Friday Feb 17 2006 09:07
Middlesbrough boss Steve McClaren was delighted Jimmy Floyd Hasselbaink justified the decision to recall him to the starting line-up for Thursday's 2-1 win at VfB Stuttgart.
McClaren opted to replace Yakubu, who terrorised Chelsea from the lone striker role last weekend, with Hasselbaink for the first leg of the UEFA Cup round of 32 tie and was rewarded when the Dutchman pounced on error by Fernando Meira to give Boro a 20th-minute lead.
Stuart Parnaby added a second a minute after the break to ensure Boro headed home with a valuable advantage from the away leg.
McClaren said: "He (Hasselbaink) led the line very well. The one man up front is always important. Yakubu did it very well against Chelsea and Jimmy did it very well here.
"We needed his experience - it helps in Europe. He leads the line well and give him half a chance and he'll score a goal.
"It was the perfect sort of goal for us, a mistake at the back pounced on and it's 1-0."
"We left Jimmy out on Saturday against Chelsea and he'd scored four goals in five games.
"We know he's a player in form and I had no hesitation in putting him in and freshening it up and saving legs for future games."
McClaren was, however, annoyed to see his side let Stuttgart back in to the tie when Danijel Ljuboja fired home a free-kick with five minutes left on the clock.
He added: "It's a big disappointment. A clean sheet is most important and conceding a goal is something you don't want to do.
"At 2-0, I knew we would be under pressure in the last 10 minutes, but I was disappointed with conceding that. It does leave the tie still open.
"But we are delighted, obviously, with the result. We would have settled for that before the game."
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