Soccer: Middlesbrough close gap on top four

LONDON - Middlesbrough moved within two points of the Premiership top four with a 3-2 win over Manchester City in the Premier League at the Riverside Stadium today.

Two goals from Australian Mark Viduka and one by his Dutch strike partner Jimmy Floyd Hasselbaink gave Middlesbrough the victory and moved them on to 28 points from 16 matches.

That leaves them 11 points adrift of leaders Chelsea but only two points behind Manchester United, who presently occupy the final Champions League qualifying spot.

The defeat leaves City in 11th place with 20 points.

Viduka gave Boro the lead after nine minutes when he ran on to a pass from Stuart Downing and cleverly took the ball in his stride before dinking a shot over the stranded David James.

Robbie Fowler equalised six minutes before the break with his first goal since the opening day of the season as he latched on to a Jon Macken header and fired under Mark Schwarzer.

Viduka put Boro back in front in the 54th minute when he turned with the ball on the edge of the area before playing a one-two with Hasselbaink and curling a delightful shot into the far corner with the outside of his right foot.

Boro seemed to have wrapped up a comfortable win after 65 minutes when Hasselbaink scored with a curling 25-metre right foot free kick that eluded the unsighted diving James.

However, substitute Bradley Wright-Phillips -- younger brother of City's England winger Shaun -- set up a nervous last 10 minutes for Boro when he swivelled inside the area to score his first goal for the club on his Premier League debut.

- REUTERS