Hayden Hackney celebrates after giving Middlesbrough the lead at The Hawthorns
Hayden Hackney scored the first away goal at The Hawthorns for almost six months to knock West Bromwich Albion off top spot in the Championship and lift Middlesbrough into the top six.
The 22-year-old midfielder’s sweet strike gave Boro a deserved victory after Baggies keeper Alex Palmer produced big saves to deny Emmanuel Latte Lath and Ben Doak.
Both sets of players and fans stopped in the 57th minute to remember 57-year-old West Brom fan Mark Townsend, who died at Saturday’s match at Sheffield Wednesday.
The home side could not break through a stern Boro defence, with the rusty Jed Wallace, making his first start of the season, spurning their two best chances.
Boro followed up their win over Stoke at the weekend by inflicting the Baggies’ second successive defeat, after they lost at Hillsborough.
On a night when the loss of one of their fans was uppermost in the mind of many in the stadium, there was concern for assistant referee Rob Smith, who needed medical treatment on the touchline and was ferried to hospital for tests after complaining of feeling unwell, just seven minutes into the game.
After the action was restarted with fourth official Jacob Miles picking up the flag, Boro had much the better of the first half.
The Baggies had not conceded at home since Sunderland beat them 1-0 on 13 April, but they had Palmer to thank for that as he parried a Finn Azaz shot and Riley McGree wastefully ballooned the rebound over the bar.
Palmer was the hero again as Luke Ayling slung in a cross from deep and Latte Lath escaped the defence to head for the bottom corner, only for the keeper to produce a fine save low to his left.
Azaz fired just wide as Doak caused the erstwhile league leaders plenty of problems down the right, and West Brom offered nothing until the last five minutes of the first half as Josh Maja twice teed up Wallace, who struck the first straight at Boro keeper Seny Dieng and then got his radar all wrong as he tried to curl in the second.
West Brom wanted a win to mark an emotional night but after a moment of applause for the late Baggies fan, it was Boro who pushed on.
Ayling headed into the side-netting, Palmer had to be sharp to deny the highly impressive Doak one-on-one and Latte Lath headed the resulting corner just wide.
The breakthrough came in the 73rd minute with a lovely move, Doak moving the ball sharply to McGree, who rolled it for Hackney to sweep majestically into the bottom corner.
West Brom roused themselves but Maja’s acrobatic attempt to divert a wicked Alex Mowatt cross into the net only succeeded in glancing it wide.
'It was a proper game' - reaction
West Brom manager Carlos Corberan told BBC Radio WM:
"It's not the result we wanted to achieve but I know we were playing against a good team, a team that wants to attack and forces you to defend very well.
"In a very equal game, they saw more quality in the last third, they were better using the opportunities they had. They scored one of them and Alex made two amazing saves, and in the big moments we had we didn't find a way to finish the attacks.
"It was a very tight game with not a lot of difference between the teams.
"Sometimes when you build the momentum we were building at the start of the season you create expectation. It's not real because when you have only played six or seven teams, you still have a lot of challenges in front of you."
Middlesbrough manager Michael Carrick told BBC Radio Tees:
"It’s a really tough place to come and we haven't had much success here for a couple of years, they're experienced in this league and well-coached and it was a proper game tonight.
"There were so many good things in the game, as well as the football, the technical and tactical side of things, it was the way we just dealt with it, controlled the game and showed a lot of maturity.
"We started the first 10 minutes really well and managed the last 10 minutes really well, and the lads coming off the bench did a fantastic job.
"Our thoughts go out to the assistant referee, hopefully he's alright - and the reports say he is - as it looked quite serious at the time."
