McClaren hails clinical Boro

Middlesbrough boss Steve McClaren refused to countenance talk of Champions League football on Teesside after seeing his side ease their way into the top four with victory over Aston Villa.

Goals from Jimmy Floyd Hasselbaink, Joseph-Desire Job and Michael Reiziger - his first in league football for almost nine years – allowed Boro to bank another three points, although the margin of victory flattered them as Villa more than played their part in an entertaining encounter.

That left the Teessiders right in the hunt going into the holiday period, but having set his sights on a top-six finish before the start of the season, McClaren will not review his targets.

“The players know what they have got there and the players know what they need to do,” he said. “They know it is one step at a time.

“We haven’t talked about the Champions League. We have not done anything yet. What are we – nearly halfway? There is a long way to go.”

Boro climbed into the top four with a wonderful exhibition of finishing, although had Juan Pablo Angel, Steven Davis and Gareth Barry been similarly clinical, it could have been Villa leaving the Riverside Stadium with the points.

Hasselbaink’s 20th-minute piledriver came after Gareth Southgate had cleared Barry’s shot off the line, while Angel hit the bar and squandered another glorious opportunity and Davis fired over before substitute Job and then Reiziger struck.

“They were a magnificent three points for us, so I sit here very satisfied with that, but 3-0 is probably a little bit flattering on the scoreline,” admitted McClaren.

“We knew Villa are a good side and we knew it would be a tough game, our third one in a week, and we got all the real defining moments.

“When you look at the first goal, it was headed off the line and we went straight up the park. In the second half, Angel missed a chance and then we went up and got the second.

“But we won that one on sheer character, I thought, and never giving up because at the end, you could see some of the players running on empty, and with the disruption we had with the injuries to (Chris) Riggott and (Mark) Viduka, I think it is a magnificent result built on character.

“It was an open game, we scored three magnificent goals and we had some magnificent last-ditch defending, blocks, people putting their heads in, to make sure we kept a clean sheet, and the goalkeeper came up with a couple of saves at the right time.”

Villa boss David O’Leary could not believe his side was leaving Teesside empty-handed.

“First of all, good luck to Middlesbrough,” he said. “Three counter-attacks, three lethal quality finishes, but I thought in actual football, we just totally out-played them and caused them loads of problems.

“But the bottom line is, for all you can out-play and batter a team and out-possess them, goals are what decide games; their finishing was clinical and ours was not.”

Where Angel failed, Hasselbaink prospered to open the scoring, although O’Leary, who helped to sign the Dutchman from Boavista during his time at Leeds, needed no reminding of his potency.

“I went one Sunday after a game like this down to Portugal and climbed over a fence and watched him,” he said. “George Graham and myself looked and said ‘we have got to get him’.

“In the end, we bought him for £1million and sold him for £12million and what Middlesbrough have done with the backing of a great chairman here, is they have gone and invested in proven, quality players, not taken a chance.

“They have bought pure quality. They might not have the Middlesbrough name, but there are three players – (George) Boateng, (Gareth) Southgate and (Ugo) Ehiogu, who they had the clout to take off Aston Villa, who I would love, and then (Gaizka) Mendieta and (Bolo) Zenden and Ray Parlour.

“And there is no better strikeforce than (Mark) Viduka and Jimmy Hasselbaink up front because when you are on the rack and the odd balls go out there, individually, they can go and make something, and that is what Jimmy did.”