Will Lankshear scored twice as Middlesbrough produced the performance of the Championship season so far, battering Bolton Wanderers 5-1 at the Toughsheet Community Stadium on Friday night to move two points clear at the top of the table.
Kim Hellberg's side were 3-0 up before half-time and never looked back. Aidan Morris opened the scoring, Lankshear added his first of the night, and a Lewis Brunt own goal left Bolton chasing shadows long before Thelonius Bair gave the home crowd a brief moment of hope in first-half stoppage time.
Boro Blow Bolton Away Before The Break
Bolton could actually have led. Ruben Rodrigues had an early effort saved by Radek Vitek, but Boro struck just 26 seconds later — Amario Cozier-Duberry crossed from the right and the unmarked Morris tapped in from four yards after 13 minutes.
From there it was one-way traffic. Boro racked up chance after chance, with home goalkeeper Gavin Bazunu denying Callum Brittain and Lankshear before the striker finally got his goal on 31 minutes, steering home at the end of a flowing move after Tommy Conway played the final pass, as reported by Sky Sports.
Eight minutes later it was three. Brunt turned the ball into his own net, and although Bair angled home a reply in stoppage time, the contest already felt settled. The numbers told the story of Boro's dominance: they finished with 31 shots to Bolton's 12, and 12 efforts on target.
Cozier-Duberry Haunts His Old Club
If one subplot summed up the night, it was Cozier-Duberry. The Brighton loanee spent last season on loan at Bolton, producing nine goals and 10 assists in League One — and on his return he tormented the club that launched him.
He created the opener for Morris, was denied a goal of his own by Bazunu, and then made the points completely safe on 73 minutes in front of the 5,000 travelling Boro fans. Five minutes later Lankshear added the fifth, his 11th league goal of the season and his sixth in six games, as theScore noted.
It was Boro's 10th successive win over Bolton, a run stretching back to 2014 — and on this evidence, few of the previous nine can have been as emphatic as this.
The result sits alongside Friday night's other drama, with Ipswich held by Nottingham Forest in the Premier League, while Leeds — who face Sunderland this weekend — will have watched Boro's statement win with interest.
So What: The Top Spot Is Boro's To Lose This Weekend
Victory lifts Middlesbrough to the summit, two points clear of Swansea City and three above West Ham United. Both chasers play on Saturday — Swansea travel to QPR and West Ham host Southampton — so Boro's stay at the top could be brief.
But the manner of this win matters more than the margin at the top. A side that scores five away from home, creates 31 shots and has a striker in Lankshear's form — 13 goals in all competitions — is not a side riding its luck. Hellberg's team travel next to face Charlton Athletic on 31 October, and they will do so as the division's team to beat.
For Bolton and Steven Schumacher, this was a chastening night that could have been even heavier without Bazunu's saves. The Trotters must regroup quickly before the gap to the play-off places starts to grow.
Beyond the Final Whistle: This was not just a win, it was a warning. Middlesbrough did not grind out top spot — they kicked the door down, with a 21-year-old striker playing like the best forward in the division and a winger destroying his former club for fun. Swansea and West Ham may reclaim the summit on Saturday, but Boro have set the standard everyone else now has to match. Can anyone in the Championship live with Lankshear and Cozier-Duberry in this form?
