Middlesbrough 2-1 Luton Town: Boro into top six by beating Hatters
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Paddy McNair puts Middlesbrough ahead from the penalty spot
Middlesbrough finished off a dream week with a promotion-push-boosting win over fellow play-off challengers Luton Town at the Riverside.
Having dispatched Premier League side Tottenham Hotspur in the FA Cup in midweek, goals from Paddy McNair and Duncan Watmore secured three points to move them into the Championship top six.
Luton contributed much to an absorbing contest, but they found themselves a goal down just before the break when Folarin Balogun was brought down by Reece Burke and McNair scored from the spot.
Boro goalkeeper Joe Lumley made some key saves to maintain that lead, notably diving at the feet of Elijah Adebayo and turning away Cameron Jerome's header.
Watmore put the result beyond doubt for the Teessiders late on, hammering past Alex Palmer at the second attempt after the emergency West Brom loanee had denied his initial effort.
Harry Cornick pulled one back in the sixth minute of added time, his 10th of the campaign, but time was against the Hatters - who drop to eighth in the table, just a point behind Boro.
Chris Wilder's arrival at the Riverside has coincided with a remarkable upturn in form, built on their home dominance.
His former side Sheffield United - who are one point and one place below them - lie in wait at Bramall Lane in midweek, but this was Middlesbrough's ninth home win in a row in all competitions, with Bournemouth and Nottingham Forest among the teams to have been overcome on the banks of the Tees.
The victory was made even more impressive because Luton arrived in the north east on a run of five league wins from six.
Nathan Jones' s remain part of the play-off picture ahead of Tuesday's game against 11th-placed Coventry - with just seven points covering the teams from fourth to 12th.
Middlesbrough boss Chris Wilder told BBC Tees:
"It's a huge result for us. I recognise that, without being clever I thought that's how it would pan out and the feel of it.
"They're a tough team to play. They ask questions of your back three and back five. You've seen with the team selection they put out that you knew it was coming.
"We had to match that up and we did, not always can you play in the way that you want to play, not always can you play free-flowing football we've become accustomed to.
"But, you have a different way to win a game of football and I thought the players showed enormous qualities in that, there were a lot of tired legs in there after Tuesday night, but we had to grind out a result by hook or by crook, and we have done."
Luton boss Nathan Jones told BBC Three Counties Radio:
"We got overrun a bit first half. We weren't us first half and we didn't respond.
"Second half we did. we came out of the traps and we were better. We had enough chances to get back into the game but we didn't.
"Then we defend poorly for the one half-opportunity that they got and we concede, so it's really frustrating."