Tommy Conway and Anfernee Dijksteel struck either side of half-time as Middlesbrough beat QPR 2-1 to edge themselves to within three points of the Sky Bet Championship play-off places.
Conway’s 11th-goal of the season gave the hosts an 11th-minute lead, but they had to wait until 13 minutes after the break for Dijksteel to effectively seal a relatively-routine victory over Rangers, for whom Steve Cook pulled one back with 10 minutes remaining.
Boro, who like the visitors had lost six and won just two of their previous eight games, started on the front foot with Hayden Hackney and Samuel Iling-Junior firing wide from distance.
They took the lead when Finn Azaz found space on the left and crossed low for Conway to get ahead of defender Ronnie Edwards and score.
On-loan Sevilla striker Kelechi Iheanacho was seeing plenty of the ball for the hosts as QPR found themselves pinned back inside their own half for long periods, and it was he who played in Azaz to shoot tamely at goalkeeper Paul Nardi with 23 minutes gone.
Azaz curled a second effort wide of the far post – 14 minutes before the break – with Michael Carrick’s men dominating possession, but Delano Burgzorg should have done better when he skied the ball over seconds later, after being set up by Iling-Junior.
However it took a fine diving save by Nardi to keep out Hackney’s rising drive after makeshift central defender Jonny Howson had burst forward.
Jimmy Dunne had to throw himself into the path of Conway’s 40th-minute strike to prevent Boro from making the most of a four versus three counter-attack.
But the visitors should have been level three minutes before the break when Yang Min-hyeok played full-back Kenneth Paal in, only to see him steer his attempt wastefully wide of Mark Travers’ left post.
Conway only just failed to connect with Iling-Junior’s driven 56th-minute cross after Iheanacho’s shot had been blocked.
But the home side did increase their lead – 13 minutes after the restart – when the bustling Dijksteel worked his way into the box and dispatched a low shot across Nardi and inside the far post.
The visitors enjoyed a sustained period of possession as Boro relaxed and Travers had to palm away substitute Lucas Andersen’s 79th-minute effort.
But the keeper was finally beaten by Cook after fellow defender Dunne had headed the resulting corner back across goal to spark a tense conclusion, during which Nardi headed straight at his opposite number deep into stoppage-time.
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