Middlesbrough 2 QPR 0

Feb 28 2010 by Mark Douglas, Sunday Sun

PERHAPS we all should have learned to expect the unexpected from this barmy football season.

A French lingerie model sending Fabio Capello’s World Cup plans back to the drawing board? Check. Bobby Zamora nudging his way into the England reckoning? Believe it. A beach ball effectively knocking Liverpool out of the title race? It happened.

But ‘Fortress Riverside’? Seriously? It might have sounded risible at the turn of the year when boos were a regular part of the match day soundtrack, but Boro are now six unbeaten on their own patch in the league – and in with a real chance of gate-crashing the promotion play-offs.

It hasn’t exactly been thrills and spills for the hardcore Boro faithful in the two and a bit months since they last tasted defeat on Teesside.

A 1-0 win here, a hard-fought 1-1 draw there – not the stuff of street parties and open-top bus parades, but enough to illustrate the gentle progress being made under Strachan’s canny leadership.

Bolstered by the bolshy Barry Robson and the savvy Stephen McManus, it looks like a hardened Boro suddenly ‘get’ the art of winning at home. Getting out of this division is about substance over style and points aren’t doled out for artistic merit in the Championship.

Which is just as well because this defeat of struggling QPR was another for Boro’s growing collection of attritional victories. Not that Strachan’s men didn’t deserve their victory. Unfortunate Rangers worked hard, but were shaded by Boro in all the key areas.

Still, it took a marginal refereeing call from Andy Woolmer to provide them with their crucial breakthrough.