Kim Hellberg remains positive as Middlesbrough target Bolton Wanderers win
Middlesbrough will face Championship rivals Bolton Wanderers on Friday night.
Middlesbrough head coach Kim Hellberg has shrugged aside any disappointment or frustration over last weekend’s home draw with Cardiff City and insisted he will maintain a positive mindset as his side push for promotion.
Boro had an opportunity to move to the top of the Championship table when they host a Bluebirds side sitting in the bottom six ahead of their visit to the Riverside Stadium. However, it was the visitors that looked well on their way to what would be considered a shock win on Teesside as Jack Moylan and Ollie Tanner found the net to give their side a two-goal lead by the time the half-time whistle had been blown.
Boro showed plenty of character and attitude to roar back into the game thanks to second-half goals from forward duo Tommy Conway and Will Lankshear - but a late winner evaded Hellberg’s men as they applied some severe pressure on their visitors. That leaders Swansea City had suffered a home defeat against fellow promotion challenges West Ham United raised frustrations at full-time - but Hellberg insisted everyone connected with Boro should remain positive as they now turn their focus towards Friday night’s visit to Bolton Wanderers.
Speaking at his pre-match press conference, the Boro boss said: “It’s always disappointment and frustration and all of the different things. Of course you wanted to win the games, you want to win every game but in the moments, there can always be frustration when you don’t win games. I think that’s fair but I think there are more things to be happy about than there are things to be frustrated about. So I’ll give you an honest answer. If you ask me if I wanted to win the game against Cardiff, yes, I wanted to win the game against Cardiff.
“I think we started the season absolutely brilliantly. Teams that I think, if you look at Wolves and West Ham, some of the favourites that come down have a possibility to be up there, and there is one team on more points than us and I am very happy for that. Now I think that is a very good start and a lot of things to be happy about.”
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Situation
Hellberg could look to make changes on Friday night as his side look to claim a win that will see them leapfrog West Ham and Swansea and top the table ahead of Saturday’s fixtures. Sebastian Berhalter, Will Lankshear and Jeremy Sarmiento could come into contention after they came off the bench in last weekend’s home draw with Cardiff. However, the Boro boss has revealed the visit to the Toughsheet Community Stadium will come two soon for two other members of his squad. When asked for an update on injuries ahead of the game, the Swede replied: “It’s a similar situation like we talked about last time. David will train fully hopefully on Monday and Alfie is still a bit further away.”