MATCHWINNER Jeremie Aliadiere is hoping the feelgood factor after the victory at Wigan will spill over into Boro's next game, against table toppers Chelsea at the Riverside.

The French striker pounced at the death to steal the points after what was a backs-to-the-wall performance for much of the afternoon at the JJB Stadium.

"We haven't been getting results away from home and we'd lost four games in a row, so it was a very important win," he said.

"It was a very important game for us and we were desperate to win it, so it makes the goal a bit more special."

Buy tickets for the Chelsea game online now.

It was the second successive game against Wigan settled by a solitary Aliadiere strike, following 1-0 win at the Riverside last season.

And the former Arsenal man says the result is all the more sweet after being on the wrong end of several late winners in previous games this season.

Jeremie Aliadiere celebrates his goal at the JJB - Photo by Getty Images

"It's a great result," he said. "With a few minutes to go all you think about is not conceding a goal but it's a great feeling after conceding a few in the last minutes in other games.

"You never know what's going to happen in the Premier League, every week is a battle, but we go into every game believing that we're going to win and that's what we did."

Aliadiere's goal owed much to the awareness of Stewart Downing, who reacted quickly to cushion Didier Digard's cross into his path with his head. After that, it was all about keeping cool.

"I just thought, 'I need to pull it down and shoot as soon as possible because I'll have players around me'," Aliadiere recalled.

"The ball went in and the first thing I did was to look to see if I was offside or not and when it wasn't, I was delighted.

"We needed to get three points to take the pressure off before the international break and now we can play against Chelsea in a couple of weeks with a better atmosphere."

Advertisement