Crooks and Akpom give Boro victory at Birmingham

Matt Crooks scored two goals and set up another as Middlesbrough beat Birmingham City to record a sixth win in seven games and move back into the Championship play-off places.

Two minutes later, the former Rotherham midfielder doubled the lead after pouncing on a poor touch by Blues defender George Friend and guiding the ball past goalkeeper John Ruddy.

Tahith Chong gave the Blues hope with 16 minutes remaining with a header from close range after Auston Trusty nodded a Troy Deeney cross back across goal.

But in-form Chuba Akpom made the points safe with five minutes left with his ninth goal in 10 games since Michael Carrick took over as boss, latching onto Crooks’ pass and rounding Ruddy before slotting in.

Victory took Boro up to fifth place, ahead of Millwall and Luton on goal difference, while Birmingham drop to 17th after a third successive defeat.

In a first half of few clear chances, Akpom had a header deflected wide in the opening 20 minutes, while Birmingham frontman Lukas Jutkiewicz sent a long-range volley narrowly over just before the break.

Ruddy denied Marcus Forss soon after the restart after the Finland international had been found with a long pass forward, before Blues midfielder Krystian Bielik planted a header wide.

Crooks opened the scoring soon after, making no error from Howson’s cross. The Blues defence was then swiftly undone again by another ball from the back when former Boro man Friend mis-controlled and allowed Crooks to scamper in behind and beat Ruddy.

Blues boss John Eustace responded with a quadruple substitution and Deeney, one of those introduced, played a big part in their goal when his deep cross from the right-hand side of the box was kept alive by Trusty and converted by Chong.

Yet Boro sealed all three points with five minutes left after Crooks burst forward and released Akpom with a threaded through-ball, as Carrick registered a seventh win in 10 league games since his appointment in October.