Bristol City 2-1 Middlesbrough: Antoine Semenyo stars as Robins beat Boro
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Weimann celebrated his 16th goal of the season after being set up by Semenyo
Bristol City secured a fourth consecutive home victory with a 2-1 win over promotion-chasing Middlesbrough on a memorable day at Ashton Gate.
The Robins took seven minutes to take the lead, after Antoine Semenyo found Andreas Weimann in space to slot the ball in.
Middlesbrough failed to record a shot on target until the second-half when Marcus Tavernier, Aaron Connolly and Folarin Balogun all saw chances go begging.
Semenyo doubled City's lead with 20 minutes to go and - while a late goal from Matt Crooks set up a nervous finale - it was too little too late for Middlesbrough, who fell out of the top six after Sheffield United's win.
It was an emotional day for Bristol City, who marked the 40th anniversary of the 'Ashton Gate 8' prior to kick off - the eight players who tore up their contracts in February 1982 to save the club from financial ruin. Six of the eight were in attendance and applauded on the pitch in tribute.
Nigel Pearson promised to ring the changes after watching his side throw away another lead against Swansea a week ago, and did so, handing teenager Sam Bell a first league start.
His gamble paid off as Bell was involved in the opening goal, passing to Semenyo, who cut back to Weimann for his 16th goal of the season with City's first attack of the match.
Neither side could quite get into a flow during the first half though, as quality in the final third was missing. Aaron Connolly almost capitalised on a poor backpass from Han-Noah Massengo, but could only find the side netting as Bristol City were given a let-off.
Boro piled on the pressure before the break and the momentum stayed with the visitors as Dan Bentley palmed away a Tavernier strike, before diving low to deny Balogun, as Connolly then headed over the bar.
Still, City almost made it 2-0 when Bell whipped in a cross that Weimann should have headed in.
Semenyo then secured the crucial second goal with his sixth of the season, striking a half-volley into the corner past Joe Lumley's outstretched arm.
Bristol City haven not kept a clean sheet so far in 2022 and have dropped points repeatedly through conceding late. With 30 seconds left of normal time, Crooks scored from a corner to halve Boro's deficit.
A tense three minutes of stoppage time followed, but the Robins held on for a significant victory to continue a good run of home form this calendar year.
Bristol City manager Nigel Pearson told BBC Radio Bristol:
"It was a fighting performance and it was a bit of rearguard action at times because Boro played well, had a lot of possession, and we had to be really committed today.
"In terms of the occasion, with hosting either the lads or the families of the lads of the Ashton Gate eight, it's something I think we as a club owe to them and we as a community need to recognise their contribution.
"Boro are a good side, they had quite a bit of possession. Tactically it was quite an interesting game but I thought our players dealt with - apart from conceding the goal - the situation very, very well. We needed a response after last week because we threw away points last week as we have done on a few occasions."
Middlesbrough manager Chris Wilder told BBC Radio Tees:
"The game was a strange game from our point of view. I didn't feel we started the game very, very well; misplaced passes, slow out the blocks, poor goal to concede, avoidable goal to concede.
"And then from then on really from 15 to 20 minutes, it was us forcing the issue without finding that quality in the final third from everybody.
"We had enough play, we had enough possession, shape of the team was good, we got into some great positions, we should definitely be going in at half-time level.
"Started off on the front foot second half, dominated the game, dominated the flow of the game, dictated the pace of the game, should have got ourselves back in the game earlier than what we did and then we go 2-0 down from another avoidable situation."