Full-time: Middlesbrough 4 Ipswich Town 1

IF there was a perfect time for Middlesbrough’s players to start to prove a few people wrong, then when better than at the beginning of a final ten-match stretch of the Championship’s promotion race.

After winning just two of their previous six matches, losing three, and struggling to find a way to get their forwards firing in front of goal, Aitor Karanka has had to dismiss accusations that his players were feeling the pressure at the business end of the season.

He had also been forced to defend his strikers after it became public that talks had taken place aimed at trying to lure Jordan Rhodes from Blackburn to boost his side’s firepower.

But such concerns were forgotten when play-off contenders Ipswich Town arrived at the Riverside. Not only did Middlesbrough find a performance worthy of three points, they also discovered their scoring touch.

Third-placed Boro, level on points at the top, have scored 18 and 20 goals shy of the two teams above them – Watford and Bournemouth – so it does not take too much delving to realise why the Teesside club have not taken control of the title race.

After Patrick Bamford was finally asked to play through the middle in his preferred role alongside Jelle Vossen, Middlesbrough delivered on a number of fronts to give everyone connected with the club a lift ahead of away trips to automatic promotion rivals Derby and Bournemouth this week.

Now the challenge will be to make sure the return to form does not end there. If Bamford can build on his 15 goals then he could prove to be the difference between a play-off place and a top two spot.

The Chelsea youngster certainly shone in that position against Ipswich, with two centre-forward like goals in the second half to condemn Mick McCarthy’s team to a defeat which is likely to have put paid to any hopes they had of forcing their way in to the top two.

Karanka said: "Patrick deserves those goals for his work-rate and he showed great confidence in the way he took both of them.

"It was massive to win, we needed a performance and I thought we were brilliant against a good, strong team. To be eight points ahead of Ipswich now is a good situation for us.

"We moved Patrick up front and I was pleased with how it worked. Patrick is the kind of player who needs to score goals to be confident and he's prepared for the Derby game in the best way. It's good for him and good for the team.”

Middlesbrough had already got their noses in front before Bamford’s second half double. But there was a scare or two to endure during an end to end first half in which the home side showed signs of nerves.

Daniel Ayala, who had to go off with a recurrence of his ankle problem shortly after, put them ahead in the fourth minute when he met Adam Clayton’s cross with a glancing header.

But after Ipswich’s concussed goalkeeper Dean Gerken required six-and-a-half minutes of treatment - after clashing with Christophe Berra and George Friend when he came to punch Clayton’s delivery - Dimi Konstantopoulos was caught out after the game restarted.

The Greek goalkeeper mistimed his dive to save Jonathan Parr’s hopeful 25 yard drive. Konstantopoulos’ save was not sufficient and former Sunderland man Daryl Murphy reacted first to turn in the rebound.

Ipswich looked dangerous every time Ipswich attacked and he also saw a shot deflect against the post but Middlesbrough reclaimed the lead on the half hour mark.

Grant Leadbitter’s short corner to Clayton started a lovely training ground move which ended with a loose ball bouncing towards Albert Adomah. He struck a fine low drive through a crowded box and beyond goalkeeper Bartosz Bialkowski.

Bamford had justified penalty claims waved away at the end of the first half when Berra barged him over in the area, but the England Under-21 international made up for that disappointment after the restart.

The 21-year-old’s first arrived when Vossen’s clever reverse pass sent him through on goal. The striker calmly rounded Bialkowski before tapping in to the empty net in the 64th minute. The best was still to come.

When a hopeful ball was played up to him from deep 11 minutes before the end, Bamford brilliantly turned and allowed the ball to run beyond defender Tommy Smith. He took the ball on before firing a left-footed finish in to the bottom left corner.

Despite the satisfaction of winning, Karanka still had a problem with the Ipswich goal as he looks to make Middlesbrough a team worthy of winning the Championship.

He said: “We made a mistake for their goal and one mistake at this time of the season can be very dangerous. Maybe one mistake on another day and we end up losing 1-0. With nine games to go we can't make stupid mistakes.

"But this is an amazing result. After our last result at Nottingham Forest, to play in the way we did here was great. But we have to learn from that one mistake. We have to learn we can't make these mistakes.

“We've played against a very strong team who finished the game with four strikers and the main thing is that we're eight points ahead of them in seventh. We have to keep going and this is a big week.”