergren.

Middlesbrough: Konstantopoulos, Varga, Omeruo (Chalobah 79), Gibson, Friend, Luke Williams, Leadbitter, Whitehead, Adomah (Ledesma 87), Tomlin (Butterfield 60), Graham. Unused substitutes: Morris, Steele, Kamara, Atkinson.

Referee: G Scott (Oxfordshire).

Man of the match: Rhys Williams.