Middlesbrough 0-2 Stoke City: Boro run ended by resurgent Potters

Michael Carrick's Middlesbrough had won six on the bounce until they faced Stoke

Middlesbrough's surge up the table was brought to an abrupt halt by Alex Neil's resurgent Stoke.

Michael Carrick's side had won six on the trot to rise into the promotion reckoning, but first- half goals from Michael Rose and Mehdi Leris silenced the home fans at the Riverside Stadium.

The win made it a hat-trick of Stoke victories against promotion hopefuls in a week, after they saw off Leeds last weekend and Sunderland on Wednesday.

Injury-hit Boro failed to hit the form that had taken them up to ninth place, and Stoke took full advantage to continue their own journey from the fringes of the relegation zone to 11th spot within sight of the top six.

The omens seemed to be in the favour of the Teessiders following their remarkable run, after a dreadful start had seen them bottom of the table when they lost five of their opening seven matches.

A run of injuries took its toll, with influential midfielder Hayden Hackney the latest to be missing from the squad, and they ran into a Stoke side that has found its belief and started to gel.

Just as they did against Sunderland and Leeds, the visitors began on the front foot despite making five changes, with Dwight Gayle leading the line well, and they went ahead after just eight minutes when Rose lost marker Matt Crooks to meet Sead Haksabanovic's corner and squeeze it past Seny Dieng's attempted save.

Leris almost doubled the lead before Josh Coburn span in the area to fire in Boro's first effort of note with the shot deflecting over the bar.

Stoke, solid in defence and enterprising on the counter attack, did score again eight minutes before half-time as Jordan Thompson, on as a sub after Ben Pearson was taken off injured, drifted past two Boro players and freed Daniel Johnson. He fed Leris, who swept the ball home in style.

Josh Coburn hit the bar, Isaiah Jones was close to finishing a Morgan Rogers cross, and Stoke keeper Jack Bonham - called up this week when loan signing Mark Travers was recalled by Bournemouth - turned a Rogers shot round the post.

Stoke were not to be denied their first hat-trick of league wins for nearly two years, although one dark cloud was a fifth booking of the season for Thompson, which means he misses next week's game against Cardiff through suspension.

Middlesbrough manager Michael Carrick told BBC Radio Tees:

"Sometimes you've just got to accept it. We didn't have the level that we've become used to, which just shows how well the boys have done over a period of time.

"We'll look at it and learn from it but we need to do things better, of course we do. We came up against a good team, well-organised and dangerous, and just didn't have that spark, that high level that we normally have.

"It's a tough league so I'm not going to be too hard on the players. The effort, application and attitude were there, it just didn't go for us today and we probably had too many boys just below the level."

Stoke manager Alex Neil told BBC Radio Stoke:

"It's just topped our week off. I was really confident in taking some of the lads out, because I believe it was the right thing to do. The Championship will be decided by how good your squad is, not by how good an 11 is.

"It was so important that the lads who came into the team showed we have strong players in our whole squad, so massive credit to all the lads who were on the pitch.

"I understand that when I make changes and it doesn't work, that I will get slaughtered, and I'm sure there have been a lot of people slaughtering me before the game, and are maybe eating a wee bit of humble pie tonight."

On returning goalkeeper Jack Bonham:

"We're gutted that Travs [Mark Travers] went back [to Bournemouth] but there's nothing we can do about it.

"Jack performed extremely well, and that's the second clean sheet on the bounce against two really good sides."