Source: Northern_Echo
Boro bear the Brunt at the Riverside
FIVE years after leaving Middlesbrough, Chris Brunt returned to deliver a reality check for his former club at the Riverside Stadium.
Brunt, sold to Sheffield Wednesday in 2004 before moving on to West Brom three years later, scored two goals inside the opening 31 minutes to dent Boro’s hopes of going top of the Championship.
But it got worse, far worse. Even when Yousuff Mulumbu added a third two minutes before half-time, the Teesside crowd must have hoped for a fight-back. It never arrived.
There was simply no way back for a lacklustre Middlesbrough team that were outplayed throughout by an impressive West Brom.
There was a hint of fortune about Brunt’s opener in the 18th minute, when his deflected free-kick wrong-footed Danny Coyne.
His second, though, was a mixture of brilliance and calamity, as Coyne’s attempted clearance on the edge of his area found Brunt 45 yards out and the Northern Irishman instinctively volleyed into the empty net.
When Mulumbu arrived in the area to nod Graeme Dorrans’ delivery high into Coyne’s net shortly before the break, the anger and frustration was clear among the Boro fans.
But the tensions raised further when West Brom added two more in the final nine minutes.
First Roman Bednar was allowed to bring the ball down, create space and fire low into Coyne’s bottom corner from 20 yards.
And then Jerome Thomas, lively throughout, danced his way around Tony McMahon to slot in the fifth a minute from time.
On the evidence of this West Brom should walk the Championship this season, whether or not Middlesbrough – who drop to third – will join them in the top-flight again is another thing.
