Full-time: Blackpool 1 Middlesbrough 2

BLACKPOOL is home to the tallest roller coaster in the United Kingdom, so it was only fitting that Middlesbrough climbed to the top of the Championship at Bloomfield Road last night.

There were plenty of twists and turns along the way, but Aitor Karanka’s men stood firm and battled against a resilient Blackpool on a terrible pitch to claim the victory and the outright lead after Bournemouth and Derby drew on the south coast.

Jonathan Woodgate – making his first league start of the season – looked as though he had headed in the winner in the 81st minute, but a Ben Gibson own goal four minutes later saw their hopes go up in smoke against a team rooted to the bottom of the table.

After a pretty frustrating 80 minutes, the game sparked into life in the final ten and despite conceding a late equaliser Kike popped up to score his first league goal since December 6 to send the visiting support into raptures.

‘We are top of the league’ echoed around Bloomfield Road at full-time and the Teessiders must now cope with the pressure of being top of the pack having gone so close on several occasions this season.

With one eye on Sunday’s FA Cup fifth round tie at Arsenal Karanka made seven changes to the side that beat Charlton on Saturday.

Jonathan Woodgate, Daniel Ayala, Dean Whitehead, Tomas Kalas, Adam Forshaw, Adam Reach, and Kike all come in with Ben Gibson, Grant Leadbitter, Lee Tomlin, Kenneth Omeruo and Patrick Bamford all dropping to the bench.

The changes also signalled a shuffle with Boro lining up in a 3-5-2 formation with Reach and Adomah operating as wing backs.

Both saw plenty of the ball early on but Reach’s reluctance to take on former Boro defender Tony McMahon meant the majority of the balls into the box came from the right.

Middlesbrough’s first sniff at goal came in the fifth minute when Clayton floated a free-kick into the path of Forshaw, but the recently-signed midfielder couldn’t direct his low shot on target.

The state of the Bloomfield Road pitch was highlighted in the build up to last night’s game and Forshaw’s effort appeared to take a few bobbles before trickling wide.

Clayton was again the provider for Boro’s next chance with another lofted ball over the top. This time, it fell to Reach but the winger couldn’t get a good connection on the ball leaving Blackpool to clear the danger.

While Clark’s men have enjoyed a purple patch on home soil recently there were signs of nerves from the club sitting bottom of the Championship.

A mix-up between keeper Joe Lewis and defender Darren O’Dea led to a Boro corner and Lewis did well to get down and save Ayala’s header from the resulting set-piece.

The hosts applied some pressure after from the restart, but Boro’s back three stood firm despite losing Ayala to an injury in the 51st minute.

From a Blackpool attack, Boro broke with a long ball up to Jelle Vossen. The Belgian striker took a lovely touch before laying the ball off to Clayton. He played in Kike just inside the area, but the striker was denied by Lewis.

The Spanish striker hasn’t scored a league goal since the beginning of December and he went close again with a low shot that went wide moments later.

The hosts got plenty of men behind the ball in a bid to nullify Boro’s threat and they did a good job limiting the visitors to long range efforts.

Time was ticking and with constant updates coming from the south coast Boro pressed for a winner.

The breakthrough finally came with nine minutes left and on his first league start of the season Woodgate demonstrated why he is still an important part of Karanka’s squad when he headed in Grant Leadbitter’s corner.

Chants of ‘we are top of the league’ followed from the visiting supporters, but four minutes later they were silenced when Ben Gibson – on in place of Ayala – headed into his own net.

It looked as though Boro had missed another opportunity to claim the top spot in the Championship, but two minutes of normal time Kike grabbed a late winner when he headed in Lee Tomlin’s cross.