Barnsley 3-2 Middlesbrough: Amine Bassi double helps Tykes climb off bottom of table
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Amine Bassi joined Barnsley on loan from FC Metz during the January transfer window
Amine Bassi scored twice as Barnsley climbed off the bottom of the Championship for the first time since the start of the year with a home win over play-off hopefuls Middlesbrough.
Bassi provided the chip into the box for Mads Andersen to give Barnsley an early lead and then netted his first for the club from Carlton Morris' lay-off.
Fielding an unchanged team for the first time in 27 league games, the Tykes showed a self-belief belying their position in the table and Bassi shrugged off Anfernee Dijksteel's challenge to make it 3-0 after the break.
Andraz Sporar pulled one back from the spot after Isaiah Jones was fouled and Liam Kitching's own goal further reduced the deficit with seconds remaining. But despite seven successive home victories, Boro have now lost three of their last four games away from Teesside.
Having failed to win any of head coach Poya Asbaghi's first 13 matches in charge, Barnsley have now done so in three of their past four games to give themselves renewed hope of avoiding a drop into League One.
They made a flying start as unmarked centre-back Andersen headed his first league goal of the campaign. After Marcus Tavernier scuffed a shot at Brad Collins at the other end, Bassi found the corner with a low effort to double the lead.
Only one effort on target in the first 45 minutes prompted Boro boss Chris Wilder to send on strikers Folarin Balogun and Aaron Connolly, and the former was unlucky to see a left-foot effort cannon away off the post.
Bassi, though, capped his afternoon with a second through keeper Joe Lumley's legs before being replaced by Callum Brittain following Sporar's initial reply for the visitors.
Sporar went close to another as he glanced a header just wide from Caolan Boyd-Munce's ball into the box, and the luckless Balogun hit the post for the second time with a curling effort.
Dael Fry's cross went in off Kitching in the final minute of added time but there was no time to complete the comeback as Boro drop to eighth, two points outside the top six.
Barnsley move up two places to 22nd, six points behind Reading, who lost at Blackpool, ahead of next Saturday's crucial visit to relegation rivals Derby County, the team now immediately below them.
Barnsley head coach Poya Asbaghi told BBC Radio Sheffield:
"We knew we were up against a really good opponent, but with all the respect we had, we didn't want to show them too much at the start of the game.
"We'd talked about going out aggressive and really trying to take control of the game and I think we accomplished that.
"It was well deserved going into half-time with that lead and we wanted to go out in the second half and try to chase the third goal, which we did.
"After that, Middlesbrough were the better team but it didn't surprise me that a team with the qualities they have would create chances when they are desperate, which they were at 3-0 down."
Middlesbrough boss Chris Wilder told BBC Tees:
"The attitude of the team was ok - they were just really poor goals. We were away from home against a team fighting for their lives and we can't concede really poor goals, and we did.
"It's not that they carved us open, they've not done anything that's spectacular, the back three were far too deep and they weren't aggressive enough.
"We talk about the way we play, it's possession based, but the game isn't always about what you do in possession, it's about the other part of it.
"Goals are going in too easy and we have to sort that out, we have to shut the back door before we try and open the front door."