Middlesbrough's automatic promotion hopes were delivered a blow by Championship rivals Portsmouth on Saturday.

Portsmouth manager John Mousinho admitted his side inflicted a ‘smash and grab’ on Middlesbrough as the Championship strugglers boosted their hopes of avoiding relegation with a dramatic win at the Riverside Stadium.

Boro went into the game knowing they had to claim a win to maintain the pressure on second placed Ipswich Town after the Tractor Boys had claimed all three points in their East Anglia derby clash with local rivals Norwich City on Saturday lunchtime. Kim Hellberg’s side created several chances to open the scoring with Alan Browne, Riley McGree, Sontje Hansen and Alex Gilbert all testing Pompey’s resolve during a game that meant so much at both ends of the Championship table.

However, there was a last-gasp blow delivered by the visitors as they ensured they will end the weekend outside of the relegation zone thanks to a 97th minute goal from Conor Chaplin. Boro will now hope their conquerers can do them a favour as Mousinho’s side host Ipswich on Tuesday night - and the Pompey boss will head into that game on the back of what he described as a ‘lucky’ win on Teesside.

Mousinho told The News: “It’s an amazing result. At this stage of the season, it’s all about picking up points - and we have managed to do that today. We’ve come here to hopefully win the game, we’ve managed to do it in those circumstances, which was different to what we’ve been doing in the past few weeks and it has brought a few points for us. Smash and grab? I think so. In the first half obviously Middlesbrough had a lot of the ball, but we didn’t concede too many chances. We tried to get a bit more pressure on the ball in the second half and sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't.

‘Middlesbrough had a lot of pressure and a lot of chances, particularly from set-plays, which we managed to throw our bodies on the line, brilliant goal-line clearances, Nic made some big saves. We did get lucky today, let’s be honest, it’s something we just haven't had a lot of this season. It tends to be the case when you are down at the bottom.”

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