Britt starts to show value for aspiring Boro
BRITT ASSOMBALONGA answered Tony Pulis’s challenge to show he could be more than a super sub in Middlesbrough’s bid to win back a place in the Premier League.
Assombalonga, starting a league game for the first time since Boxing Day, scored the crucial first-half goal against 10-man Blackburn to keep Boro in the hunt for promotion after a disappointing recent run.
The strike was a doubly bitter blow for Rovers boss Tony Mowbray, the former Middlesbrough defender and manager who wanted to snap up £15million Assombalonga in last month’s transfer window only to be priced out of a move.
Not that Pulis was completely satisfied with Assombalonga and his attacking team-mates.
Pulis, below, said: “We’ve had 27 shots on goal and scored one. That’s been our Achilles’ heel since I came to the club.
“We’ve got to be more ruthless in front of goal because we played really well at times, controlled the game and created chances.
“But after the run we have had and with the injuries and suspensions we’ve had, you can get a little bit down on yourself. We wanted to be positive today and the lads showed great character.”
Boro deserved Assombalonga’s 19th-minute goal and when Rovers were reduced to 10 men on the stroke of half-time, it became an even more uphill battle for Mowbray’s men.
The visitors had been turning the screws even before their opener, with Ashley Fletcher heading a great chance straight at keeper David Raya and, later, shooting into the side netting after a neat one-two with Lewis Wing.
The goal came when Charlie Mulgrew misjudged the awkward bounce of Wing’s through ball, letting in Fletcher whose shot took a deflection and looped up at the far post where Assombalonga headed in.
With Rovers looking to avoid a fourth consecutive defeat for the first time in Mowbray’s two years in charge, it was hardly a perfect start. And when Derrick Williams produced a clumsy foul to stop Fletcher surging through on the edge of the Rovers area just before the break, their task grew in magnitude.
Referee Darren Bond had little choice but to show the Rovers left-back a straight red and, coming at the end of a dominant first-half display, Boro could have been out of sight. Mowbray at least made an aggressive response when he used all three of his substitutes in a drastic half-time reshuffle.
Amari’i Bell, one of those replacements, quickly whipped in a dangerous cross that Ryan Shotton slid in to turn inches wide of his own goal. But Boro continued to look every bit as dangerous, with Wing having already clattered a shot against the crossbar from 30 yards.
The visitors soon began to exploit their numerical advantage, with one lightning-quick counter seeing Fletcher and Wing combine to set up a George Saville shot that was charged down. Raya was then forced to make an acrobatic save to tip Jonny Howson’s cross over the bar.
That set up a grandstand finish with former Boro man Danny Graham firing over from six yards before setting up Bradley Dack for a shot that was well saved by Darren Randolph.
As Rovers left gaps, Fletcher should have done better with a shot he hit straight at the keeper before Raya made a blinding double stop to deny Assombalonga a late second.
Mowbray said: “I couldn’t recognise my team in the first half, that was unacceptable. I don’t know where that came from. We lacked fire, desire, energy. That’s the frustration.” BLACKBURN (4-4-1-1): Raya; Bennett, Rodwell (Nyambe 46), Mulgrew, Williams; Brereton (Bell 46), Reed, Evans (Travis 46), Armstrong; Dack; Graham. Booked: Rodwell. Sent off: Williams 45.
MIDDLESBROUGH (3-5-1-1): Randolph; Fry, Shotton, Friend (McNair 60); Howson, Wing, Mikel, Besic (Downing 72), Saville; Fletcher (Hugill 80); Assombalonga. Goal: Assombalonga 19.
Referee: D Bond (Lancashire).