STEVE McCLAREN last night admitted he had planned to rest Stewart Downing for yesterday's game at West Brom before a reaction to England international's knee injury ruled him out of the game at the Hawthorns.

Without the ball skills of their mercurial left-sided player, Boro still proved to have too much in attack for Bryan Robson's side, with Jimmy Floyd Hasselbaink's double taking them five points clear of fourth-bottom Albion.

McClaren is hopeful the man from Pallister Park will be back in time to face Birmingham City next weekend, but revealed he had suffered a reaction to the knee injury that kept him out for five months of the season, although he won't get the chance to impress on the international stage for England Under-21's tomorrow night.

"I was going to rest him for the game - he wasn't going to play anyway - but he's had a reaction to the knee," said McClaren, celebrating back-to-back league wins for the first time in two years.

"It's nothing too serious and as a precaution we've taken him out of the Under-21s."

Without Downing, Boro played a 3-5-2 formation with Yakubu and Hasselbaink in attack causing numerous problems in the first half.

McClaren was particularly impressed with the form of Hasselbaink who has been a revelation recently, despite almost leaving the Teessiders in the January transfer window - and the manager wouldn't rule out a new contract for the 34-year-old in the summer.

"Jimmy's certainly playing well at present and scoring goals," said McClaren, who watched the Dutchman grab goals number 11 and 12 for the season.

"We know what he can do.

"He was our top scorer last season and in January when there was all the speculation, he just kept on performing.

"That's not out of the question (a new deal) at the moment.

"But there's still a long way to go this season and a lot of important games to play."

Defeat yesterday would have allowed West Brom to leapfrog Boro, and the importance of the win was not lost on McClaren.

"The three points were massive today after the Birmingham City win yesterday," said McClaren last night.

"It was a big win and we need another one nest weekend (against Birmingham).

"There was a lot of pressure on both sides and I am pleased with the way we handled it.

"The change in system helped us.

"We played football on the break and in attack we had the quality of Yakubu and Hasselbaink."

His counterpart, Bryan Robson, had his own take on the game, labelling his side as unlucky to lose.

"We were by far the better team," said the former Boro boss. "We got into some great positions around their goal but we just didn't have that killer instinct in front of goal.

"That doesn't, however, disguise the fact that our defending on the first goal was very poor.

"If you defend like we did in the Premier League then you get punished."

Robson also had no excuses for Nigel Quashie who was sent off for kicking George Boateng in the 54th minute.

"Nigel Quashie let himself and his team-mates down," said Robson, whose side managed to limit Boro to no shots at goal after the break despite being reduced to ten men.

"If you look at how we played with ten men, just imagine what we would have been like in the second half with 11."

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