Middlesbrough secured a huge victory over Sheffield United at the Riverside Stadium on Wednesday evening.
Boro welcomed former manager Chris Wilder back to the Riverside in midweek, aiming to get their campaign back on track.
Middlesbrough lost 2-0 to Bristol City in their previous outing, seeing them drop down to 11th in the Championship table.
The Teessiders had won just four of their opening 10 fixtures and another defeat to Sheffield United would have been a massive blow.
However, in typical Boro fashion, Michael Carrick’s side looked at their best when playing against tougher opposition and eventually came away with a 1-0 win.
Emmanuel Latte Lath stole the headlines vs Sheffield United after he came off the bench after being dropped by Carrick amid a poor run of goalscoring form to net the winner late in the second half.
While the Ivorian’s goal was the talking point post-match, however, another Middlesbrough ace deserves a lot of credit.
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Luke Ayling proved Middlesbrough fans wrong vs Sheffield United
The man in question is Luke Ayling, who rejoined Boro on a free transfer from Leeds United after an excellent loan spell in 2023/24.
The right-back’s assist tally has diminished a lot in the current campaign and he has recently been criticised by fans on social media, with calls for Anfernee Dijksteel to replace him getting louder.
However, the 33-year-old was in from the off against the Blades and has now shown fans why they were wrong to call for him to be dropped.
Ayling’s standout moment of the game came midway through the first half when he produced a goal-saving clearance to deny Jesurun Rak-Sakyi.
But his other stats from the game, as per Sofascore, were also pretty impressive. The defender had a 93 percent passing accuracy vs Sheffield United, completed all of his dribbles, had 75 touches, made two key passes and was given a team-high 8.1 rating.
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Middlesbrough still need to replace Luke Ayling
Ayling remains a quality option for Middlesbrough right now and should keep his place going forward.
But looking toward the future, it is clear the Teessiders will need to bring in a new right-back at some point in the next two windows.
32-year-old Tommy Smith missed most of last season and remains sidelined through injury, with his career in the North East seemingly all but over.
As for Ayling, he is under contract until 2026 but he will be 34 next year and is unlikely to be able to play a full 46-game campaign due to his age.
This means right-back reinforcements should be high on Boro’s transfer priority list along with perhaps another left-back, central midfielder, and maybe a goalkeeper.