Tony Mowbray's return to Teesside with Sunderland ended in defeat as Riley McGree's goal lifted Middlesbrough out of the Championship's bottom three. McGree scored the only goal of the game inside the opening half-hour, when he took advantage of some lax defending which left him with a yard of space inside the penalty area.
Sunderland were rocked by an injury to Ross Stewart in the warm-up, and without their leading scorer they looked toothless up front - and the quality of their final ball into the box was also lamentable. Boro could have won by a larger margin, with Anthony Patterson making a string of saves in the second half to keep his side in the game.
But a single goal was enough for Chris Wilder's Boro, and it lifted them to 17th in the table. For former Boro player and manager Mowbray, it was a first defeat in what was his second game in charge of the Black Cats, but Sunderland remained eighth in the table.
