McClaren’s blushes saved as Downing grabs winner

0 Middlesbrough 1

The 20-year-old grabbed all three points for the visitors with a neat low finish with just 12 minutes left.

Downing had been left out of the starting line-up - along with Jimmy-Floyd Hasselbaink and Gaizka Mendieta - as McClaren looked to keep legs fresh for Sunday’s Barclays Premiership clash with Portsmouth,

It was far from convincing stuff from Boro, who had keeper Mark Schwarzer to thank for several key saves as they clung on for their first taste of victory on foreign soil.

Downing’s vital goal, seven minutes after he entered proceedings for Boudewijn Zenden, means Boro can look forward to the home game with Lazio at the Riverside in two weeks knowing they can afford to drop points and probably still reach the knockout stages. Middlesbrough boss Steve McClaren hailed the Teessiders’ narrow victory as the “perfect start.”

McClaren said: “It’s a perfect start for us. We wanted to get a result here, maybe we would have settled for a draw, but I just thought it was a perfect game for us.

“Going in at half-time we knew we could win it in the second half and so it proved because we had players on the bench who could come on and get the winner for us.

“For me tonight was a perfect European performance in the fact it was a clean sheet and we scored the vital goal.”

McClaren admitted his side made hard work of last night’s victory and he looked to deflect the growing attention around winger Downing, who is being touted as a potential solution to England’s problem left-side.

“He continues his progress. He’s got ability - he’s showed that in the past and he’s showed it again tonight,” McClaren said of his exciting young charge.

“We knew we had the quality on the bench in the likes of (Jimmy Floyd) Hasselbaink, (Gaizka) Mendieta, (George) Boateng and Downing and we knew at any stage of the game they could make a difference - and Stewart came on and did just that. “But I don’t think you can take away the performance tonight from the team. It was the squad that won this game. The team we put out first did a great job and the subs came on and finished it off.”

Eyebrows were raised before kick-off when McClaren left Hasselbaink, Mendieta and Downing out of the starting line-up, and the former Manchester United assistant conceded his decision was a bit of a gamble.

He said: “It’s always a gamble when you’re resting players but you have to look at the bigger picture and overall players are unable to play three games in a week at the intensity we want.

“The players accept that and now we move on to Sunday against Portsmouth. The priority at the beginning of the season is always the Premiership, but we want to do well in this competition, which is why it was important we came here and got a result and I think a perfect start for us.”

AIGALEO: Sidibe, Papoutsis, Alexopoulos, Psomas, Edusei, Fotakis, Skopeletis, Barkoglou (Christou 90), Chloros, Nikolopoulos (Makris 76), Manousakis.

MIDDLESBROUGH: Schwarzer, McMahon, Riggott, Southgate, Cooper, Zenden (Downing 70), Parlour, Doriva, Morrison (Mendieta 45), Nemeth, Viduka (Hasselbaink 70).

Referee: Attila Hanacsek (Hungary).