Middlesborough - 3 Sunderland - 0 Massimo Maccarone has one of those names that melt in the mouth. Five games into his unlikely career on Teesside, the Italian is also melting hearts.
Not only did he score his third goal of the season last night against Middlesbrough's closest rivals geographically, the £8.5 million man from Empoli set up the other two for Szilard Nemeth.
Against a Sunderland side that arrived confident after two morale-boosting displays, Maccarone led the line for an inventive and mobile side who moved up to fourth, albeit for 24 hours.
Both sides were without a key player, in Sunderland's case Kevin Phillips and for Boro George Boateng. Phillips will be out for up to six weeks having had a hernia operation, while Boateng was missing with a hamstring injury.
For Sunderland the task of replacing Phillips looked easier than for Boro with Boateng. Having acquired not one but two new strikers, the visiting manager, Peter Reid, was able to give Marcus Stewart a debut beside Tore Andre Flo.
For his opposite number, Steve McClaren, the solution was rather more complicated: a fluid formation that ensured men were behind the ball in numbers yet always left three up front.
McClaren's ideas quickly bore fruit in a match that started at breakneck speed and produced two yellow cards in the first 15 minutes. Boro's Robbie Stockdale scythed down Thomas Butler for the second of them, and those two players were soon involved in the first serious goalmouth action.
It came in the 13th minute when Butler's hesitation in the area, perhaps sensing Stockdale was again behind him, allowed Stockdale a free shot from a tight angle that Thomas Sorensen smothered with his chest and legs.
Sorensen gave Butler a fierce berating at that, though four minutes later the young Irishman was entitled to ask a question of the goalkeeper as Boro took the lead.
Middlesbrough's impressive speed of thought and deed had already worried the Sunderland defence when Maccarone accepted another slick short pass from midfield and spun sharply. The Italian was 25 yards out but took a shot. So powerful was it that it bounced back off Sorensen at a height that allowed the predatory Nemeth a free volley. He dispatched it well.
Sadly, the game, having been skilful and high-tempo, became scrappy and high-tempo for the next 20 minutes. That was to be ended in devastatingly precise style, however.
Winning a free-kick on Sunderland's left, Frank Queudrue strode across to take it. The Frenchman has a sweet left foot and he curled a vicious inswinger over the Sunderland backline. Arriving late at the far post, Maccarone stooped to head in from barely five yards.
On 66 minutes, following six minutes of unrelenting Sunderland pressure, the ball was cleared to the half-way line. Maccarone twisted and turned and split what was left of the Sunderland defence with a pass to Nemeth and once again the Slovakian kept his composure to score and clinch an easy derby victory.
MIDDLESBROUGH: Schwarzer, Queudrue, Southgate, Ehiogu, Stockdale, Cooper, Job (Wilson 86), Geremi, Greening, Nemeth (Whelan 87), Maccarone. Subs Not Used: Boksic, Marinelli, Crossley. Booked: Stockdale, Greening, Queudrue. Goals: Nemeth 17, Maccarone 37, Nemeth 66.
SUNDERLAND: Sorensen, Gray, Babb, Bjorklund, Wright, Butler (Bellion 74), McAteer, Reyna, Piper, Flo, Stewart. Subs Not Used: Williams, Kyle, Thirlwell, Macho. Booked: Piper, Stewart, McAteer.
Referee: A Wiley (Staffordshire).
