Middlesbrough’s Uruguay international Gaston Ramirez scored against his former club Hull City to secure his present team a crucial 1-0 win in their English Premier League clash on Monday.
The victory saw Middlesbrough — winning at home for only the second time this season — move four points clear of the relegation zone, while Hull remain mired in the bottom three after their fifth successive away defeat.
Middlesbrough manager Aitor Karanka was delighted with the manner in which his players played for each other, but admitted they would need many more such performances to assure themselves of a second season in the top tier.
Photo: Reuters
“We have 15 points, we must keep going and working together,” Karanka said.
“We have to fight with the teams in the relegation positions because we are a newly promoted team. We have done nothing yet,” the 43-year-old Spaniard added.
His Hull counterpart, Mike Phelan, said his resources might be thin on the ground both financially and in terms of personnel, but it was up to the players to produce something on the pitch.
“We tried to drag something out of it, but it was really, really disappointing,” Phelan said. “We gave away a ridiculous goal from a set-piece, we all have jobs to do and we didn’t concentrate.”
“We are short on the ground, we have added a couple, but we are where we are because of the beginning of the season. We have to keep our heads above water,” the 54-year-old Englishman added.
Middlesbrough ran the game in the first half, largely thanks to Ramirez, who had a spell on loan at Hull, with the visitors desperately short of ideas or ambition.
However, the hosts — who had garnered just four points from their previous six home matches — could not convert pressure and possession into goals.
Viktor Fischer — preferred to impressive 19-year-old Adama Traore — did have the ball in the net after he was unselfishly fed by Alvaro Negredo, but the assistant referee flagged for offside.
The hosts dominated the second half as well, forcing a succession of corners and deservedly went in front on the hour mark through the impressive Ramirez.
The 26-year-old shook off the attentions of the ponderous Adama Diomande and headed home at the back post for his second goal of the season.
The hosts’ three-time Champions League winning goalkeeper Victor Valdes had to wait until stoppage-time to be forced into action.
Diomande — who had been starved of possession all evening — showed a deft touch on the ball and produced a superb curling effort from outside the penalty area, only for the Spanish goalkeeper to turn it away for a corner.
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