THE past embraced the present on the Riverside pitch on a day in which records were broken and long waits came to an end.

But on the evidence of this showing, there's every chance Middlesbrough won't have to wait too long to be back at football's top table.

Chuba Akpom clambered onto the advertising hoardings in a nod to Boro's fence-climbing Ayresome hero Bernie Slaven after finally ending the 33-year-wait for a 20-goal season striker on Teesside - and delighted Bernie was waiting for the Championship's top scorer at full-time to pass on his congratulations.

It was smiles all-round at the Riverside.

The 5-0 hammering of Reading was the first time Boro have scored that many goals in a home league game since they slapped Sven's Manchester City for eight 15 years ago. A fair bit has happened since then.

It's now seven home wins in a row for Boro, who have scored more goals this term than they did in the entirety of last season - and there are still 11 games to play. Boro have scored 13 goals in their last four home games. The entertainers.

Can they be automatic promotion winners? Sheffield United look to be feeling the pressure and again left the door ajar after losing at Blackburn in the early kick-off - their third defeat in four games - not that Michael Carrick or Boro's players were paying any attention to developments at Ewood Park.

“We didn’t speak about and none of the boys mentioned it," Carrick insisted.

"Like I said last time it happened, we can’t be in a place of letting that affect us going into a game. We’ve got to perform and we’ve got jobs and responsibilities to put that performance together. Focusing on Sheffield United’s result wouldn’t help us in any way, so the short answer is no.”

The Blades are four points ahead with a game in hand, which comes against Reading on Tuesday night. The Royals will have to be better and show more ambition than they did at the Riverside if Boro are to have any hope of a favour.

Paul Ince moaned at the "diabolical" decisions that he felt changed the game at the Riverside. He was furious at Keith Stroud's decision to award Boro a penalty at 0-0 and wave away a Reading claim for a spot-kick moments later.

Had Reading got their noses in front, they could have tried to make it awkward for Boro, but the hosts would surely have had too much class regardless. The troubled Royals - facing a six-points deduction this week - couldn't cope with the movement of the front four, the energy and vision of the midfield two and the quality of Ryan Giles down the left, who now has nine assists this season.

"There was a real good mix of football," said Carrick.

"We overloaded the middle really well, found AJ [Aaron Ramsey] and Chuba behind their midfield and we had penetration in wide areas too, so there was a real good mix of threats. That’s ideally what we want."

At the other end, Dael Fry and Darragh Lenihan didn't give Andy Carroll a kick, to the delight of those in the stands.

Akpom showed his strength of character to quickly grab the ball when the first penalty was awarded, despite the fact he'd missed his previous two this season. And he showed his selflessness when allowing substitute Marcus Forss to take the second penalty, despite being on a hat-trick.  Akpom has 18 goals in 20 games under Carrick, remarkable numbers.

Ramsey, who was brought into the team for Forss, was outstanding and showed why Boro were so pleased to secure his signing late in January. He looks fully fit now after his knee surgery in December. Another string to Boro's bow and even more weaponry to worry rivals.

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Boro are still yet to lose successive games under Michael Carrick, with all four defeats on his watch followed by impressive and emphatic victories.

Asked what that says about his players, the head coach said: "Maybe they don't get too up and too down. There's obviously good characters in the dressing room which I've spoken aList Articles bout a lot.

"There's no factions, it doesn't get split up if there's a bit of a bad time, the lads stick together and we almost come out a little bit stronger. That was proved today. There's a lot of talk about us bouncing back when we've lost and I said last week, it doesn't just mean it's going to happen just because we've done it before. We had to make it happen and throughout the week the boys have made it happen."

"We try to win football matches and we try to do it in a certain way that we believe in. We want to enjoy the ride and the journey. As I’ve said, there will be ups and downs between now and the end of the season and there’s still a long, long way to go yet.

"We’ll look back at this game, take what we can from it and then look forward to the next one, simple as that."

Boro were second bottom when they lost at Reading in August. That's in the past. It's all about the present for Boro - and what this team can achieve in the future.