Two goals from full-back Matt Targett helped Middlesbrough beat Birmingham City 3-1 at St Andrew’s and go four points clear of Millwall in the Championship promotion race.

Former Aston Villa defender Targett was joined on the scoresheet by David Strelec, with Kim Hellberg’s visitors halting a three-game winless streak that threatened to derail their bid to finish in the top two.

Play-off hopefuls Birmingham started well with Tommy Doyle testing Sol Brynn from distance, but Targett snuck behind their backline to take in Aidan Morris’ pass and finish against the run of play after 13 minutes.

Targett tucked home again in the 26th minute, after a scrappy passage of play resulted in Hayden Hackney offloading to him on the left side of the area.

Birmingham were back in the contest three minutes into the second half, with Marvin Ducksch finishing off the near post from Jay Stansfield’s cutback, but their fightback was halted on the hour.

Luke Ayling curled a delightful cross to the penalty spot, where Strelec was waiting to guide his header into the top-left corner, with Boro seeing out the closing stages in comfort.

They are five points behind leaders Coventry City with 11 games remaining, though Ipswich Town – in fourth and six points back – have two games in hand on Hellberg’s side.

Data Debrief: Matt hits the Targett

This was the 253rd game of Targett’s senior career in English football, and it is the first time he has ever scored multiple goals in a match.

The former Villa man showed a striker’s instinct by scoring with both of his shots, which had a total expected goals (xG) value of 0.76. No other player on the pitch was responsible for more than 0.31 xG (Ducksch).

Boro had 10 shots, one fewer than their hosts, and only hit the target three times – Birmingham did so on seven occasions. But the chances they did create were more clear-cut, as they won the xG battle by 1.07 to 0.61.