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A half-time brawl sparked an incredible second-half performance from Middlesbrough which saw them run out 4-0 winners at the Stadium of Light.
First-half added time will be seen as the moment that Saturday’s north-east derby got away from Sunderland as they were reduced to 10 men before a mass brawl fired up Carrick and his side. At the end of a goalless first-half Black Cats centre-midfielder Dan Neil was shown a red card by referee Jarred Gillett.
Neil was shown a second yellow card by Gillett after the 21-year-old appeared to say something towards the referee which saw him dismissed. And just moments later a brawl erupted as Josh Coburn crashed into Sunderland defender Dan Ballard.
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Referee Gillett immediately blew for half-time as Colburn left Ballard on the deck following a strong, late challenge, leaving the former Arsenal defender furious as he immediately bounced back up to confront the Boro youngster.
Sky cameras quickly panned back as a 21-man plus brawl broke out to boos from Sunderland fans, seeing Colburn and Ballard quickly separated as players from both sides put their weight around in the melee. Eventually, Colburn was led away by team-mates Matt Crooks and Sam Greenwood, even seeing Boro boss Michael Carrick enter the pitch to calm his players down and keep them away from trouble.
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Carrick was able to lead his team down the tunnel at half-time before Gillett showed a yellow card to both Ballard and Colburn for their part in sparking the incident. Boro were able to take full advantage of the man advantage in the second half as they scored four in just over 30 minutes to seal a 4-0 win and make it four consecutive wins on the bounce.
Quick fire goals from Greenwood and Crooks two minutes apart put Boro in fron,t before Isaiah Jones added a third with 20 minutes to go and Marcus Forss put the cherry on the cake in added time to wrap up a memorable win. Boro climbed to 14th in the table while Sunderland remained 4th before the rest of Saturday's 3pm kick-offs got underway.
- Sunderland FC
- Middlesbrough FC
- Championship
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