IN a game that had a plenty of entertainment, Chris Wilder loved to see his

It was by no means the prettiest performances from Middlesbrough but for the third game in a row, they won it in stoppage time.

After Andy Carroll opened the scoring in the game just after the hour mark to give Reading the lead, Matt Crooks popped up with a late double. His two headers, one five minutes from time and one in stoppage time, saw Boro climb into the Championship play-offs and extend their winning run to five matches.

Boro are also unbeaten in eight games with seven of those being victories.

The celebrations at the Riverside Stadium at the full-time whistle added to a catalogue of memorable moments created in recent weeks.

Chris Wilder said: “Everybody loves a last minute winner, don’t they? The whole of the Riverside was bouncing and especially when we got back on level terms it was all in, stick the lot on, red or black, stick it on.

“We found a bit of quality and got the win. But I don’t think we were a lucky team today.

“Our quality was a bit off at times, but we had 62% possession against a team that has quality and aren’t as bad as people on the outside will make out. The team at Kidderminster wasn’t their first XI."

While the performance showed Boro's gritty side to earn the three points late on, the Boro boss was quick to praise his opponents who have recently struggled but made it a difficult game at the Riverside. 

Wilder added: “What happened to them in midweek can happen. They were 3-0 down and didn’t lie down they went for it and Fulham can do that to you.

“Add in professional pride from the manager, the coaches and the players - the likes of Andy Carroll, Danny Drinkwater and Junior Hoilett have been Premier League players and John Swift, for me, could comfortably hold his own in that division.

“So they’ve come up here today, everybody has wrote them off, and if I was in their changing room today I’d be saying, ‘Nobody execs anything of us today, let’s go and show them what we’re all about’.

“I think, full credit to them for their attitude all game.

“First half they made it difficult, they say deep. We had enough to go in ahead but we just couldn’t find that first goal or bit of quality.

“Start of the second half from our part wasn’t great. Andy Carroll has done that all his career and then it becomes a very difficult afternoon.

“But in the end, through perseverance, through belief and through keeping on doing the things we did, forcing them back - credit to the coaching staff for changing the system and having a go - we got the win.

“The quality of the bench now to what it was, to get us back in the game, it gave us that opportunity and we got the winner, no matter how late it was.”

Wilder threw on substitutes in the later stages of the game and it was the preverbial kitchen sink with Folarin Balogun, Josh Coburn and Duncan Watmore all introduced. It paid off for them big style. 

Wilder said: “I’m never going to go out of the back door. If I’m going, I’m leaving out the front door. It would be unacceptable for me to just wave the white flag and say, ‘it just wasn’t our day’.

“That’s not what we’re trying to instil into our players. So if we’re going to go down, let’s go out after having a real good go.

“We took gambles which we had to get back into the game. We found a couple of bits of quality which we hadn’t found for the majority of the game, in terms of Tav’s cross and Jonah’s cross.

“Jonah has been brilliant but I thought his quality around the final third, along with the whole team’s quality, wasn’t as good today as what it has been.

“But we managed to find two great balls, first from Tav and then we went full tilt for the winner.

“We were patient around the edge of the box was good. We fronted Jonah up with their left back and then he obviously provides a delightful ball for Crooksy to come steaming in at the end. It was great scenes at the end.”