Boro stay in hunt for top four spot

Middlesbrough 3 Aston Villa 0

Jimmy Floyd Hasselbaink and Joseph-Desire Job kept Middlesbrough in the Champions League hunt with a vital victory over Aston Villa.

The Dutchman blasted home his first goal from open play since October 16 after 20 minutes, and substitute Job added a second 21 minutes from time after Stewart Downing had carved open the Villa defence.

Full-back Michael Reiziger added a third at the death, but the scoreline came nowhere near to reflecting just how the game unfolded as the Midlanders left Teesside not quite knowing how they were doing so with nothing to show for their efforts.

Poor finishing was the main reason as both Juan Pablo Angel and Steven Davis passed up glorious opportunities, although bad luck too had a part to play with Gareth Barry firing against a post.

But ultimately, Steve McClaren’s men scrapped their way to another three points which mean they head into the holiday programme sitting pretty in the Barclays Premiership table.

Villa arrived with little intention of allowing their hosts time or space, lining up with Angel as a lone striker and five men strung across the pitch in midfield.

However, they used that formation positively as Nolberto Solano and youngster Davis did their best to support the Colombian at every opportunity.

Indeed, they enjoyed the better of the early chances, Davis glancing a header wide from a seventh-minute Solano cross when he might have done better and Gavin McCann seeing a first-time effort deflected wide before Angel hit the crossbar after Reiziger could only head Barry’s corner back across his own goal two minutes later.

Szilard Nemeth, lining up on the right side of midfield for Boro in the absence of the injured Ray Parlour, wasted a glorious opportunity to open the scoring on 13 minutes when he failed to make the most of a breakdown in communications between Olof Mellberg and Thomas Sorensen.

That could have proved extremely costly seven minutes later when Solano collected Mellberg’s long ball and fed Davis, who unselfishly squared for Barry to force Southgate to head off his own line.

But as the home fans offered thanks for a let-off, their side took the lead within seconds.

Hasselbaink span into space on the left and when the ball was delivered into his path, he raced away before cutting inside and dispatching a venomous dipping shot beyond Sorensen.

Villa should have been level seven minutes later when 19-year-old Davis met a Barry cross unmarked six yards but contrived to fire over the bar, but it would have been 2-0 had Sorensen not got a hand to Southgate’s header from a Downing free-kick.

Neither side let up as the half-time whistle approached, and neither manager could have been too disheartened by the time his respective players arrived back in the dressing room.

Mark Viduka and Peter Whittingham made way at the break as both managers opted for change, Job replacing the Australian for Boro and Mathieu Berson getting his chance for the visitors.

The game became increasingly scrappy as the half wore on, but Angel squandered a gilt-edged chance to level on 51 minutes after being cleverly played in by Solano.

After controlling well, the Peruvian laid the ball off perfectly for the striker, but with only Schwarzer to beat, he dragged his right-foot shot wastefully across goal and well wide of the post.

Solano was the architect once again 55 minutes after he played in Davis to cross for Barry, although Tony McMahon and George Boateng did just enough to put the midfielder off at the near post.

The South American was in action at the other end three minutes later to clear a Hasselbaink header off his own line, but it was Villa who had their tails up.

McClaren moved to stem the tide on 62 minutes when he replaced Nemeth with the more defensively-minded Doriva, but it was his first substitution which paid off nine minutes later.

Mellberg’s error allowed Downing to explode into space down the right, and he picked out the perfect pass for Job to side-foot past Sorensen and make it 2-0.

Angel forced an excellent 72nd-minute save from Schwarzer with a left-foot drive and then tested the keeper with a header from the resulting corner as the importance of Boro’s second goal became apparent.

Barry struck a post seconds later as the fightback continued, although it became increasingly apparent that it was just not Villa’s day.

Reiziger rubbed salt into the wound with two minutes remaining when he muscled his way into the box and fired past Sorensen to send the bulk of a crowd of 31,338 home happy.