Sunderland offered little in manager Tony Mowbray's second game in charge, while the hosts missed several chances to extend their lead.

It gave Boro their second Championship win this season, lifting them to 14th.

More than 30,000 fans filled the Riverside Stadium to watch Chris Wilder's team after a poor start to the season, which saw them win just one of their opening seven matches.

Alex Pritchard should have opened the scoring after seven minutes for Mowbray's Sunderland but after that, Middlesbrough's performance belied their early-season place in the Championship relegation zone.

Australian McGree could have had a first-half hat-trick, with a volley bouncing over the bar and a right-footed strike well saved by Black Cats keeper Anthony Paterson after a free-flowing attacking move.

He scored with the second of his three chances, giving Boro a 1-0 lead at the end of a first half which threatened to boil over at times.

Wilder's team continued to have the upper hand in the second half, with Matt Crooks and Rodrigo Muniz going close to doubling their lead.

Despite some late Sunderland pressure, the hosts hung on to jump eight places and extend a league unbeaten run against Sunderland. which has lasted 14 years.

It meant Mowbray, who grew up in Middlesbrough and captained and managed the club, suffered his first defeat as Black Cats boss.

Middlesbrough manager Chris Wilder told BBC Radio Tees:

"I think we all enjoyed that, didn't we? It wasn't our most free-flowing of performances, but who cares? It's a local derby.

"We have played miles better than that this season, but we haven't been able to stop conceding. We achieved our first objective then in keeping a clean sheet, and Riley took a great chance to score.

"It was a really tight game, but I wasn't expecting anything different with Tony coming here with a newly promoted team, and I thought they gave us the toughest test we've had all season.

"They pushed us back and had chances, but Riley should be coming away with the match ball. We had to manage the game late on, but we got the most important thing, which was the win."

Sunderland defender Danny Batth told BBC Radio Newcastle:

"We didn't start well in the game, we know that, but we kept going to the end, and on a different day we could have had a couple of goals.

"Middlesbrough were tentative when they went ahead, and they went compact and didn't give us much ground. But then we have to punish them, which we didn't do.

"Our set-piece was poor tonight, and we have loads to learn as we improve as we go through the season.

"We will always keep going until the last minute, it's something the team has been built on, we will always keen going - win, lose or draw."