IN THE historical city of Athens, Middlesbrough's opening match of the inaugural UEFA Cup group stage will not live long in the memory but when the final whistle blew it was mission accomplished.

And a dour, at times excruciating, encounter with Greek minnows Egaleo was lit up by the increasingly impressive skills of England prospect Stewart Downing.

The young winger was left on the bench alongside Jimmy Floyd Hasselbaink at the Rizoupoli Stadium but, just eight minutes after the pair were introduced, Downing struck a clinical winner to hand Boro an opening game victory in Group E.

After the Under-21 international was given the ball inside the area, he took a touch before firing an unstoppable low left foot shot beyond goalkeeper Mahamadou Sidibe to give Middlesbrough the points with his third goal of the season.

Having secured the crucial first victory, Steve McClaren's men know that another success from their remaining three matches should be enough to secure a place in the top three and book a spot in the last 32 along with the Champions League losers.

While Downing was unlucky not to start, it was surprise exclusion of Hasselbaink from the first XI that shocked.

It was primarily an action taken by McClaren with Sunday's Premiership clash with Portsmouth in mind and the game with Egaleo represented, on paper, the easiest tie of the group phase.

With Lazio next on the agenda in two weeks time, before matches with Villarreal and Partizan Belgrade, a win against the unfancied Greek outfit was a must.Although not pretty, that task has now been achieved.

McClaren felt that even without in-form Hasselbaink, after his first class hat-trick at Blackburn, Szilard Nemeth, without a goal since August 25, could provide enough of a threat alongside the returning Mark Viduka.

Gaizka Mendieta was also rested, while George Boateng was on the bench having not fully recovered from a stomach upset.

There were thousands of empty seats inside Egaleo's rented home, but those who were there ensured there was a vibrant atmosphere in a match between two clubs enjoying their first European campaigns.

Sadly the game failed to match the atmosphere the fans tried hard to create. With Middlesbrough lacking in attacking ideas and quite willing to allow Egaleo to see plenty of the ball.

Goalkeeper Mark Schwarzer was called into action on a couple of occasions from the dead ball. Georgios Fotakis' lowly struck free-kick was turned away for a corner by Schwarzer and then the Aussie plucked a powerful right-foot drive from midfielder Georgios Barkoglou out of the air.

But, apart from free-kicks from dangerous areas, Egaleo were not making the most of their early dominance in possession and failed to work their way in behind a solid backline.

As the half wore on, Middlesbrough did succeed in becoming more involved in proceedings. However, on the two occasions Bolo Zenden found space outside the area, the Dutchman's shooting was off-target and the ball rebounded back onto the pitch from the sports hall behind Mahamadou Sidibe's goal.

It was a first half Middlesbrough display that was not too dissimilar from their under-par opening period at Blackburn on Sunday. And Egaleo, unbeaten in six this season, very nearly made the visitors pay when the lively Barkoglou's stinging first time drive from Ioannis Chloros' ball in curled just wide of the upright.

It was obvious McClaren needed to change things, as he did at Ewood Park, if he was to try to ensure Middlesbrough pocketed three points. He moved to introduce Mendieta at half-time for the unfortunate James Morrison, who picked up the first booking of his career when he left his boot high on Emmauel Psomas. Yet even that failed to have the desired effect.

Egaleo, who overcame Turkish side Genalerbirligi in the first round, were never going to be pushovers, having finished last season in fifth place in the Greek League, and they provided McClaren's men with a larger hurdle than many expected.

And, after Doriva's long range effort bounced away for a goal-kick at the other end, Chloros went even closer for the hosts when he saw his low shot only parried by Schwarzer but cleared by Chris Riggott.

With time running out on Middlesbrough's hopes of gaining the perfect of starts to the second stage, McClaren finally introduced Hasselbaink and Downing with 20 minutes to go with Viduka and Zenden the men to make way.

And just minutes after coming on, Downing was fed the ball by Ray Parlour and the 20-year-old picked his spot in the bottom left corner of Sidibe's net.

A fine injury-time Schwarzer save from a dipping effort from Ioannis Christou was needed to clinch all three points and now all eyes turn to Italian giants Lazio.

Result: Egaleo 0 Middlesbrough 1.

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