Sunderland:3 - Middlesbrough:2
Posted on: April 28th, 2008
Substitute Daryl Murphy ensured Sunderland will play in next season’s Barclays Premier League with a last-gasp winner against Middlesbrough.
The game looked to be heading for a draw - which would not have been the worst result for either side - when Boro’s record signing Afonso Alves fired home a 73rd-minute equaliser.
The Teessiders had got off to the perfect start when Tuncay Sanli gave them a fourth-minute lead, but Danny Higginbotham equalised within two minutes as a compelling contest which neither side could afford to lose ebbed and flowed in front of 45,059 nervous spectators.
Tuncay makes Boro’s day against Derby
Posted on: March 23rd, 2008
Turkish striker Tuncay Sanli made Middlesbrough’s day with the solitary goal in the home side’s defeat of Premier League basement dwellers Derby on Saturday.
The win eased Boro’s relegation fears - they’re now sitting 12th on 34 points, and left Derby rooted at the bottom of the table with just 10 points from their 31 games played.
Boro almost took the lead in the seventh minute through defender David Wheater, whose performances this season earned him a call-up to Fabio Cappello’s England squad earlier this week.
Tuncay helps Boro thrash Pompey
Posted on: December 29th, 2007
Tuncay Sanli’s goal was good enough to give Middlesbrough a 1-0 win away to Portsmouth as the home side failed to score at Fratton Park for the sixth straight Premier League match.Former Pompey favourite Gary O’Neil returned to haunt his old club by setting up Sanli’s 20th minute winner as Boro moved up the table and away from the relegation zone. Portsmouth pressed for an equaliser and almost got one after the break but Nwankwo Kanu hit the post from five yards out.
Derby County 0-1 Middlesbrough
Posted on: December 15th, 2007
Bottom club Derby County suffered their seventh successive Barclays Premier League defeat and are now six points adrift of the team above them.In Paul Jewell’s first home match in charge, it took a third goal in successive matches from Turkey International Tuncay Sanli to give Middlesbrough victory.The goal came against the run of the play at the time, and it was totally out of keeping with what had gone before. Tuncay’s 38th-minute strike oozed quality as he stroked a sidefoot volley beyond Stephen Bywater from 15 yards in meeting a first-time cross from left winger Stewart Downing.
