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Middlesbrough close gap on Championship leaders Coventry to three points
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Taylor own goal puts Middlesbrough ahead and Silvera scores superb second
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Price free-kick halves Albion’s deficit and sub Wallace equalises
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But Burgzorg comes off bench to fire Boro winner in 90th minute
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Ex-Man Utd coach Eric Ramsay’s first game in charge of WBA ends in defeat
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Substitute Delano Burgzorg scored a 90th-minute winner as Middlesbrough moved within three points of Championship leaders Coventry with a dramatic victory in West Bromwich Albion’s first game under new head coach Eric Ramsay.
An own goal just before half-time from Albion defender Charlie Taylor and a second strike in two league games from Sam Silvera just before the hour had put Boro in control, only for the Baggies to rally brilliantly with two goals in five minutes.
But Burgzorg drilled home his first goal since August to claim what could be a crucial three points in the hunt for promotion to the Premier League.
Ramsay’s side had started brightly and Norway striker Aune Heggebo could have scored inside the first three minutes, but for an important stop from Sol Brynn.
Boro weathered that storm and dominated possession, although there was a big slice of luck about their opener as Alex Gilbert struck the woodwork and as the ball ricocheted out, Taylor could not sort his feet out and it flew into the net off him.
The second goal was more straightforward as Morgan Whittaker played in Silvera and he fired low past Josh Griffiths for goals in successive league games.
Isaac Price curled home a free-kick to give Albion some hope and five minutes later, they were level when Jed Wallace swept home as the ball reached him running unmarked towards the back post.
However, Burgzorg and Boro had the last laugh as they put the pressure on Coventry and extended their advantage over Ipswich Town, in third, to five points.
The stoppage-time defeat at Leicester City in the Baggies’ previous Championship game proved to be the final straw in Ryan Mason’s short spell as head coach.
A 10th consecutive away loss left him no wiggle room with Albion 18th in the table and they have chosen Ramsay as the man to revive their fortunes in both the short and long term.
Ramsay has plenty of coaching experience in the UK, working as an assistant at Manchester United, no less, under Erik ten Hag, but he proved his worth by moving Stateside and guiding Minnesota to successive fourth-place finishes in the Western Conference of the MLS.
With Minnesota one of the more unglamorous sides in the competition, Albion’s hierarchy were impressed how Ramsay had maximised his resources. That is something the Baggies need to do now Premier League parachute payments are a thing of the past.
But however good his achievements in the USA, English football is a different beast and although Ramsay will need no reminder of that, this chaotic 90 minutes reinforced it.
The hosts started brightly in a new five-man defensive line-up, then subsided meekly for a long period and looked to be slipping to a comfortable defeat.
But Price’s free-kick changed the momentum and The Hawthorns was rocking when substitute Wallace levelled minutes later.
Yet they could not see the job through for a morale-boosting point and instead a seventh loss in nine Championship games has them looking over their shoulders, seven points clear of the relegation zone, especially with Norwich City, in 22nd, the next visitors to The Hawthorns on Tuesday night.
Middlesbrough have confounded expectations virtually all season, leading fans to wonder if this will be the year they end their Premier League exile stretching back to 2017.
Even Rob Edwards’ departure to Wolves in November did not halt their momentum, as successor Kim Hellberg won his opening four games.
There followed a sticky run of one point and no goals from four matches over Christmas and New Year, but a 4-0 thumping of Southampton in their previous league outing put them back in the automatic promotion spots.
They withstood the expected charge from a team playing for a new boss and oozed a quiet confidence as they started to dominate possession.
When Silvera fired home the second just before the hour, the game felt done and Adilson Malanda should have added a third with a header, but West Brom’s comeback would have caught the attention of the Sky Blues and Tractor Boys preparing for their Saturday lunchtime games.
At that stage, the game could have gone either way, but up stepped Burgzorg as the ex-Huddersfield man ended a 22-game wait for only his second goal of the season.
If Boro do go on to end that nine-year wait for top-flight football, the importance of this strike will not be under-estimated.
West Bromwich Albion head coach Eric Ramsay said:
“It’s very difficult not to feel very disappointed. I wouldn’t be human if that wasn’t the case and certainly after we got ourselves back into the game.
“You could only see it going one way and the fact that it hasn’t makes it incredibly disappointing.
“But coming into this game and irrespective of the outcome, it was going to be information for us as a coaching staff and as players which will give us food for thought as we move into Tuesday.
“I’m very much wrapped in the process that we continue to get better so I’m not going to get drawn into the highs and lows but it’s difficult not to get swept up in that.”
Middlesbrough head coach Kim Hellberg said:
“The mentality of the players is the key thing here after the crowd goes unbelievably crazy.
“The game was almost done. We were controlling things and they scored a goal from almost nothing.
“They got a lot of energy and have some very good players and then [for us] to come back from that and score a winner in that way [was great].
“It was not a long ball, it was not lucky, it was a top quality goal in the 90th minute and that says everything about this group of lads.”
