2004 Carling Cup winners Middlesbrough powered into the third round with a 5-1 drubbing of Yeovil.
Boro hammer League One Glovers
2004 Carling Cup winners Middlesbrough powered into the third round with a 5-1 drubbing of Yeovil at The Riverside.
Boro boss Gareth Southgate named a strong line-up, handing full debuts to Justin Hoyte, Marvin Emnes and Didier Digard - and the latter two helped themselves to goals.
The Premier League side were 3-1 up at the interval with Mido, Digard and Jeremie Aliadiere all scoring.
Gavin Tomlin pulled one back but Boro maintained their intensity well into the second half and claimed further goals through Emnes and Adam Johnson.
Yeovil may have been unbeaten going into the game but their chances of causing another shock, after seeing off Charlton in the previous round, looked doomed from the start.
The signs were ominous from early on as Mido provided the first test of a busy night for Yeovil goalkeeper Josh Wagenaar with a header in the second minute.
Johnson then cut in from the left moments later and forced Wagenaar to claw away his curling effort from the edge of the box when the defence were probably expecting a cross.
Aliadiere also shot at Wagenaar in a strong opening that made an early Boro
goal seem inevitable.
Early goal
It duly arrived in the 11th minute as Mido held off Lee Peltier in a chase to a bouncing ball and wrong-footed the defender before firing through Wagenaar's grasp. It was the Egyptian's third goal of the season from the same number of appearances.
Digard then made his mark with a superb second goal after 22 minutes. The former Paris St Germain midfielder robbed Kieran Murtagh close to halfway and powered forward before unleashing a fierce 30-yard drive that went through the hands of Wagenaar.
Aliadiere almost had a third a minute later with a turning shot that went just over and Digard forced another save out of the Canadian goalkeeper with a low drive.
The third came as Boro snuffed out a rare Yeovil attack with 31 minutes gone and then broke the length of the field before Aliadiere turned on the edge of the box and fired home.
Yeovil at least managed to pull one back before the break when Boro were caught napping at a free-kick and Tomlin, who moments earlier shot weakly at Ross Turnbull, nudged in from close range.
Yeovil's small band of supporters chanted about winning 4-3 but any hopes of a comeback were only fanciful.
Aliadiere had already shot wide when Emnes assured himself of a place on the scoresheet in the first minute of the second half by heading in Hoyte's cross from an unmarked position.
Wagenaar then saved low to his right from Mido but he could do little about Johnson's sublime effort in the 65th minute.
Johnson, fed by Mido, took a touch and then curled beyond the reach of the
keeper for his side's fifth.
Boro then eased off the gas in the closing 15 minutes and Southgate handed a debut to Rhys Williams - who earlier in the day was called into the Wales squad.
| Middlesbrough |
Team Statistics |
Yeovil Town |
|
| 5 |
Goals |
1 |
|
| 3 |
1st Half Goals |
1 |
|
| 11 |
Shots on Target |
2 |
|
| 11 |
Shots off Target |
1 |
|
| 4 |
Blocked Shots |
1 |
|
| 12 |
Corners |
0 |
|
| 10 |
Fouls |
10 |
|
| 1 |
Offsides |
0 |
|
| 0 |
Yellow Cards |
1 |
|
| 0 |
Red Cards |
0 |
|
| 58.3 |
Possession |
41.7 |
|
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