Boro’s class defeats Oldham’s industry

THE EYES HAVE IT . . . Lee Croft is fully focused during an Athletic attack.

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Athletic 1, Middlesbrough 3

IT COULD have been ugly, but in the end it was respectable.

Athletic were well beaten here to head out of the Capital One Cup in the first round for the seventh successive season.

Two goals by Cristhian Stuani and one from Yanic Wildschut earned the Championship winners-elect – let's face it, no side is stopping them this year – a second victory at SportsDirect.com Park in as many years.

Danny Philliskirk's added-time header at least helped put a little more verve into the post-match applause, even if the overall result was never in doubt.

It might well have ended up worse for Athletic, had David Cornell not saved Adam Clayton's seventh-minute penalty. It almost certainly would have been had referee Carl Boyeson shown red rather than yellow to Cornell after he brought down the outstanding Diego Fabbrini in the box.

Athletic stood off too much in this game to allow Middlesbrough's supreme movement off the ball to rip open the back line.

At the same time Darren Kelly's men could easily have scored a few themselves – particularly late in the game, when David Dunn impressed and almost scored a couple of pearlers.

Danny Philliskirk got on the scoresheet with a late, flicked header and had a fair portion of Athletic's 21 efforts at goal –.not to be sniffed at against a club so bountiful in talent.

Still, lessons will be taken from the way Aitor Karanka's side carved open the home team - in the first half in particular.

Athletic opened up in a 4-2-3-1 formation, with manager Darren Kelly making four changes to the side that drew 1-1 at Walsall. Jake Cassidy operated as a lone striker, and in midfield Phillsikirk played alongside Liam Kelly and behind Carl Winchester.

With Albert Adomah causing problems and the trickery of Fabbrini always a potent source of threat, Boro opened strongly. Danger signs were everywhere, with Karanka's team thrusting forward on both flanks and slicing their way down the middle.

After Lee Croft had nearly scored after only five seconds, clearing the bar by two feet from 45 yards, the visitors took control.

Stuani almost connected with an early Adomah cross and after Fabbrini had played a neat one-two he was felled by Cornell as he stepped around him. Clayton's penalty was at a good height for the Welsh goalkeeper but he read it well and saved emphatically to his right.

Next up was a bout of penalty box pinball in which Philliskirk twice went close, before Jonathan Forte saw his effort deflect no more than a foot wide with the agile Tomas Mejias wrong-footed for the first and last time on the night.

Cornell was out sharply to save at the feet of Stuani, before Adomah drifted infield, slid Wildschut in and left the former Ajax winger to do the rest with a smart low finish after 23 minutes.

Boro's second came from the breakdown of a six-on-four attack from Athletic.

Philliskirk was caught on the ball and the spring forward saw Fabbrini bamboozle Brian Wilson and float a cross in for Stuani to nod neatly across Cornell.

Athletic regrouped at half-time and were more compact after the interval.

Carl Winchester and Philliskirk both hit shots that Mejias didn't have to move too far to hold on to, and Cassidy was forced too wide after a superb first touch took him into the penalty area.

The third goal from Middlesbrough came from a great run by left-back James Husband and a brilliant low cross. Gavin Gunning couldn't quite stretch far enough to clear the danger and Stuani had a tap-in to net his second.

Liam Kelly got underneath one shot and Philliskirk, employing a shoot on sight policy, may have done better when forcing a save from Mejias.

Dunn forced two more saves from the former Real Madrid goalkeeper, once with a superb lob from 40 yards, and Philliskirk finally had his goal when converting the tireless Croft's inswinging cross.

Boro's work was done by that stage, though, and they were firmly in cruise control mode.

At least Athletic won't face anything like this again in their league campaign.