Middlesbrough welcome Bournemouth to the Riverside Stadium in Saturday’s stand-out Sky Bet Championship clash.
Victory would see Middlesbrough go eighth for at least a few hours, whereas a win would see Bournemouth go top of the Championship until Monday evening at minimum.
Team News
Duncan Watmore and Isiah Jones could be available for Middlesbrough after recovering from knocks suffered in their goalless draw at Stoke last weekend.
Matt Crooks (knee) could also feature but Marcus Browne (knee) remains a long-term absentee.
Bournemouth could welcome Philip Billing back from a knee injury after the midfielder participated in training this week.
Lloyd Kelly (quad), Jordan Zemura (ankle) and Junior Stanislas (hamstring) are also set to return
Jefferson Lerma (suspension) and David Brooks (illness) remain absent.
Stat Attack
- Middlesbrough are winless in six previous Championship meetings against Bournemouth (D4, L2).
- Bournemouth have drawn all three of their Championship visits to Boro (D3).
- Bournemouth’s Dominic Solanke scored in both meetings against Middlesbrough last season (W1, D1).
- All four of Matt Crooks’ goals for Boro this season have been scored at home.
- Lewis Cook has been yellow carded in three of Bournemouth’s last four matches.
Prediction
Since Chris Wilder took over in early November, Middlesbrough have slowly but surely made progress with one defeat in their last six matches, which was evident in how robustly solid across the pitch they were in their draw at Stoke.
Bournemouth meanwhile just haven’t going since the season resumed after last month’s international break with poor defending, despite showing goalscoring consistency which however went AWOL in last weekend’s loss to Blackburn so will be eager to produce a reaction here.
Boro though are probably set for a defensive challenge here because I can see Bournemouth turning up with an all-out attack, yet if the hosts can dig deep and make a fierce contest here then a point could be a decent bet.
Prediction: Middlesbrough 1-1 Bournemouth
Result: Middlesbrough 1-0 Bournemouth