Middlesbrough 0 Birmingham City 1: Boro’s slide continues as Mowbray bemoans lack of cutting edge

Boro missed some good chances and were caught cold by a late Birmingham strike from Nikola Zigic at the Riverside.

It was a third successive defeat and sixth in eight matches in the Championship and, although they remain ninth, Boro are five points adrift of the top six with just eight games left.

“We are making it difficult for ourselves,” said Mowbray. “We understand we need to win games to give ourselves a chance and that now we have one less game to do that.

“But it was a fine-margin game. It could have gone either way but, unfortunately, it is another one that fell the wrong side of the line for us.

“We asked questions of them and had our chances to score but we never took them. We have maybe missed a few chances to kill games off in recent weeks but that is where we are as a team.”

Birmingham were denied on 15 minutes as a back-header by defender Andre Bikey played Wes Thomas through but Jason Steele was quickly off his line to block.

Boro had the ball in the net after 35 minutes but the flag went up when Scott McDonald stabbed in a rebound.

After a bright start to the second half and a siege of corners, Boro had a golden chance as Lukas Jutkiewicz glanced on a cross by Justin Hoyte for McDonald but his shot on the turn was saved.

The winner came when Faris Haroun was robbed on the right and Keith Fahey raced down the flank before firing in a low ball to the near post where Zigic bundled it home.

Middlesbrough: Steele, Hoyte (McEachran 86), Bikey, Friend, Woodgate, Leadbitter, Ameobi (Carayol 77), Reach, Haroun, McDonald, Jutkiewicz (Miller 65). Unused substitutes: Leutwiler, Rhys Williams, Halliday, Main.

Birmingham City: Butland, Caddis, Davies, Robinson, Ferguson (Caldwell 83), Morrison, Elliott, Spector (Fahey 4), Redmond, Zigic, Thomas (Mullins 88). Unused substitutes: Doyle, Burke, Ambrose, Reilly.

Referee: D Coote (Nottinghamshire).

Man of the match: Nikola Zigic.