"IT was an important win, a big win, it just keeps momentum going which we have gathered over the last few weeks," said Boro boss Steve McClaren.

"After the disappointment of last week when we drew our biggest crowd, the lads have felt all week that they had a point to prove and that win was especially for all the fans who travelled to Blackburn, they were absolutely magnificent, it made up for the disappointment of last week.

"We have started December on a winning note, but this it isn't about the programme ahead, it's about the performance of the team and I thought we deserved to win, but I was very disappointed that we didn't finish it off earlier.

"We really started well, that's the best we've started, the passing was good, the movement was good, we created chances and we ended up scoring what you would call a flukey goal.

"With all the good play and good chances we created beforehand we thought we might have scored another way, but we're not complaining!"