Middlesbrough vs Hull City. Sky Bet Championship.
Riverside StadiumAttendance24,603.
Report and free match highlights from the Sky Bet Championship clash between Middlesbrough and Hull City at the Riverside Stadium as Keane Lewis-Potter scored the only goal of the game to dent Boro's play-off hopes.
Saturday 9 April 2022 18:40, UK
Keane Lewis-Potter scored his 10th goal of the season as Hull dented Middlesbrough's play-off hopes with a 1-0 win at the Riverside.
Boro, who lost at home for the second time inside a week, failed to make the most of an opportunity to climb into the Championship's top six as Lewis-Potter settled the contest with 16 minutes remaining.
It was a blow for the home side in the wake of Sheffield United's goalless draw with Bournemouth earlier in the day, the defeat dropping Boro to eighth, three points shy of the sixth-placed Blades with a game in hand.
Chris Wilder, who has tended to tinker since taking over on Teesside, made four changes to the side that lost to Fulham in midweek, but there was still no Isaiah Jones down the left through illness.
Hull, with distance between themselves and the relegation zone and no chance of reaching the play-offs, started slowly but never looked under serious threat.
Aaron Connolly's first-time effort rolled wide in the sixth minute, but that was all Middlesbrough could come up with in the opening 27 minutes.
After that Marc Bola was the first player from either side to hit the target as his shot off deflected off George Honeyman before being comfortably gathered by goalkeeper Matt Ingram.
Referee Andy Woolmer waved away penalty appeals when Connolly fell to the ground under pressure from Alfie Jones, with Folarin Balogun volleying inches over the bar in the same attack.
Despite losing key defender Dael Fry to injury soon after, Middlesbrough were still on the front foot and midfielder Riley McGree went close with a low effort after Connolly had picked him out 20 yards from goal.
Yet the best chance of the opening period fell to Hull just before the break.
Ryan Longman orchestrated it by threading a delightful pass for Honeyman to run on to. The former Sunderland man's delicate chip over goalkeeper Joe Lumley looked like edging the Tigers ahead, but Marcus Tavernier charged back and volleyed clear from the line.
With neither side showing any sign of finding a breakthrough, Middlesbrough introduced attacking players Duncan Watmore and Josh Coburn for the final half-an-hour.
Moments later Connolly had the ball in the net but was ruled offside and the tempo of the game increased.
Yet, just when Middlesbrough looked at their most dangerous, the lively Lewis-Potter struck.
The 21-year-old cut inside Tavernier before curling a shot inside Lumley's far corner which it looked like the keeper should have kept out.
Middlesbrough pressed for an equaliser, but Connolly missed the target with a free header and Tavernier had a 22-yard strike turned over by Ingram late on.
Middlesbrough's Chris Wilder: "This is the business end of the season, we have missed an opportunity. That is the disappointing aspect of it. mBut there are quite a few teams who would swap positions with us. We want to keep going and adding to the points tally. I am disappointed. That's what happens if you're not at it and your standards aren't very good. For 20 minutes we were OK, but it deteriorated in to a poor performance individually. We gave the ball away too cheaply. There were individual errors and you could see that result coming.
"It was that kind of performance. That is one of our poorest performances of the season at home. The goalkeeper should have done better. I have protected him for long enough and it was another poor goal. He should have done better. It wasn't going to be a walkover. They have really good young players. They aren't just seeing the season out and their reaction at the end is not a reaction from a team seeing the season out."
Hull's Shota Arveladze: "It is why we should keep him (Lewis-Potter) always. He is our best player and nobody will want to see him go. He can get the extra when you need it. I thanked him in previous games. When he is there, he can go and nobody really gets him. He can run and run and bring the whole team down, which makes sense again. He can do that in a second like he did, which he does so easily. He has done great this year, great goals.
"This was a really important and massive three points after losing the last two. Coming here we see the statistics, the results Boro have at home. This was a massive three points for us towards the end of the season. I am really pleased to see them get these important points and win. If you don't score you don't get points here. They beat Tottenham here and did well against Chelsea, this is a club who has done an unbelievable job in home games. You have to come here and score goals. We did that and we have won a big three points."
