patrick bamford enhanced middlesbrough’s automatic promotion bid by equalling the club’s record goal return of the modern era bamford, the on loan chelsea forward, struck his 15th of the campaign, to match the tally of colombian hamilton ricard during the 1998 99 premier league season no one has scored more in the 16 intervening years his deflected 20th minute effort was enough to earn victory over relegation threatened wigan, who now have just six matches to avert the prospect of playing league one football just two years after shocking manchester city in the fa cup final at wembley middlesbrough striker patrick bamford, on loan from chelsea, scores the opening goal via a deflection  bamford celebrates his 17th goal of the season, the fourth that he has scored in his last four games  middlesbrough: konstantopoulos, kalas, woodgate, gibson, friend, clayton, leadbitter, reach, bamford, adomah, vossen subs: tiendalli, amorebieta, garcia, tomlin, ripley, whitehead, forshaw wigan: al habsi, boyce, maguire, pearce, bong, pennant, perch, kim, mcclean, clarke, murphy subs: carson, mccann, ojo, barnett, fortune, waghorn, kvist jorgensen referee: stuart attwell  despite being five points adrift of safety, the lancashire club arrived with an impressive away record, having taken 21 of their 35 points away from the dw stadium and winning their last four games on the road however, no second tier side have taken more points on their own turf than middlesbrough and bamford made it nine victories in 10 attempts at the riverside it was from a classic counter attack that aitor karanka’s team took the lead a wigan free kick invoked panic in the home penalty area as dimi konstantopoulos dropped a high ball at the feet of leon clarke, whose instinctive prod goalwards then fortuitously struck the middlesbrough goalkeeper but boro seized on the loose ball and within seconds they had scored adam clayton’s pass utilised albert adomah’s pace and boro were lucky when jelle vossen’s heavy touch from a right wing cross set up bamford he curled his shot goalward from 20 yards and a slight deflection off wigan defender jason pearce took it beyond the grasp of his goalkeeper ali al habsi jonathan woodgate plays the ball out of defence as middlesbrough looked in control for long periods  albert adomah gets dow the outside of josh murphy  as middlesbrough continued their promotion push  despite bamford stealing the limelight, however, middlesbrough head coach aitor karanka praised the effort of his team ‘it was a very important win and performance, especially second half the most important thing is to win the games, to rest well and to think about monday’s game,’ said karanka ‘everything is going to be tighter everyone is playing for something wigan were playing to stay up and i think in all games someone has something to play for, so every game will be difficult ‘everyone was tired after bournemouth and there were a lot of games in february and march now after the break our heads are fresh and we have four games in the next two weeks ‘we have experienced players and a lot of games coming up now, monday and saturday there are six games to go and we need all of the players ‘patrick scored the goal but there were other players who contributed all around the field’ bamford is mobbed by his team mates after the goal that sent boro back to the top of the league  malky mackay's side remain adrift in the relegation zone after a third defeat in their last five games  wigan pressed hard for an equaliser after the break and it took a strong right hand from konstantopoulos to keep out substitute marc antoine fortune’s effort just after the hour ‘i’m really disappointed that we didn’t get something out of the game,’ said wigan manager malky mackay ‘we deserved something ‘especially in the second half we went toe to toe with middlesbrough, one of the best teams in the division, and i am disappointed for my players for the courage they showed’ adam clayton brings down james perch, but wigan never really threatened to take the points off their hosts  things got particularly nervy in injury time when wigan — with four up front — were camped deep in home territory boro had their own chances to seal a more comfortable win but adomah volleyed wide at the climax of a stunning team move and substitute lee tomlin, who coame on for vossen in the 67th minute, failed to get sufficient contact on a close range effort seconds after entering the action tomlin wasted another opportunity deep into injury time when he slalomed his way down the field on a breakaway but his shot came off the heel of covering defender harry maguire but all boro cared about was the three points
patrick bamford middlesbrough 20 minutes bamford boro bournemouth wigan
patrick bamford puts middlesbrough ahead after 20 minutes . bamford's deflected shot takes boro  ahead of bournemouth . visitors wigan remain in the relegation zone with six games to play 