Bristol City 2 Middlesbrough 0: Adomah’s stunning effort helps undermine sorry Boro

The Ghanian found the top corner from 18 yards before Steven Davies added a second shortly after the break as City continued their unbeaten run at Ashton Gate since former Doncaster manager Sean O’Driscoll took charge.

Boro, without a win on their travels since early December, struggled to create chances throughout and slipped further behind the play-off places.

O’Driscoll was forced into two changes with Davies and Neil Kilkenny coming into the side and the latter was involved in the first chance. Marvin Elliott teed up the midfielder but Boro goalkeeper Jason Steele kept out his curling effort from distance.

The visitors were next to try their luck with a long range shot but Tom Heaton was not troubled by Marvin Emnes’s ambitious drilled effort.

Since returning from the African Nations Cup, Adomah’s opportunities had been limited to late cameos, but after Jon Stead picked up a knock the Ghana international entered the fray.

Fellow attacker Davies was involved in the next chances, hitting the wall with a 25-yard free-kick and a minute later his effort was comfortably saved by Steele.

They did find a way past the Boro goalkeeper just after the half hour mark. Kilkenny’s raking 40-yard pass found Adomah and after taking on George Friend he cut inside and curled the ball into the top corner via the inside of the post for his fifth goal of the season.

Tony Mowbray’s men did carve out a chance before the break but Mustapha Carayol fired over the bar then Elliott headed over at the other end.

Seven minutes into the second half Davies was slipped in by Pearson after a quickly taken free-kick and he lashed the ball home.

Mowbray responded almost instantly, introducing Curtis Main for Emnes as Boro’s hopes of a first away win of 2013 continued to fade.

Main took just three minutes to threaten, but his right-footed shot was blocked by Kilkenny.

At the other end the City supporters were furious that they were not awarded a penalty when they felt Davies’s shot hit Rhys Williams’s hand inside the box.

Adomah was continuing to shine for City and he carved out a 74th-minute chance for Elliott, but the midfielder drilled a first-time effort wide. A minute later only the fingertips of Steele denied Davies his second goal of the afternoon after he went one-on-one with the goalkeeper.

Steele continued to be in the thick of the action, denying Adomah as the winger looked to race around him as Boro failed to pick up three points on the road yet again.

Bristol City: Heaton, Moloney, Nyatanga, Fontaine, Cunningham, Kelly, Kilkenny, Elliott, Pearson, Stead (Adomah 17), Davies (Baldock 80), Adomah (Howard 89). Unused substitutes: Gerken, James Wilson, Anderson, Bates.

Middlesbrough: Steele, Bailey (Ledesma 75), Woodgate, McManus, Friend (Halliday 46), Carayol, Smallwood, Rhys Williams, Dyer, Emnes (Main 54), McDonald. Unused substitutes: Leutwiler, Hines, Reach, Miller.

Referee: Graham Scott (Oxfordshire).

Man of the match: Albert Adomah.