Middlesbrough

Middlesbrough head coach Kim Hellberg is frustrated that his side have gone three games without scoring, after they lost 1-0 at home to Hull City tonight.

He told BBC Radio Tees: "Making a game look like this and coming away without any points - that's not good enough. At the moment we're not scoring any goals, and we have to be honest with that - we're not good enough in those moments.

"You can look at the last three games, not scoring a goal from something like 70 shots. That's not good enough so we have to work with that part.

"Sometimes the ball just doesn't want to go in, but you also have to look at the quality in the finishing, how we get players in the best positions to finish, and that's what I have to look at.

"We had 23 shots, and they had one shot on target and made it count."

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Middlesbrough manager Kim Hellberg felt his side got what they deserved in their disappointing goalless draw against Blackburn at the Riverside Stadium.

Boro remain second in the Championship and Hellberg told BBC Radio Tees: "I think as a game in total, it's very disappointing. I think you can see a group of players that work very hard. We talked about this after the game of handling the expectations of sometimes not having your best day and to try and handle those things when it's not going your way.

"I think there's so much determination and much willingness to do good, to do right, to do everything for your team-mates, the fans, and I think today that became a little bit of a problem because we started to force things because we wanted it so bad.

"That opened us up for counters and that opened up a lot of technical errors that we haven't seen before. I'm a bit disappointed with myself in handling that part of the game, in helping the players live up to expectations when we don't have the best of days. In general, disappointed with the performance and we didn't deserve more than a point."

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Middlesbrough will seek to finish 2025 strongly at the Riverside as they welcome Blackburn on Friday (15:00 GMT).

Boro lie second, six points behind leaders Coventry and five ahead of third-placed Ipswich after seeing a four-match winning streak under Kim Hellberg ended by a 2-0 defeat at Bristol City last time out.

Valerien Ismael's Blackburn moved six points clear of the drop-zone after picking up their first win in six games with a 2-0 home win over Millwall last Saturday, and have an impressive recent record on the road in Teesside.

• Middlesbrough won their last league game against Blackburn 2-0 in April but haven't won consecutively against Rovers since doing the double over them in 2012/13.

• Blackburn are unbeaten in their past 10 away league games against Middlesbrough (W3 D7), though their last defeat was a Boxing Day meeting in 2012.

• Middlesbrough have won nine of their past 11 home league games on Boxing Day, with both exceptions coming against Sheffield Wednesday (0-1 in 2018, 3-3 in 2024).

• Blackburn's last away win on Boxing Day came against Middlesbrough in the Premier League in 2005. Since then they've failed to win any of their nine Boxing Day away games (D3 L6), losing the past six in a row.

• Middlesbrough have won 11 of their past 16 home league games (D3 L2), with their only two defeats in this time coming against last season's champions Leeds in April and current league leaders Coventry in November.

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Middlesbrough have added two members of staff to Kim Hellberg's backroom team.

Anes Mravac, most recently interim head coach of Swedish side Malmo, joins his team of assistant coaches.

Former West Ham goalkeeper coach Linus Kandolin has also been appointed after Alan Fettis' departure from Boro earlier in the season.

Speaking to BBC Radio Tees ahead of Friday's visit of Blackburn, and asked about Mravac, Hellberg said: "He's a good guy and a good coach."

Mravac's previous coaching roles include at IF Sylvia and IFK Varnamo - where Hellberg coached before moving to Hammarby - while he also spent four years at IFK Norrkoping, Hellberg's hometown club.

Kandolin was part of Graham Potter's backroom team at The Hammers earlier this season, having previously worked at IF Elfsborg and under Potter at Ostersunds, as well as being part of the Sweden Under-21s coaching set-up.

Kim Hellberg says he has been impressed by the mental fortitude of his Boro squad after suffering their first defeat since he took over.

Saturday's 2-0 defeat at Bristol City ended a four-match winning run and left Middlesbrough six points behind leaders Coventry.

Hellberg told BBC Radio Tees: "It's easy to be happy and have energy when you win games, it's a challenge when you lose and don't get the result you want.

"This is a very strong group and they have shown me that this week.

"It's about learning and developing from it and using it. The squad are happy, there's a lot of energy. You have to use the energy from that game in the best way you can to improve.

"The players have been brilliant this week. There's been a lot of reflection on what we can improve. We'll get better, that's the name of the game."

Riley McGree limped off early at Ashton Gate and will miss the next two games at least, though Hellberg insisted he wouldn't be "careful" with the Australian, who endured a nightmare two seasons with injury trouble.

"I don't think it's a long-term thing," Hellberg said. "You need to balance the timing on coming back - I don't like the word careful, it's not how I want to play, train or act."

The Swede said squad rotation would be vital with four games in 10 days.

"We have a lot of good players coming back. Everyone except Riley was on the pitch (in training)," Hellberg added.

"It's key in the Championship with so many games in a short period of time to rotate. It's an opportunity to give players who work every day a chance. I believe in people. It's up to them to take their chance.

"It's a competition about starting and a competition about being on the bench, that's how we want it."

After a day off with their families on Christmas Day, Boro will face 20th-placed Blackburn in front of a packed house on Friday, fresh from a 2-0 win over promotion-chasing Millwall.

"Blackburn have had good results against big teams and had a lot of close games. It's a tricky opponent with some good players," Hellberg said. "It's going to be amazing to play in front of a sold out Riverside."

Middlesbrough head coach Kim Hellberg refused to be too downbeat after his side failed to cut the gap on Championship leaders Coventry City.

Boro could have moved to within just three points of top spot after Coventry's earlier draw, but went down 2-0 away to Bristol City thanks to goals from Emil Riis and Rob Atkinson either side of half time.

Hellberg told BBC Radio Tees: "I'm frustrated that the ball didn't want to go into the goal.

"I think we had 28 shots or something like that, unbelievable attacking play in many parts of the game, but not goals and they scored two and that's the name of the game.

"They did some very good stuff, so frustrating in some ways as a result of not scoring goals, but also proud of many things in how we play, how we act and the togetherness.

"I get a feeling after the game that we are good for real and you'll lose games and the energy from that, and how we go on from that, is the key."

Middlesbrough, who are five points clear of Ipswich and Hull in third and fourth respectively, return to action on Boxing Day when they host Blackburn Rovers.

Middlesbrough head into Saturday's game (15:00 GMT) having won all four of their Championship matches since Kim Hellberg took over as head coach and are now only five points behind the leaders Coventry.

Bristol City are 11th in the table, four points short of the play-offs having failed to win any of their past three league outings.

• Bristol City are unbeaten in their past seven league games against Middlesbrough (W5 D2), winning each of the last four in a row.

• Middlesbrough have lost their past two away league games against Bristol City – only once have they lost three in a row against them (March 2013-December 2017).

• Bristol City are winless in their past three Championship matches (D1 L2) – if they fail to win here, they would equal their longest run without a win in the competition this term (four between September and October).

• Middlesbrough will be looking to win five consecutive Championship matches for the first time since a six-game run between September and October 2023.

• Middlesbrough's Morgan Whittaker has scored in each of his past six league appearances and could equal the record for scoring in most consecutive EFL Championship outings (since 2004-05), a record of seven that is jointly held by Emmanuel Latte Lath (Aug 2024), Aleksandar Mitrovic (Nov 2021), Jordan Rhodes (Feb 2013) and Charlie Austin (Oct 2012).

Everton are keen on Middlesbrough midfielder Hayden Hackney, but could struggle to sign the 23-year-old former England Under-21 international in January as Boro challenge for promotion from the Championship. (Teamtalk), external

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Striker Tommy Conway says ending his 16-game goal drought in the 3-1 win over QPR was the best feeling he's had in a Middlesbrough shirt.

The Scotland international scored from the penalty spot to extend Boro's lead to 3-0 on Saturday, marking his first goal since 30 August against Sheffield United.

Conway told BBC Radio Tees he had "a smile as wide as the River Tees" and it was "a big sigh of relief if I'm being honest".

He added: "[It's been] probably the toughest part of my career to date. Past few months, obviously not scoring and having to deal with that mentally.

"It's been a new challenge but in a way I'm sort of glad that I've come through it. I've come out the other end.

"But I just want to say a massive thank you to all the fans and my team-mates and the staff at the club for sticking by me through this period.

"I could really feel that the crowd wanted me to score and I'm so glad I could give back to them."

Conway said he was "always going to take the penalty" regardless of his recent struggles in front of goal.

"As soon as it hit the back of the net, such an unbelievable feeling, probably the best I've had in a Boro shirt scoring-wise, given it was so long and to give us that comfort in the game then at 3-0," the 23-year-old said.

When questioned whether his belief in himself had ever wavered, Conway said: "If I'm being honest, probably yeah. After the Coventry game [missing a chance from five yards], it was a tough one to take.

"Being away from my family, that's the toughest part of it when you're going through a spell like that. I almost felt guilty letting them down, letting my team-mates down.

"It took me a few days to get over that and then I think I've been back to my best ever since."

Listen to the reaction to Boro's win over QPR on BBC Sounds

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Middlesbrough's football in beating Queens Park Rangers was enough to leave head coach Kim Hellberg purring in delight.

Boro won 3-1 at the Riverside to make it four wins out of four since the Swede arrived on Teesside as the permanent successor to Rob Edwards.

It means they remain five points behind leaders Coventry City, but they have opened up a seven-point cushion over the play-off spots, and Hellberg is delighted at how well life has started for him at Boro.

"I'm just glad to give back a little bit," he told BBC Radio Tees.

"I was well received here and everyone has been excellent to me, everyone in the club and everyone around the club, including the supporters, so it's fun to get some wins and to give back."

Boro did most of the damage in the first half with goals from David Strelec and Morgan Whittaker before Tommy Conway added a third after the break.

But it was that opening half that really left Hellberg enthused.

"The first half was unbelievable," he added. "There was a lot of feelings like, wow, my players are so good.

"It is difficult to keep up the quality for 90 minutes but they did amazing in the first half - it really was top level."

Middlesbrough boss Kim Hellberg has been speaking to the media before Saturday's Championship game against QPR at the Riverside Stadium (kick-off 15:00 GMT).

Here are the key lines from his press conference:

• Reflecting on three wins in his first three games, Hellberg says his aim was to earn the trust of the players and fans over the way he wants his team to play "as quickly as possible". He said: "In the beginning I was crossing my fingers and hoping for some good results. So many tough games, you know it's small margins to win or lose. With having so few practices with the lads, it becomes even smaller margins."

• The quality of Boro's players in central spaces is why he changed the system to play two strikers. He said: "It was the feeling of the players, the quality of the players, having a lot of good strikers, having a lot of good central players, having very good full-backs, which means they can play wide. I thought the best quality of our players was being in central spaces. I thought that suited the squad we had rather than playing with wide wingers. If you spread out too much, it becomes more about one-v-one situations."

• The system is still adaptable, though. He said: "It will change through the season. Against Hull we had the full-backs wide, against Charlton, they were playing a back five, so we had them more narrow. It's always about small changes in the system."

• On his attention to detail, Hellberg said: "I love football. I love tactics. It's important to understand it's just one part of it. If the player doesn't run, if the player doesn't tackle, it doesn't matter how good tactics we have. You always need energy from the players. The quality of the players. All those things are key. That's what I love about football. There is so much in it, so many tactics but also sometimes just win the duels."

• The QPR game will be "too soon" for centre-back Dael Fry to return from injury but he is "getting there". Hellberg said: "He will be on the pitch soon."

• On the challenge QPR pose, he added: "They're a good team. Four out of five [wins]. Quick on the counter, good strikers running in behind a lot. Clear shape they use, good with the ball but also OK with having maybe 35% of the ball and go for some counters. They're a very mobile, good team. So, a different challenge but a good one."

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Second-placed Middlesbrough go into Saturday's game (15:00 GMT) in a rich vein of form having won their past three games with Kim Hellberg continuing his perfect start as boss after their win at Charlton last time out.

Boro are flying high in second place and are five points adrift of leaders Coventry.

QPR will be looking to squeeze their way into the play-off positions after picking up wins in their past two games.

The R's, who currently sit just outside the top six but only on goal difference, claimed a dramatic late winner against Birmingham City in their most recent outing.

• Middlesbrough have won their past three league games against QPR, last winning four in a row between November 2015 and January 2018.

• QPR have won four of their last six league visits to Middlesbrough (L2), though they lost 2-1 there in 2024-25.

• Middlesbrough have won 10 of their last 15 home league matches (D3 L2) and won in Kim Hellberg's first game at the Riverside against Derby in November.

• QPR haven't won any of their last six away Championship games in the month of December (D3 L3), last winning back in December 2023 away at Preston.

• Morgan Whittaker has scored three goals in his last five home Championship games for Middlesbrough, having failed to score in any of his first 11 games at the Riverside for the club.