Middlesbrough move into top six with win at Birmingham who finish with 10 men

Middlesbrough climbed to sixth in the Championship with a 2-0 win over Birmingham at St Andrew’s to earn their first league victory away from home in 2022.

Nico Gordon’s unfortunate own goal following good play between Folarin Balogun and Anfernee Dijksteel put Boro in front after 23 minutes.

Despite Paddy McNair’s second-half penalty miss, Balogun extended the visitors’ lead and returned Middlesbrough to winning ways after failing to win in their previous two.

Blues’ misery was compounded when Kristian Pedersen was shown a second yellow card in the final minutes.

Birmingham started brightly with Onel Hernandez, who spent the first half of the season on loan at Boro, at the centre of their attacks in the opening stages.

In his first start for the Blues since his January loan move from Brighton, Taylor Richards was unlucky not to score when his shot was blocked by Jonny Howson before Lukas Jutkiewicz could not on to latch onto Hernandez’s cross moments later.

After McNair blazed over from the edge of the penalty area, Chris Wilder’s side went ahead when Neil Etheridge’s save from Aaron Connolly rebounded off teenager Gordon.

A neat interchange between Balogun and Dijksteel cut the Birmingham defence in half before Gordon was helpless in the ball hitting the back of the net.

Boro were denied a second in first-half injury time when the impressive Balogun was judged to be offside after he tucked the ball past Etheridge.

Four minutes into the second half and the play-off chasing side squandered the chance to double their advantage when Richards brought down Isaiah Jones in the penalty area.

Etheridge got down well and pushed the ball against the post to deny McNair of his first goal of the season.

Middlesbrough managed to add