.png)
1 hour ago
4
Key events
Tonight’s Carabao Cup results
-
Wolves 3-0 Port Vale (Armstrong 14, André 34, López 43)
-
Wycombe 1-2 Stevenage (Henderson 39; Kemp 27, Magennis 90+5)
-
Middlesbrough 1-0 Wrexham (Lankshear 61)
Yesterday – Bristol City 0-1 Walsall (Pressley 47)
Will Lankshear prefers to laud his teammates that were involved in the move that led to his winner than talk about his exceptional finish.
On his winner …
It’s nice to be on the end of those. That is my job at the end of the day. I should’ve really scored a hat-trick today.
On coming off too slowly when subbed …
I haven’t been in the referee meetings at the start of the year because I came from Tottenham. I now know to get off the pitch a lot quicker!
On being at Middlesbrough this season …
Everyone is really really ambitious – everyone is really looking forward to this year, it’s going to be an exciting one.
I really want to do something special here. It’s a beautiful club and a great place.
Full time: Middlesbrough 1-0 Wrexham
Boro progress to the second round of the Carabao Cup thanks to Will Lankshear’s debut goal. Kim Hellberg – the most miffed man in English football at the end of last season after Spygate – allows himself a smile.
Disappointing for Wrexham to exit at the first hurdle after reaching the fourth round last season. They don’t look up to full speed and have another friendly against Wigan on Monday before the start of the Championship season.
90+2 min: A promising Wrexham counter ends with the assistant’s flag going up after Moore ran in behind.
90+1 min: Doyle is shown a yellow card for holding back Whittaker on a Middlesbrough break.
90 min: Three minutes added on. Wrexham are not exactly threatening an equaliser.
89 min: Joseph holds the ball up well for Boro deep in the Wrexham half.
Whittaker hits the post for Wrexham!
87 min: Middlesbrough try to finish things off as the ball falls to Whittaker in the area – he drives low and his shot comes off the foot of the near post with Ward beaten. Wrexham are still alive.
85 min: Hyam goes into the book for wiping out Joseph (and Doyle as a result) as Boro broke on halfway.
Full times: Wolves 3-0 Port Vale. Josh Magennis sends Stevenage through 2-1 against Wycombe with a 95th-minute winner.
83 min: Boos (for the referee, for implementing a good new rule correctly) as Cartwright is finally allowed on with Boro defending a corner after Wrexham enjoyed a spell against 10 men. Joseph heads another corner away.
81 min: Lankshear is withdrawn to ovation but he soaks it up a little too much … 19-year-old Fin Cartwright has to wait a minute to come on because Lankshear took more than 10 seconds to get off the pitch. Another new rule from the World Cup. The Riverside crowd are not happy.
78 min: Ayling is caught on the ball inside his own half by Moore and Edmundson has to bail him out. A Middlesbrough throw-in is given to Wrexham after some time-wasting – a World Cup legacy.
76 min: Whiteman has already brought more control to the Wrexham midfield. They’ve managed to get up the pitch for the first time in a while. Broadhead makes way for Davis Keillor-Dunn.
74 min: Edmundson stretches to connect with Berhalter’s free-kick into the box but can only direct his header wide from inside the six-yard box.
72 min: Subs for Wrexham:
On: Kieffer Moore, Bailey Cadamarteri, Ben Whiteman.
Off: Smith, Rathbone, James.
71 min: Good chance for Boro. Lankshear is played through by Joseph but he lifts his left-footed shot over the bar as he approaches the penalty area. Smith sends a hopeful volley wide for Wrexham at the other end.
69 min: Hyam grapples with a Middlesbrough player or two as the corner is taken. The Wrexham captain then gets out to block a cross – painfully, I must say – and it’s another corner. Ward rises to take it and the whistle goes as well – Lankshear is shown a yellow for delaying the restart.
67 min: Whittaker cuts inside dangerously and hits a left-footed shot across goal that is deflected out for a corner.
Before it’s taken, Kyle Joseph and George Edmundson are introduced for Sarmiento and Arfston.
65 min: Ayling clatters into O’Brien on the edge of the box but escapes a booking. Doyle and Broadhead stand over the free-kick, left of centre … Broadhead curls it high and wide.
Ryan Longman has replaced Danny Imray for Wrexham.
63 min: Boro get their reward for being on the front foot pretty much the whole game – and dominating the second half in terms of possession (59%) and shots at goal (six to one).
GOAL! Middlesbrough 1-0 Wrexham (Lankshear 61)
What a way to get off the mark for Will Lankshear! Sarmiento curls a ball into the box, Berhalter nods it back into the middle and Lankshear, the £20m signing from Tottenham, acrobatically hooks it into the far corner!
60 min: Arfsten charges up the left for Middlesbrough but Brittain doesn’t have the confidence to switch the play. When Brittain delivers the ball later, Berhalter takes a swing at it but it his shot bobbles wide.
58 min: Berhalter is asked to shoot by the home crowd and obliges, twice. Both shots are blocked.
56 min: Doyle twirls around one man, nutmegs Berhalter and sends the ball in behind for Smith to chase. Brynn comes out to close down the angle but Smith gets there first. The Wrexham striker toes the ball past him but his momentum makes him lose his footing without any contact from the keeper. He gets booked for diving anyway – odd.
54 min: Berhalter’s corner goes short, Brittain sweeps it into the box but Ward comes out to claim it. Whittaker hits a whistler just past the far post from the edge of the box.
53 min: Lankshear wins a corner for Middlesbrough, with Doyle unlucky to see it go out off him after going to ground.
51 min: Doyle finds Broadhead on the far touchline. The Wales forward beats Ayling with his first touch but the ball runs out of play for a throw-in. He’s looked lively though.
49 min: Lankshear digs a shot out on the edge of the D, curling it just over the intersection of post and bar. He’s desperate for a goal on his competitive debut.
47 min: No substitutes at half-time, by the way. A good chance for the starters to keep building up their minutes.
Rathbone and Smith try to combine on the break for Wrexham but Malanda is there for Middlesbrough.
We are back under way. It goes straight to penalties if we’re still level after 90 minutes.
Tim Smith writes in …
“Got to say, as a Leeds fan, I have a lot of love for Luke Ayling. Dodgy haircut, tries hard, runs around like a spring chicken, plays (mostly) with a smile. For a quite limited footballer (he was never a Premier League fullback), for him to be making the roster of a Championship pretender, despite all the new signings, is great. The Championship is his sweet spot.”
Half-time reading: Just in – Jonathan Wilson on Gianni Infantino, Fifa and the (not) great World Cup sell-off.
