Middlesbrough vs Derby County match report: George Friend leaves Boro sitting comfortably at the top

Middlesbrough 2 Derby County 0

Middlesbrough players celebrate George Friend's goal (Getty Images)

Middlesbrough turned up yesterday as Championship leaders and promotion favourites. They were faced by a Derby County side just a point behind them.

By the end, Boro were four points clear of Derby and had recorded an eighth successive clean sheet. They had justified their status.

It took a long time to make a breakthrough against a Derby defence guided by Richard Keogh, but once Albert Adomah had dinked an 83rd minute chip around the Derby goalkeeper Lee Grant, a Boro second arrived just one minute and 50 seconds later from George Friend.

The goals were deserved and with a game in hand on all those below them, Boro are five points clear of third place and 13 from the play-off places.

They look on their way back after seven years outside the Premier League, though manager Aitor Karanka, not a man to get carried away, stressed the length of a Championship season. “Yeah, that was maybe the best we’ve played,” Karanka said. “But promotion is in May, now we are in January. We cannot forget that we are playing really well and we are consistent, but everything can change. This League goes to the end.”

Derby’s manager Paul Clement accepted Middlesbrough’s superiority for all of the game bar 15 minutes at the end of the first half. He saluted Boro’s “intensity”, and he was right to.

Marshalled by captain Grant Leadbitter, Boro seized the afternoon from the kick-off, sweeping forward in a series of red waves. The football was clean and fast and brought great openings for Kike after 17 minutes and Emilio Nsue on 21 minutes. On the first occasion Grant parried Kike’s shot; on the second, Nsue squandered a header at the far post.

Derby had one real opening when Johnny Russell scampered by Nsue and rattled Dimi Konstantopoulos’s legs. With the Rams penned in, Boro resumed their dominance in the second half and Leadbitter’s pass teed up Adomah. Substitute David Nugent was alert to set up Friend for the second. Boro will take some stopping.

Middlesbrough: (4-4-1-1) Konstantopoulos; Nsue, Ayala, Gibson, Friend; Stuani, Leadbitter, Clayton, Adomah; Downing; Kike (Nugent, 59)

Derby County: (4-1-2-3) Grant; Christie, Keogh, Shackell, Warnock; Thorne (Hendrick, 23); Butterfield (Weimann, 76) Johnson; Ince, Martin, Russell

Referee: Neil Swarbrick.

Man of the match: Leadbitter (Middlesbrough)

Match rating: 8/10