Chris Wilder enjoyed an “electric afternoon” as his Middlesbrough side climbed into the Sky Bet Championship play-off places in front of a crowd of almost 30,000 at the Riverside.
Boro rose to their highest position of the season so far as a first-half own goal from Ryan Yates and second-half strike from Andraz Sporar secured a 2-0 win over Nottingham Forest that made it 13 points from the last five matches.
That run has created a feelgood factor on Teesside, as underlined by the Boxing Day attendance of 29,832, which was comfortably Middlesbrough’s biggest home gate of the season.
Wilder said: “To get a result and a performance was great for everybody. I’ve been here when it’s been full, watching, but never been involved at the coal face. It was fabulous. It was electric.
“I know we can’t replicate that all the time – obviously Boxing Day is a special day for everybody to come and watch football – but if we can carry on pulling the punters in with the way we play, then that will be great.
“What that does to the players is fabulous. It gives them the energy to keep going and allows them to dominate, as they did against a really good side. I think we did that, especially in the first half.”
Boro were dominant for the opening hour, carving out a succession of good chances as their energetic, high-pressing style forced Forest onto the back foot.
The visitors rallied briefly in the second half, with Philip Zinckernagel and Joe Worrall wasting good chances, but the home side remained a threat and deservedly put things to bed when Sporar swept home from close range after goalkeeper Brice Samba clawed Matt Crooks’ cross into his path.
Wilder said: “They are a good side and we had to get the press right. They stretched us a bit for 10 or 15 minutes in the second half, which you would expect from an excellent side and a really good manager like Steve (Cooper).
“We’re not going to be greedy and think we’re going to have all of the game. I thought we had the majority of the first half, and the second goal for us came at a great time. They had just started to cause us a few problems, but we got that sorted out.
“They missed a couple of chances, but we missed chances in the first half. We should have been comfortably in the lead, but they are a good side and they are always going to come at you, and they did. The timing of the second goal was big for us and we managed things from there.”
Cooper admitted his Forest side did not hit the standards they had been setting as they had lost just one of their 16 matches prior to their visit to Teesside.
The Forest boss said: “In terms of both the result and the performance we fell short today. In the first half especially, there were a number of reasons why we were second best.
“We still gave away a goal that you didn’t expect to, but the message at half-time was that as poor as we had been, it was still only 1-0.
“We changed a few things tactically and to be fair, we did slowly come back into the game. We’ve missed a brilliant chance and momentum was maybe coming our way a little bit, but then we conceded the second goal and it was too much of a mountain to climb from then.
“It was clear to see why we didn’t play well. Technically, I thought we were below par. We gave away the ball too much, which has not been like us, and without the ball, we just didn’t get enough pressure onto them.”
