Ipswich Town vs Middlesbrough, match report: Nugent’s repeat show helps Boro to the summit

Just as night follows day so David Nugent will score against Ipswich, and this time it helped Middlesbrough reach the top of the Championship table.

Nugent’s 74th-minute finish was his 15th in 14 games against Ipswich; he has scored in all eight of his games at Portman Road, this one taking his tally to 10 in Suffolk, and he even scored for England Under-21s at this ground.

It was Uruguayan striker Christian Stuani who got Boro off the mark with his fourth league goal, to go with his four in the League Cup.

Mick McCarthy’s Ipswich had the luxury of keeping the same starting XI which beat Charlton last weekend and were looking to feed in-form Daryl Murphy.

Town’s run of six games without defeat going into this fixture, and the club announcing a £5.3m profit during the week, means McCarthy does not have to worry about looking over his shoulder at potential managerial replacements, like Kieron Dyer who announced on a reality show how he would love to be the Ipswich manager.

Boro were knocked out of the Capital One Cup by Everton on Tuesday and it was no surprise Aitor Karanka made four changes from that side, with attackers Nugent and Albert Adomah, defender George Friend and goalkeeper Dimi Konstantopoulos all recalled.

With top spot in their sights Boro looked to counter Ipswich chasing a third home win in succession. The Teessiders had an early sniff of goal when Ipswich midfielder Jonathan Douglas put his side under unnecessary pressure by giving the ball straight to Stewart Downing who ran into the Ipswich half unopposed but his tame shot was pushed round a post for a corner by Dean Gerken.

All the pre-match hype was about Nugent and his goal record against Ipswich. He hit an early range-finder, which Gerken had no trouble getting down to, while the Town keeper was well-positioned to take a Stuani half-volley with ease.

Boro centre-half Ben Gibson was booked for a foul on Brett Pitman as Ipswich’s movement around the edge of area caused problems.

Konstantopoulos pushed away a powerful Pitman drive, and clawed away a Luke Chambers effort off the line, as the game swung tantalisingly to and fro in a frenetic, if unproductive, first half.

Boro’s opener, nine minutes into the second half came as both Ipswich full-backs were beaten, first when Adomah got the better of Luke Chambers to cross deep and Stuani beat Jonas Knudsen to squeeze his header between Gerken and post.

Both keepers did their jobs well immediately after the break with Konstantopoulos alert to a Pitman header after Boro centre-half Daniel Ayala failed to deal with an Ainsley Maitland-Niles cross, while Gerken was equally sharp to block a Grant Leadbitter shot.

Nugent found space to latch on to a ball from Downing in the 73rd minute and got past Tommy Smith to score in off a post.

Ipswich Town: Gerken, Chambers, Smith, Berra, Knudsen, Maitland-Niles (Coke, 63), Skuse, Douglas, Pitman (McGoldrick, 86), Murphy, Sears. Substitutes not used: Parr, Tabb, Malarczyk, McDonnell, Bialkowski.

Middlesbrough: Konstantopoulos, Nsue, Ayala, Gibson, Friend, Clayton, Leadbitter, Stuani (Forshaw, 85), Downing, Adomah, Nugent. Substitutes not used: Amorebieta, Garcia, Mejias, Kalas, Fabbrini, Zuculini.

Referee: T Robinson (W Sussex)