Long-awaited win can kick-start season: McCarthy

Middlesbrough 0 Sunderland 2

The Black Cats ended their 27-game wait for a Premiership victory with this triumph at the Riverside.

McCarthy’s men had not won in the top-flight since they beat Liverpool in December 2002, but goals in either half from Tommy Miller and Julio Arca were enough to seal victory over their Teesside rivals.

“I’ve waited seven games and I’m very, very pleased,” McCarthy said. “Let everybody else wax lyrical, we’ve worked hard and Boro have caused us a few problems. But I think we deserved it, we’ve earned the victory and I can’t speak highly enough of the players.

“It gives us belief. We’ve competed well enough this season but what we haven’t done is won.”

Midfielder Miller gave Sunderland a dream start when he fired home off the foot of a post with less than two minutes gone, and a victory which takes McCarthy’s men off the foot of the table was sealed by Arca’s superb free-kick on the hour.

Four magnificent saves from Kelvin Davis denied James Morrison, Aiyegbeni Yakubu and George Boateng twice as Steve McClaren’s men searched in vain for an equaliser.

After being robbed of a win in injury-time by West Brom last weekend, Sunderland made sure as their industry and application was matched by the kind of finishing which has cost them so dear since their latest emergence from the Football League.

Even the most loyal of Boro supporters would have difficulty arguing the visitors were not good value for the points.

The Teessiders, who head for Greece this week defending a 2-0 UEFA Cup lead over Skoda Xanthi, were far from at their best and left the field both at half-time and on the final whistle to jeers from the bulk of a crowd of 29,583, once again some 5,000 below capacity.

McClaren was targeted personally by some disgruntled supporters when he made his way into the technical area as time ran down, and he will know more performances like this one will severely damage his side’s hopes of breaking into the top six this season.

McCarthy has insisted for much of the campaign that his side has been playing well but has been punished for errors and by some superb finishing.

His words have sounded increasingly hollow as games have come and gone, and the fact they were denied their first Premiership victory of the season against West Brom in injury time last weekend simply served to emphasise the fact that good performances count for nothing if they do not result in points.

Nevertheless, the manager and his players headed for Teesside confident they could be a match for a Boro side which has been hamstrung by inconsistency in recent weeks, and on the evidence of their first-half display, that confidence was well placed.

They were helped by getting off to the perfect start when Miller took advantage of hesitancy in the Boro defence under pressure from Andy Gray and Stephen Elliott to fire past stand-in keeper Brad Jones off the foot of the post.

Precious as it was, however, that goal was only a start.

Boro were misfiring badly and were not helped when they were forced into a reshuffle by Ugo Ehiogu’s departure through injury.

However, they created enough chances to have got themselves back on level terms and perhaps even better but for the efforts of under-pressure Sunderland keeper Davis.

The £1.25million signing kept out Morrison’s low drive on the half hour and then blocked Yakubu’s shot from point-blank range seconds later. His best was to come five minutes into injury time when he saw Boateng’s effort late as it sped through a crowded penalty area, but still got a hand to it to keep it out.

Sunderland’s luck held out on 54 minutes when, with Nyron Nosworthy and Christian Bassila both off the pitch after clashing heads, Yakubu found Mark Viduka on the edge of the box and his curling shot went just wide.

But the visitors increased their lead on the hour after Boro skipper Gareth Southgate brought down Elliott 20 yards out in a dangerous position and Arca curled a superb free-kick past the helpless Jones to make it 2-0.

Boro dominated the closing stages, but did not trouble Davis again until injury time when he palmed away another Boateng shot to ensure his clean sheet.

OPTA stats: Sunderland ended a run of 27 Premiership games without a win.

Sunderland scored in their first away Premiership game in the last nine attempts.

Middlesbrough have failed to score in three of their four home league games this term.

This was Sunderland’s first Premiership clean sheet of the season and their first away league goals.

MIDDLESBROUGH: Jones, Xavier, Southgate, Ehiogu (Maccarone 37), Pogatetz, Morrison (Parlour 64), Rochemback, Boateng, Queudrue, Yakubu (Hasselbaink 64), Viduka.

SUNDERLAND: Davis, Nosworthy, Breen, Caldwell, Hoyte, Elliott (Le Tallec 84), Whitehead (Lawrence 90), Miller, Bassila, Arca, Gray.

Referee: H Webb (S Yorkshire).