TONY PULIS has hailed Mo Besic as “one of the best players in the Championship” after the Bosnian returned from international duty with a bang for Middlesbrough.

Just days after playing almost all of Bosnia’s Nations League game with Northern Ireland in Sarajevo, Besic put Boro on the right track to climb to the top of the table with a goal and assist to secure a 2-1 win at Sheffield Wednesday.

The Everton midfielder, on loan at the Riverside for the rest of the season, struck the opener in the 49th minute before then laying on the second for Britt Assombalonga six minutes later.

Even though Sheffield Wednesday pulled one back with a sweet volley from former Middlesbrough winger Adam Reach with nine minutes remaining, Pulis’ side held on to an important three points in the battle for promotion.

The manner of Besic’s overall display was impressive and he continues to impress his manager on Teesside, who persuaded him to head back to the North-East for a second loan in the summer.

“Besic only played one game for Bosnia, he didn’t play the friendly, so I was quite happy for him to play because he didn’t play two games,” said Pulis.

“I knew the score. He is a great lad. On his day he is as good as anything in this league. At times him and Stewart Downing were sublime. They did some really good things for us. I feel we played really well for 77 minutes.

“Sheffield Wednesday have been on a good run of form, they have a deep squad and cause problems, to come here and win is very good.

“I felt Mo played well at Ipswich in his last game, he tired a bit there. But he is a good player. I have a strong affiliation with him which is very special.”

One of Pulis’ biggest moans about his team’s performances this season has been a failure to convert the chances that Middlesbrough have created. That was the case again at Hillsborough, despite watching Wednesday’s unbeaten home run come to an end.

He thinks that his team’s defeat to Nottingham Forest before the international break should be taken in isolation and he admits he did a couple of things wrong.

Pulis, whose side climbed top on goal difference despite being level on points with Sheffield United, said: “They were better, brighter tonight. The last game, looking back, I have to take some stick, I over worked them after three away games. We trained really hard on the Thursday and Friday before that game. I left some of their energy on the training pitch.

“I blamed myself, partly for that. They have responded to that, they are a great group of players and they have shown that.

“The disappointing thing is we do so well up until the final third, we create chances and opportunities we don’t turn into goals. We should have been out of sight, we should have scored four or five, the final pass, those little things. We have to improve on those things to make us a better team.”

Besic was impressive throughout. He said: “It was really important to win, especially after the last game when we played really bad against Nottingham Forest. We knew we needed to prove ourselves and we did that.

“That’s very important to be top. If we play with this intensity in every game, I don’t think we will have any problems this season. I just hope we can keep it going.”

And Assombalonga, who Besic laid the second on for, was pleased to have struck his 50th Championship goal.

Assombalonga, who has five this season now, said: “That’s decent. That’s good. I’m happy with that. It’s good to get the win and we needed that after the Forest game. Going to Sheffield and getting a win was good for us. I score goals. I scored again. I just need to keep going and scoring.”

Sheffield Wednesday manager Jos Luhukay was disappointed that his side’s unbeaten home record came to an end, even though he felt that they could easily have got something from the game.

He said: “It was what we expect, a very difficult game with a high intensity with character and mentality from the first to the last minute.

“In the first minute, I think if we go with 1-0 or 2-0 at half-time, nobody can say anything. Middlesbrough had no chance and we had two or three to make a goal.

“In the second half we give two goals too easy away and Middlesbrough profit from our mistakes. We see Middlesbrough is so strong with their defending and we made the 2-1.

“You must have the luck to make the 2-2. We had the chance but the defenders from Middlesbrough cleared the situation with the goalkeeper. It was maybe possible you can play a draw today. You cannot win. In possession we were not good enough.

“When you play against a top team in the Champ you must make your chances and we see also the goal from Adam Reach was a very nice goal to see back but not enough to have one point or more.”