Middlesbrough's promotion hopes were dealt a painful blow as Conor Coady gave Charlton a surprise win at the Riverside Stadium.

Boro were hoping to keep up the pressure on Championship leaders Coventry with victory but instead dropped precious points in their pursuit of a place in the Premier League.

Coady's second-half winner leaves Boro eight points behind the Sky Blues, and more importantly just one ahead of a charging Millwall in third place.

It is nine years since Boro were in the top flight and they now face a massive last nine games in a tussle for a priceless top-two finish.

Kim Hellberg's home side dominated possession throughout the game but not for the first time of late lacked a clinical touch in attack and were frustrated by the well organised visitors.

Wing-backs Matt Targett and Callum Brittain were wasteful in good positions early on, while Aidan Morris thumped the crossbar during a strong first-half spell.

The Addicks had their moments on the break, though, and Charlie Kelman should have done better when his shot was saved by Sol Brynn at his near post.

The pattern of play continued in the second half until Coady, on his 400th career league start, got ahead of his marker to touch in a mammoth throw from Harry Clarke.

The goal, his first for the club since arriving from Wrexham, all but silenced the home fans.

Boro kept up the pressure, ending the night with 34 shots on goal, but Will Mannion in the Charlton goal was largely untroubled until he saved well from Hayden Hackney late on.

Charlton, who had won just one of their previous 12 on the road, now look comfortable in 17th place with a nine-point cushion to the relegation zone.

Charlton manager Nathan Jones told BBC London:

"It is all about the result for us at this point. To come to one of the best teams in the division and put in that level of performance, I'm pleased. Every time we had the ball we gave it away so we were better off without it.

"They have wonderful players, they will get promoted I am sure but my players did me proud. You saw a group wanting to defend and doing the basics well. It's such an important part of the season to get back-to-back wins. It is a monster of a league."

Middlesbrough manager Kim Hellberg told BBC Radio Tees:

"It has been a theme where we have had a lot of opportunities and not won games. We have not been good enough in terms of scoring goals and we have two points from three home games.

"We scored seven goals in our last two games and could have scored seven today but we have to keep working and keep improving. It would be worse if we had only two chances all night.

"We need to win as many games as possible. We will try and win them all."