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Millwall

Henderson (43)

1 - 3

The Den
npower Championship
(Attendance: 9,286)

Middlesbrough

Emnes (15)
Emnes (38)
Main (86)

Older Matches

Back On Song

Boro looked to be cruising after two Marvin Emnes goals and an impressive team performance for most of the first half silenced the normally vociferous home crowd.

But the Lions pulled back a goal late on and piled on the pressure after the break, only giving up when substitute Curtis Main scored a brilliant first goal for the club.

"We had total dominance and control in the first half, when we could have scored four goals in the first five minutes and were as good as we've been in quite a while," he said.

"Then we gave them a sloppy goal before half-time, which gave the crowd something to get them going. They had a real go in the second half and the disappointment for me is we didn't expand on the platform we'd built.

"But the qualities of the team were there for all to see. Young Steele was excellent and the defenders stuck to their jobs. Ultimately all that matters it three points. It's a difficult place to come and it gives us a bit of impetus going into the game against Reading."

Tony Mowbray watches as Marvin Emnes takes a throw-in - Photo by North News

Boro could have easily been further ahead at the interval, with Marvin Emnes missing a far simpler chance than the two he scored to open the scoring early on.

"How Marvin didn't head that one in from the corner, God only knows," said Mowbray.

"But that's three in two games for him and he's back on song. We have to keep Marvin going. He's missed a little bit of football through injury and his confidence dipped a little bit. But his talent is very obvious for everyone to see."

Mowbray had said in pre-match interviews that he hoped Curtis Main would soon get a chance to add a goal to the hugely-impressive start he's made to his Boro career and he got his wish, in some style.

"It wouldn't have mattered which side it fell on, he has that ferocity in both feet," said the manager. "The coaching staff have been waiting for that kind of opportunity to drop to him because he has such pure feet. He's far from the finished product and he needs to learn about his positional play. Yet if we can get the ball to him, he will score."

Barry Robson returned after injury and personified the fighting spirit in the Boro squad as he stayed on the pitch despite obvious discomfort from his hand and another injury.

"We needed Barry on the pitch," said Mowbray. "I had everyone telling me Barry was struggling and I'm not blind, I could see that myself.

"But sometimes you need your warriors on the pitch and Barry stayed on until the game was won. You saw Barry playing with one leg and one arm and doing what he does for our team. If he misses the weekend he will be a huge miss for us."

The win, Boro's second in succession, confirmed the team's return to form after a difficult start to 2012.

Mowbray said: "If you don't win games you're going to slip down this table because the likes of Cardiff, West Ham, Birmingham and Reading are all winning.

"All we have to do for me is stay in the pack and we'll see what we're made of when it comes to the real crunch.

"This win has hopefully given us the belief that we can win games away from home. It's important to be able to come to tough places and get the three points.

"We now have a huge game against Reading at the weekend and we have to make sure we climb above them and keep going."

POS	TEAM	PL	GD	PTS
1	West Ham United	31	19	60
2	Southampton	32	26	59
3	Birmingham City	31	22	54
4	Reading	31	12	54
5	Cardiff City	32	11	53
6	Middlesbrough	31	6	53
7	Blackpool	32	11	52
8	Hull City	31	6	51
9	Brighton and Hove Albion	32	3	50
10	Leeds United	32	4	48
11	Burnley	32	7	47
12	Crystal Palace	31	3	43
13	Leicester City	31	5	42
14	Barnsley	32	-6	42
15	Derby County	31	-8	42
16	Ipswich Town	31	-7	40
17	Watford	32	-11	40
18	Peterborough United	31	-1	37
19	Millwall	32	-13	31
20	Bristol City	32	-22	31
21	Nottingham Forest	31	-23	28
22	Portsmouth	31	-1	25
23	Coventry City	32	-18	25
24	Doncaster Rovers	30	-25	24