Saints beaten at Boro

Adam Armstrong swept Saints into a deserved first-half lead from Ché Adams’s clever disguised pass, but were pegged back by Riley McGree’s low drive on the stroke of half time, as Saints were punished for losing the ball in their own half.

The visitors threatened to retake the lead in an encouraging start to the second period, but Taylor Harwood-Bellis was penalised for grappling with Josh Coburn in the box – though both players looked guilty of the same offence – and Jonny Howson won the game from the penalty spot.

With a quarter of the game remaining, Saints threw on a host of substitutes in the hope of finding an equaliser, but Boro held on for their first league win of the campaign.

Russell Martin responded to a third straight defeat with three changes to his starting line-up, as Mason Holgate, Jan Bednarek and Flynn Downes all earned recalls at the expense of Ryan Manning, Joe Aribo and Samuel Edozie.

That meant Saints started with Holgate at right-back and Kyle Walker-Peters on the left, with Shea Charles at the base of the midfield, supported by Downes and Will Smallbone.

Boro, bottom and winless at the start of the weekend, started brightly, forcing a corner in the very first minute, before Isaiah Jones’s deflected shot looped into the air to give Gavin Bazunu an uncomfortable moment, but Matt Crookes was penalised for a foul on the goalkeeper before slicing the dropping ball wide of goal.

Saints soon began to settle into the contest, and went close to making the breakthrough when Will Smallbone seized on a loose pass on the halfway line and slid the ball through for Adams.

With goalkeeper Seny Dieng quick to advance and defenders rapidly retreating, Adams opted to shoot early, trying to thread a low curler into the bottom corner from 25 yards, but it just bounced agonisingly wide.

Adam Armstrong scores his fifth league goal of the season to put Saints in front

Armstrong then had his first sight of goal, drifting inside and firing wide with his left foot, but the skipper would not have to wait long to take his tally of Championship goals to five for the season.

This time Downes was the architect, finding Adams on the edge of the box, whose assist was superb, dissecting the defence for Armstrong to run through and take a touch, and this time his left foot did not let him down, finding the net inside Dieng’s near post.

Boro responded by going close to an equaliser – too close for comfort – when Coburn fed the run of Jones, who raced beyond Bednarek and crossed low to the far post, where McGree hooked the ball goalwards, but the angle was against the Australian, and Harwood-Bellis was able to calmly tidy things up on his own goal line.

Saints were playing well but Boro were having their moments. The dangerous Jones escaped down the right once more and crossed low, but this time McGree’s shot was rushed, sliced into the air, and Saints survived another scare.

But McGree got his angles right with a minute to go in the first half, drawing the hosts level as Saints conceded at a bad time in the game.

It was preventable, too, as Holgate was caught in possession in his own half by Jones, and McGree pounced.

Driving towards goal, the winger was afforded too much time to line up a shot from the edge of the box that beat Bazunu down to the keeper’s left, as the Irishman got fingertips to the ball but could not prevent a timely leveller.

Martin reversed one of his pre-match decisions at half time, restoring Manning to his backline at the expense of Holgate as Walker-Peters switched back to the right.

Straightaway the substitute tried his luck with a speculative volley that forced Dieng into a save, albeit an easy one, before Smallbone sent a more threatening curler sailing just over.

Ryan Manning was introduced at half time in response to Middlesbrough's equaliser

Jones was wasteful when he picked up a promising position in the box, but seemed caught in two minds between crossing and shooting, and ended up producing something in between.

Saints went close to regaining the lead on the hour when Ryan Fraser’s low cross was diverted inches wide of his own goal by Darragh Lenihan, before Harwood-Bellis met a Fraser corner with a downward header held by Dieng.

But instead it was Boro who scored the all-important third goal in the game thanks to a controversial penalty awarded for a foul from Harwood-Bellis on Coburn, though Saints will argue both players had grabbed hold of each other.

Such is the way things have gone for the visitors in recent weeks, referee Tim Robinson ruled the incident in Boro’s favour, and Howson did the rest, putting Bazunu the wrong way from the spot.

Martin turned to his bench again soon after, initially introducing Kamaldeen Sulemana, while Stuart Armstrong and Samuel Edozie followed three minutes later as the game entered its final 20 minutes.

Edozie was quick to make an impact, and Jones was fortunate not to receive a second yellow card for bringing the winger down in full flight, before another run down the right from the substitute set up a chance for Smallbone, but his shot deflected wide of the target.

Coburn and McGree were both guilty of spurning golden chances to kill the game, prompting heavy Saints pressure in the closing stages, but Dieng thwarted the lively Edozie, and Saints were beaten.

Saints: Bazunu, Holgate (Manning 46), Harwood-Bellis, Bednarek, Walker-Peters, Downes, Charles (Edozie 72), Smallbone (Aribo 83), Fraser (Kamaldeen 69), Adams (S. Armstrong 72), A. Armstrong (c).

Subs not used: McCarthy, Bree, Alcaraz, Mara.

Goals: A. Armstrong (17).

Middlesbrough: Dieng, van den Berg (Smith 73), Fry, Lenihan, O’Brien, Howson (c), Hackney, Jones (Silvera 90), Crooks (Greenwood 69), McGree, Coburn.

Subs not used: Glover, Engel, Barlaser, McNair, Rogers, Latte Lath.

Goals: McGree (44), Howson (66 pen).

Yellow cards: Jones, Hackney.

Referee: Tim Robinson

Attendance: 26,141