Rob Edwards hails Morgan Whittaker as forward breaks Middlebrough duck

Middlesbrough boss Rob Edwards paid tribute to Morgan Whittaker after the striker finally broke his Riverside Stadium duck with his side’s second goal in a 2-1 win over Ipswich.

Whittaker has come in for criticism since his high-profile signing from Plymouth in January but Edwards believes his confidence will grow after his coolly-taken 55th minute strike.

The 24-year-old’s effort added to a first half own goal from Cedric Kipre and Boro held on to take the points quite comfortably despite Dara O’Shea’s late header to reduce the deficit.

“I’m really pleased for (Whittaker). There’s high expectations on him because he’s a really good player and he understands that,” said Edwards.

“What I like about him is he’s a human being, he’s been open and honest, we all go through difficult moments in life and he’s been working through a really challenging period in his life.

“What I’d really like to celebrate is that he’s working very hard to get through it. It’s his night, it’s big for him and hopefully we’ll build on that with him.”

Boro pummelled the Ipswich goal in a thrilling period towards the end of the first half but rode their luck shortly before their opener when Sol Brynn saved a penalty from George Hirst.

“I thought it was a great tear-up, two teams going right at it,” added Edwards. “They (Ipswich) are very good and that’s why I’m really proud of the boys tonight, because they showed up and showed the best of themselves.”

Ipswich boss Kieran McKenna bemoaned his side’s inability to take their chances as they extended their winless record this season away from Portman Road.

Hirst’s penalty gave them a golden opportunity to take a half-time advantage at the Riverside but instead they went in behind and further extended their poor form on their travels.

“I don’t think we can have too many complaints about the result because I think we made too many mistakes,” admitted McKenna.

“We probably didn’t manage those moments in the game well enough. We had a big moment with the penalty to go 1-0 up and it could have been really different, but you can’t go in 1-0 down from that situation.

“We need to be stronger. We didn’t stay together defensively in that moment when it was really tough. I think the game changes completely at 1-0 and that’s been the story of our away games so far.”

McKenna said he will take some positives from his side’s performance despite a result that shattered the Tractor Boys’ five-match unbeaten run and leaves them eight points adrift of Boro at the top of the table.

“I think we had a really good spell when we were chasing the equaliser and we had a couple of big moments to get back to 2-2,” added McKenna.

“The players were trying, they stuck at it and in the end Boro loaded up defending the box well, and we didn’t create within the last 10 minutes. The reality is we can’t keep going 1-0 down away from home – it makes a tough task even tougher.”