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Match Report: Birmingham City 1 Boro 3
Matt Crooks at the double in Birmingham success...
www.mfc.co.uk
A Matt Crooks brace and an assist helped secure a festive hat-trick for Michael Carrick’s men as Boro maintrained their fine run of form at Birmingham City.
Crooks struck twice in the space of three second half minutes before creating another for Chuba Akpom to secure another impressive victory.Carrick named another unchanged side as Boro looked to make three out of three over Christmas. Once again, there was a strong away support with a sell-out 1900 packing the away section.
And it was those travelling supporters who saw the first chance of the game when Ryan Giles squared for Riley McGree, but an offside flag was raised after John Ruddy saved his shot.
The Giles/Chuba Akpom combination were soon in full swing and the latter had a header deflected just wide after he met an excellent cross.
Boro were playing some excellent passing football and after Marcus Forss did well to as win corner, McGree flicked on and Darragh Lenihan was denied.
McGree also headed into the arms of Ruddy after Forss supplied a great ball into the box. The pairing linked up again moments later, but this time the finish was deflected high into the arms of the Blues goalkeeper.
It wasn’t until the 41st minute that the home side had a chance and that came when an opportunist first-time strike from Lukas Jutkiewcz flew inches over Zack Steffen’s bar.
Another Forss cross caused problems when Matt Crooks was denied by the leg of a Birmingham defender.
The home side themselves had a great chance moments later when Krystian Bielik had a free header and failed to hit the target.
The breakthrough came 12 minutes into the second period when Jonny Howson delivered a ball into the box and Crooks headed powerfully beyond Ruddy to give Boro the lead.
That lead was doubled within two minutes. Boro legend George Friend lost possession facing his own goal and Crooks ran on before delivering a high-quality finish to make it 2-0.
Crooks flicked another shot straight at Ruddy and after Forss had whipped a ball into the box, Hayden Hackney warmed the Birmingham goalkeeper’s hands with a shot from 15 yards out.
But with 17 minutes remaining, the home side set up a tense finale when Tahith Chong headed home from close range.
That fired up the otherwise docile home fans and gave the hosts an impetus they hadn’t had all game.
Boro made a couple of great defensive blocks before Crooks made the most of Birmingham’s lack of numbers at the back to create a great chance for Akpom to bag Boro’s third of the afternoon.
Cue mass delirium once again among the travelling support once again.
Birmingham: Ruddy, Trusty, Colin, Marc Roberts (Friend 35'), Graham (Longelo 65'), Bielik, Juninho Bacuna (Bellingham 65'), James (Deeney 65'), Chong, Mejbri (Leko 65'), Jutkiewicz
Subs: Longelo, Bellingham, Chang, Friend, Deeney, Etheridge, Leko
Middlesbrough: Steffen, Lenihan, Fry, Giles, Smith, Forss (Jones 83'), McGree (Bola 83'), Hackney, Howson, Akpom (McNair 89'), Crooks
Subs: McNair, Rodrigo Muniz, Jones, Mowatt, Watmore, Roberts, Bola
UTMB
