BORO GO SHOOTING TO TOP

TONY PULIS will be as happy as Boro’s bank manager after this Riverside romp.

With Wolves-bound Adama Traore set to follow Patrick Bamford and Ben Gibson to the exit, the club are set for a £40million-plus bonanza.

Pulis is lining up a £15m bid for Yannick Bolasie and also wants his Everton team-mate Mo Besic, plus West Ham striker Jordan Hugill. But Boro’s current players are faring pretty well without any recruits.

They eased past a Sheffield United side who were down and out within half an hour.

What made the visitors’ early collapse so galling for manager Chris Wilder was all three goals were so avoidable.

Record £4.1m defender John Egan, signed from Brentford, had a night to forget. And Wilder’s side should have been behind after 49 seconds when Jonny Howson failed to beat Dean Henderson from six yards. The reprieve lasted just seven minutes. Lewis Wing swung in a corner, Dael Fry flicked on and Martin Braithwaite (left) bundled home at the far post.

Wing notched up another assist on his first Boro start, 11 minutes later. Again, United failed to deal with his corner and centre-half Aden Flint scored with a thumping header.

And it went from bad to worse for the Blades when Stewart Downing stretched Boro’s lead in the 25th minute. And that’s how it remained.