Emmanuel Latte Lath scored an impressive double as Middlesbrough kept their Sky Bet Championship play-off hopes alive with a 2-0 win at home to Swansea City.
Latte Lath, a summer signing from Atalanta, moved into double figures for league goals this season with strikes either side of half-time as Boro extended their unbeaten run to seven games.
Michael Carrick’s side have now kept five clean sheets in their last six games and head for rivals Hull City on Wednesday night six points adrift of the play-off places.
Swansea are 15th in the Championship after a third successive game without a win. Last month’s 2-0 South Wales derby success against Cardiff is the only win in the last six for Luke Williams’ side.
They did have a couple of opportunities to get themselves in front early on at the Riverside, both falling to Jerry Yates.
The striker’s touch let him down when he was unmarked in the box and picked out by Ronald, allowing Jonny Howson to sweep up and clear. And inside quarter of an hour, Ronald again teed up Yates but the 27-year-old was not able to direct his header on goal.
Finn Azaz and Isaiah Jones both had openings for Boro but flashed efforts wide from inside the box.
Latte Lath was Boro’s liveliest player in the first half and he tested Carl Rushworth with a low early strike and called the keeper into action again with a strike from the edge of the box.
The Ivorian broke the deadlock in first-half stoppage time. He was first to pounce on a loose ball after Rushworth parried a Jones cross, but there was still plenty of work to be done. Despite the fact six Swansea defenders blocked the route to goal, the striker still managed to squeeze his shot in at the front post.
Swansea were almost gifted a leveller within two minutes of the restart. Dan Barlaser wanted too much time on the edge of his own box and as visiting attackers flocked around him, panicked and made a mess of an attempted backpass to Seny Dieng that flashed just past the post.
Barlaser again played Boro into trouble with a loose pass that was intercepted by Jamal Lowe. The forward charged towards the box and took aim for the far corner but Dieng was equal to it.
Swansea probed but struggled to create any clear cut chances and Latte Lath wrapped up the points 11 minutes from time when he cut on to his right foot and clinically found the top corner.
