Football story by Georgina Scane, Sun, 12 Feb 2006 16:04:00 GMT


LONDON - Chelsea slipped to their biggest loss under Jose Mourinho as Steve McClaren's Middlesbrough humbled them 3-0 in a Premiership game at Riverside last night. It was the champions' second defeat this season and only the third under Mourinho in the Premiership.

Boro started the scoring after only 78 seconds as Fabio Rochemback took advantage of lax defending by Chelsea to slam the ball past Petr Cech. The central defense of the champions was weakened by the loss of William Gallas through injury and the chinks definitely showed as Stewart Downing beat Cech on the stroke of half time to double Boro's lead. Going into the break, Chelsea must have come back determined to level the game at least, but any such hopes were put paid to by Nigerian Aiyegbeni Yakubu on 67 minutes when he foxed John Terry to beat Cech for the third time in the game. Hernán Crespo and Carlton Cole had good chances, but failed to beat Schwarzer in the Boro goal.

Middlesbrough boss Steve McClaren was delighted with the win, "A week is a long time in politics and even longer in football at times. We have had quite an eventful couple of months. But credit to the players for this win," he said. "Through all the criticism, all the performances and the results, we have always stuck together. There has always been a great spirit and it is just rewards today."

Chelsea's Mourinho was hard pressed to explain the loss, "When you lose, it is always a bad day, especially when you don't lose a lot. In my time at Chelsea, this is the third defeat in the Premiership and you can say it was the worst," he said. "We lost to Manchester City and didn't deserve it, we lost at Manchester United and didn't deserve it. We lost today 3-0 - and we deserved it."

Match Details
Referee: S Bennett

Middlesbrough: Schwarzer, Parnaby, Riggott, Southgate, Pogatetz, Morrison (Boateng 39), Mendieta (Davies 90), Doriva, Rochemback, Downing, Yakubu (Hasselbaink 90).
Goals: Rochemback 2, Downing 45, Yakubu 68.

Chelsea: Cech, Geremi (Carlton Cole 45), Ricardo Carvalho, Terry, Gallas (Maniche 17), Gudjohnsen, Essien, Lampard, Robben, Crespo, Joe Cole (Wright-Phillips 45).

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