Now-sacked QPR coach Neil Critchley admitted his struggling Championship outfit could not cope with the quality and speed of Chuba Akpom, Riley McGree and Cameron Archer during Saturday’s 3-1 defeat, speaking to the club‘s official website.
With Queens Park Rangers in the midst of a miserable run of form, the last thing the under-fire Critchley needed was to see Michael Carrick’s brilliant Boro appear on the fixture list.
The Championship’s form side took their time at the Riverside. But three goals in the final 30 minutes highlighted the gulf in class between a team with automatic promotion ambitions and one glancing nervously over their shoulder at the relegation zone.
“Middlesbrough come out for the second half, start very well as you’d expect them to because they’re in form. They’re at home, and they’ve got good players,” Critchley sighed, 24 hours after being relieved of his duties.
Middlesbrough beat QPR before Neil Critchley exit
Akpom opened the scoring with a bullet header just past the hour before taking his tally to 20 with an admittedly-fortuitous penalty 13 minutes later. Despite promising a late fightback thanks to Ilias Chair’s clever effort, Australia international McGree put the icing on the cake in stoppage time following some good work from Matt Crooks.
“The way they play gives you a lot of problems in the middle of the pitch, and they started to get a bit of success. Middlesbrough started to push in and step in and overload certain sides of the pitch. You could see we found that difficult,” added Critchley; departing with just one win in 12 QPR games since replacing Mick Beale at Loftus Road.
“They have real pace and quality on the counter with the likes of Cameron Archer, Akpom, McGree; they can run. If you don’t stop those moments by being well-organised, then they can quickly spring at the other end and run the length of the pitch. Which is what happened.
“Look, they’re in form and playing well. They had a real spell in the second half where they really turned up the heat. We couldn’t quite weather that.”
There are now just four points separating Sheffield United in second and Middlesbrough in third; the latter having defeated the former in midweek. Carrick’s 72 per cent win percentage meanwhile, is the best in Boro’s entire history.
Not bad for a 41-year-old just a few months into his first ever managerial role.
Receive exclusive football transfer news and updates twice a week to your mailbox
