Boro top UEFA Cup group

Middlesbrough 3 Partizan Belgrade 0

Middlesbrough can look forward to the draw for the last 32 of the UEFA Cup on Friday after dismantling the previously unbeaten 25-match record of Partizan Belgrade.

Stand-in strikers Szilard Nemeth and Joseph-Desire Job finally ended their long goal droughts to guarantee Boro top spot in Group E, and with it a third-round tie against one of the other seven third-placed teams from the group stages.

Nemeth and Job scored first-half goals at the Riverside to vindicate Boro manager Steve McClaren’s decision to bench first-choice duo Mark Viduka and Jimmy Floyd Hasselbaink, before youngster James Morrison applied a coup-de-grace finish.

McClaren’s side have at least avoided the prospect of Champions League opposition come February, which was their main target as they came into the game knowing they had already qualified for the next stage.

Their task seemingly appeared a daunting one, however, as Partizan boasted an enviable record, with the current Serbian league leaders yet to taste defeat in any competition this season.

But after Ray Parlour had been booked inside five minutes for a sliding challenge on Albert Nadj, despite initially winning the ball, Boro set about their task with typical efficiency and took the lead in the 10th minute.

A swift, incisive move culminated in Job’s through ball for Nemeth who, after beating the offside trap, then delivered a straightforward shot Ivica Kralj should have held.

But Kralj – along with Nadj, captain Sasa Ilic and Nenad Djordjevic the four survivors from Partizan’s Champions League qualifying defeat of Newcastle last season – was left red-faced as the ball squirmed through his grasp and over the line.

It was Nemeth’s third goal of the season, but the Slovakia international’s first since scoring in a 3-0 Carling Cup victory over Coventry on October 27.

Boro’s joy turned to concern two minutes later when centre-back Colin Cooper was left dazed after being caught by the flailing left arm of striker Pierre Boya as they both challenged for an aerial ball.

Veteran Cooper needed to be carried off, but after treatment on the sidelines was able to return and watch his team-mates take a 2-0 stranglehold on the tie midway through the half.

Franck Queudrue, serving a three-match domestic suspension but recalled to the side for this match, muscled Dragan Ciric off the ball 10 yards inside the Partizan area.

It provided the platform for another fast-paced attack, with Queudrue laying the ball off to Nemeth and in turn to Job who was given the simple task of sidefooting home from 12 yards beyond Kralj.

For Job, who has recently spoken of leaving the Riverside in January due to his lack of first-team action, the goal will have come as a welcome relief, it being his second of the campaign, but first since the second game of the season against Arsenal on August 22.

Unsurprisingly, facing a 2-0 hurdle, Partizan woke from their apparent slumber, only to find Boro as adept in defence as they had previously been in attack.

Mark Schwarzer first clawed in a low Ciric shot before Holland international Michael Reiziger superbly blocked an Ivan Tomic drive at point-blank range just when it appeared he had worked an opening.

Queudrue then timed to perfection a challenge on Ilic inside the area as he pulled the trigger on a shot that could have given the visitors a lifeline, but who should have been 3-0 down nine minutes from the break.

Boudewijn Zenden released Stewart Downing down the left wing and after using his pace to surge to the deadball line, he provided a pullback for Job to stab goalwards from three yards.

Kralj, with what was his last action of the game as he was substituted four minutes later by Djordje Pantic, distinguished himself with an outstanding stop.

But the visitors, if lucky to escape one end, only had themselves to blame at the other as they finally caught Boro square, with Ciric and Ilic combining, only for a sliding Boya to fail to connect from inside the six-yard box.

The ever-reliable Downing, who Partizan coach Vladimir Vermezovic claimed he had never heard of before the game, then worked his magic down the left.

After Partizan had failed to clear one Downing cross, Nemeth sliced a headed through ball from Job with the goal at his mercy, before the Slovakian sidefooted over another pin-point delivery from the potential England star soon after.

Scares followed for Boro, with Ilic drilling wide from 12 yards and Nadj blazing over from a similar distance.

Instead, it was Boro who finished the game in style, though, with substitute Morrison curling home a superb 20-yard left-foot shot after jinking his way past three Partizan defenders.

There was still time for a remarkable run from Vukcevic, only to be denied by the post with what proved to be the last kick of the game.