Middlesbrough made it two wins for the season after goals from Alfonso Alves and Sanli Tuncay were enough to defeat 10-man Stoke City.It was the Potters who began the stronger, using their direct and aggressive style of play to intimidate a young Boro side. They failed to create any clear-cut chances, though, with Ricardo Fuller's curling shot the closest they came to taking the lead.
Despite not starting on the front foot, the home side did have a couple of half-chances themselves - both falling to Alves.
The turning point came after 35 minutes. During a Middlesbrough counter-attack, Amady Faye produced an ugly two-footed challenge on Mohamed Shawky and was show the red card. From the resulting free-kick, Alves made up for his previous misses as he fired an excellent strike into the back of the net to give his side the lead. For the remainder of the first half, Middlesbrough dominated - but they failed to add to their lead before the break.
The start of the second half saw a complete contrast. Middlesbrough played some excellent football and Stewart Downing was getting more involved in the action. However, they were unable to double their lead with Tuncay and Jeremie Aliadiere guilty of firing the ball wide of the target when they should have done better. Then Downing missed a penalty after Alves was brought down by Seyi Olofinjana.
With the score at 1-0, Stoke were always in the game and their resilience was rewarded when they equalised after 72 minutes. Liam Lawrence produced an excellent ball into the box and under pressure from Dave Kitson, Justin Hoyte managed to turn the ball into his own net.
The away side were unable to hold on to their point. With just five minutes remaining, Tuncay latched on to a Didier Digard shot to poke the ball home from close range.
