Warno has still got the Wood on Boro

NEIL WARNOCK continued the chokehold he has over Middlesbrough – but only thanks to a howler of an own goal.

Boro striker Ashley Fletcher’s glanced header from a corner in the second minute was by far the best finish of the game – shame it was into his own net.

Not that Warnock will care much about how the win was delivered, since the important thing for the Bluebirds boss was a ninth home win out of nine meetings against Boro – achieved with seven different clubs.

“I’ve always done well against Boro – going back to my playing days,” said Warnock after his team made it five Championship matches unbeaten.

“It would have been nice to have scored more – but that’s not us. We never make it easy for ourselves.

“But it was a good performance against a good team. I thought we were dominant and they didn’t really get a look-in.

“I think we looked a lot more like old selves today but we need to continue that and we still haven’t yet won away from home.”

Cardiff exerted plenty of pressure after taking the lead but the nearest they came to a second was when striker Omar Bogle thundered a diving header against the top of the crossbar.

Defensive defiance aside, there was little to please Boro manager Jonathan Woodgate.

He said: “We didn’t create enough chances for our forwards – they were basically starved of the ball.

“I said before the game you have to match Cardiff physically and I thought we did that throughout the game but we didn’t show enough quality.”