Merouane Zemmama's 89th-minute strike secured a priceless victory that extends the gap between Boro and the Championship relegation places to six points.
The success, which was Boro's first at the Riverside since February 1, capped a fine 24 hours for Mowbray, who completed the loan capture of Nottingham Forest goalkeeper Paul Smith yesterday morning, with misfiring striker Kris Boyd moving to the City Ground until the end of the season.
Smith enjoyed an impressive debut last night, but it is the departure of Boyd, who is understood to have been earning more than ?30,000-a-week, that could create the leeway for at least one more addition this month.
It was crucial that we signed an experienced goalkeeper and Paul is exactly that, said Mowbray. He's a played a lot of games for Forest and I thought he looked calm and controlled in everything he did.
We wanted Paul and Forest wanted Kris. It's a good deal for this football club, and Forest are paying every penny of his (Boyd's) wages. I don't want to go into details, but there's obviously a discrepancy between the two players.
It helps our football club if Kris is playing regularly and scoring goals, and with him moving out, it potentially opens up a bit of leeway for us financially. There might be an opportunity to bring a player in from somewhere to help the team.
That is likely to be in midfield, as injuries to Kevin Thomson and Julio Arca forced Mowbray to hand 20-year-old Richie Smallwood a first senior start last night.
The Dormanstown-born midfielder performed creditably enough, but an additional reinforcement could be of major benefit as Boro look to move further clear of 22nd-placed Scunthorpe in the games that remain.
Maybe we need to look at centre midfield, admitted Mowbray. Kevin doesn't look like he'll be playing again this season, and although Richie came in and did a good job, we don't have a lot of options.
Salary levels are always going to be an issue for us, so we're not going to be signing a Steven Gerrard or anything like that. But maybe there'll be a bit of leeway to get a young lad from a Premier League club who's desperate to prove themselves.
Zemmama has been keen to impress since joining from Hibernian in January, and the Moroccan's first goal in a Boro shirt capped a spirited second-half display that saw John Brayford's own goal cancel out a first-half penalty from Jamie Ward.
Brayford hooked Seb Hines' header into his own net, and having helped engineer a turnaround at Millwall three weeks ago, Zemmama ensured Boro were finally on the right end of a last-gasp winner.
It makes a change for us to score late on, but we will take it, said Mowbray. It wasn't a great performance, I think it's called winning ugly. It was two anxious teams and no real football was played.
It was good timing for Zemmama to score, especially after I brought him off at half-time on Saturday. It's never nice when that happens and he was disappointed. So it was great for him to come on and score the goal.
It's great for a player who feeds off confidence. He wants the ball and likes to show people how clever he can be. Sometimes he does that in the wrong areas, but generally he's a very talented boy who can make a difference.
Source: Northern Echo
Source: Northern Echo