{"id":36761,"date":"2026-03-08T22:39:29","date_gmt":"2026-03-08T21:39:29","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/matchplug.com\/blog\/?p=36761"},"modified":"2026-03-08T22:39:29","modified_gmt":"2026-03-08T21:39:29","slug":"targett-double-fires-middlesbrough-past-birmingham","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/matchplug.com\/blog\/targett-double-fires-middlesbrough-past-birmingham\/","title":{"rendered":"Targett Double Fires Middlesbrough Past Birmingham"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Defender Matt Targett scored twice as Middlesbrough beat Birmingham 3-1 in the Championship on Monday, tightening their hold on the second automatic promotion spot.<\/p>\n<p>Boro had gone three games without a win and their place in the top two was beginning to look shaky, but Targett stepped up as an unlikely match winner to get Kim Hellberg&#8217;s side back on track in their bid to return to the Premier League for the first time since 2017.<\/p>\n<p>The former Aston Villa left-back opened the scoring on 13 minutes, running onto a long ball from Aidan Morris before steering a finish past Birmingham goalkeeper James Beadle at St Andrew&#8217;s.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Defender Matt Targett scored twice as Middlesbrough beat Birmingham 3-1 in the Championship on Monday, tightening their hold on the second automatic promotion spot. Boro had gone three games without a win and their place in the top two was beginning to look shaky, but Targett stepped up as an unlikely match winner to get Kim Hellberg&#8217;s side back on track in their bid to return to the Premier League for the first time since 2017. The former Aston Villa left-back opened the scoring on 13 minutes, running onto a long ball from Aidan Morris before steering a finish past Birmingham goalkeeper James Beadle at St Andrew&#8217;s.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":16,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[219,159],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-36761","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-champions-league-football-news","category-football-news"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.1.1 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Targett Double Fires Middlesbrough Past Birmingham - Matchplug Blog<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Targett scored twice as Middlesbrough beat Birmingham 3-1 in the Championship on Monday, tightening their second automatic promotion spot.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/matchplug.com\/blog\/targett-double-fires-middlesbrough-past-birmingham\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Targett Double Fires Middlesbrough Past Birmingham - Matchplug Blog\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Targett scored twice as Middlesbrough beat Birmingham 3-1 in the Championship on Monday, tightening their second automatic promotion spot.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/matchplug.com\/blog\/targett-double-fires-middlesbrough-past-birmingham\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Matchplug Blog\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2026-03-08T21:39:29+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"New Admin\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"New Admin\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/matchplug.com\/blog\/targett-double-fires-middlesbrough-past-birmingham\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/matchplug.com\/blog\/targett-double-fires-middlesbrough-past-birmingham\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"New Admin\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/matchplug.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/279f0d60c763a644a86961a98c5a9dd1\"},\"headline\":\"Targett Double Fires Middlesbrough Past Birmingham\",\"datePublished\":\"2026-03-08T21:39:29+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/matchplug.com\/blog\/targett-double-fires-middlesbrough-past-birmingham\/\"},\"wordCount\":113,\"commentCount\":0,\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/matchplug.com\/blog\/#organization\"},\"articleSection\":[\"Champions League\",\"Football News\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/matchplug.com\/blog\/targett-double-fires-middlesbrough-past-birmingham\/#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/matchplug.com\/blog\/targett-double-fires-middlesbrough-past-birmingham\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/matchplug.com\/blog\/targett-double-fires-middlesbrough-past-birmingham\/\",\"name\":\"Targett Double Fires Middlesbrough Past Birmingham - Matchplug Blog\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/matchplug.com\/blog\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2026-03-08T21:39:29+00:00\",\"description\":\"Targett scored twice as Middlesbrough beat Birmingham 3-1 in the Championship on Monday, tightening their second automatic promotion spot.\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/matchplug.com\/blog\/targett-double-fires-middlesbrough-past-birmingham\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/matchplug.com\/blog\/targett-double-fires-middlesbrough-past-birmingham\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/matchplug.com\/blog\/targett-double-fires-middlesbrough-past-birmingham\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/matchplug.com\/blog\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Targett Double Fires Middlesbrough Past Birmingham\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/matchplug.com\/blog\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/matchplug.com\/blog\/\",\"name\":\"Matchplug Blog\",\"description\":\"Matchplug is the best soccer prediction site connecting bettors with winning tips. 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