DEFEATS are never welcome but the good thing about a setback for Middlesbrough is you know it'll followed by a win.

After a loss at Preston, Boro won well at Hull; after defeat at Burnley, Boro thumped Wigan; after losing at Sunderland, Boro beat rivals Watford. And after defeat at West Brom came the most impressive response of them all.

OK, Reading are troubled off the pitch and, on this evidence, poor on it, but the Royals were absolutely blown away by brilliant Boro, who hammered in five goals on a day of milestones at the Riverside.

Chuba Akpom ended a 33-year-wait for a 20-goal striker in the league as he set Boro on their way. He’d score one more before the afternoon was out. The excellent Aaron Ramsey took his chance as he bagged a brace, and Marcus Forss scored from the bench. It’s now seven home wins in a row for Boro.

The Championship table has almost been flipped on its head compared to when these sides met earlier in the season. A 1-0 defeat in  highlighted the glaring deficiencies in Chris Wilder’s side and left Boro second from bottom in the division after five games played. The only team below them were Coventry City, who’d played three fewer games.

That feels an eternity ago now but it’s yet more evidence of the incredible transformation on Michael Carrick’s watch. Second from bottom in August, second from top in May? The gap to Sheffield United is back to four points after the Blades slipped up at Blackburn in the early kick-off, their third defeat in four games.

Paul Heckingbottom’s side head for Reading on Tuesday night for what is their game in hand. Perhaps at home the Royals might show a bit more attacking ambition than they did at the Riverside.

Boro had 80% of possession in the first 20 minutes, with Reading happy to sit deep, frustrate and play for time. But that game-plan went out of the window just after the halfway stage of the first half when Ramsey’s inventiveness won the hosts a penalty, the Aston Villa loanee’s flicked through-ball hitting the hand of Andy Yiadom inside the box.

Akpom had missed his previous two penalties this season but there was no way he was giving up the opportunity to reach 20 goals for the season, and he kept his cool to send Bouzanis the wrong way.

Ramsey, in for Marcus Forss in one of two changes for Boro, was out to catch the eye, and after winning the penalty for the opener, scored the second in first half stoppage time, pouncing on a mistake from Amadou Mbengue and running half the length of the pitch before finding the bottom corner.

The manner and timing of the goal will have infuriated Ince but his half-time ire was aimed at Keith Stroud, the visiting boss furious at the referee’s decision to wave away a penalty claim when Shane Long went down under the challenge of Tommy Smith inside the box just after the opening goal.

That was a rare Reading foray forward. The Royals showed very little ambition and didn’t manage a single shot in the first half.

Ince’s mood soon worsened, for Boro had added goals three and four within six minutes of the restart. Reading just had no answer to Boro’s brilliant forward player. Archer lifted it into the path of Giles, who teed up Akpom for his 21st of the season.

And just three minutes later, Giles notched his ninth assist of the season when he teed up Ramsey for his second of the afternoon.

It had the look of a training session for Boro, and Carrick took the opportunity to ring the changes in the second half. And one of the substitutes, Marcus Forss, scored the fifth. He was fouled by Tom McIntyre, but picked himself up to lash home from the spot.