Wanderers 2, MIDDLESBROUGH 0: IT was not pretty and there will be no awards for entertainment value but Wanderers dug out their first win of the season to ease the tension at the Reebok and pile more pressure on Boro boss Steve McClaren and his under-achievers.

The goals came one in ech half both headers from Kevin Davies on 23 minutes and substitute Bruno N'Gotty 10 minutes from time leaving the Riversiders with just one point from their first five games.

The victory and s econd successive clean sheet may have come at a price with key defender Florent Laville being stretchered off on 27 minutes with what looked a serious knee injury.

But Wanderers were a goal up by then and, although they had the odd scare, they rarely looked like surrendering the priceless three points.

There was still a strong sense of relief, however, when N'Gotty popped up at the back post to power a header past Mark Schwarzer after Stelios had cleverly helped on Jay-Jay Okocha's long throw.

Wanderers: Jaaskelainen; Hunt, Laville, Thome, Gardner; Nolan, Campo, Okocha; Stelios, Davies, Djorkaeff. Subs: N'Gotty for Laville 27 mins, Frandsen for Hunt 68 mins, Pedersen for Djorkaeff 75 mins. Not used: Jardel, Poole.

Middlesbrough: Schwarzer; Mills, Davies, Southgate, Cooper; Mendieta, Boateng, Greening, Zenden, Juninho, Nemeth. Subs: Ricketts for Nemeth at h-t, Job for Juninho 57 mins. Not used: Doriva, Stockdale, Nash.

Referee: Phil Dowd (Staffordshire).

Attendance: 26,419.