What Middlesbrough's Championship promotion rivals are saying as battle intensifies
The latest Middlesbrough news as promotion battle ramps up, via Robbie Fenwick.
Middlesbrough suffered a blow to their automatic promotion hopes after a 1-0 defeat to Charlton Athletic at the Riverside on Wednesday night.
A second half winner from Conor Coady was the difference between the two sides despite Boro controlling the possession and having 34 shots on goal. The result leaves Boro in second place on 69 points with league leaders Coventry City eight points clear at the top on 77 points after beating Preston North End 3-0 on Wednesday night.
Kim Hellberg’s side go into Saturday’s match against Bristol City feeling the heat of third-placed Millwall, who are just one point behind Boro after their 1-0 win over Derby County on Tuesday. Millwall’s win saw them go three points clear of fourth-placed Ipswich Town after they drew 3-3 at Stoke City on Tuesday but Kieran McKenna’s side still have a game in hand on the sides above them.
Frank Lampard - Coventry City
Goals from Tatsuhiro Sakamoto, Brandon Thomas-Asante and a Matt Grimes penalty saw the Sky Blues hit 77 points and 77 goals for the season in their 3-0 win over Preston but Lampard knows there’s still plenty to do.
“The overall performance, the focus, the quality of the play, the creation of chances, the goals and the comfort that we felt - it’s nice, you don’t always get those. “The lads worked brilliantly from minute one until the end against tricky opposition on paper,” Lampard said after the game. “We’ve still got work to do but the points and the goals is a great recognition to this point. We've got to continue for another nine games,” he added.
Alex Neil - Millwall
Millwall’s victory over Derby was their fourth consecutive win in the Championship as they closed the gap on Middlesbrough in second place. A header from former Boro striker Josh Coburn was enough for the Lions to take the three points.
“I thought across the piece, I thought we deserved to win the game. I thought first half, we were the better side. I thought the difference in the game was always going to be who keeps the ball at the top end of the pitch,” Neil told BBC Radio London.
Neil, who has been nominated for February’s Manager of the Month, will know huge games against Ipswich and Boro are on the horizon but he insists Middlesbrough are not in his thoughts. “I don’t really think about Middlesbrough. I don’t think about the pressure. I just think we’ve got games coming up and we need to try and win them. So, yeah, it will be what it will be,” he added.
Kieran McKenna - Ipswich Town
Ipswich came back from 2-0 down to lead Stoke 3-2 going into the closing stages at the Bet365 Stadium on Tuesday before the Potters equalised with a 96th-minute penalty and McKenna was not happy with the penalty decision.
"We know we shouldn't end up in that situation, and Cedric puts an arm on his shoulder, but there was barely anything you could call a pull, and if you compare that to the last minute on Saturday (against Leicester) and the level of contact there was on Cedric, there's a horrible irony there,” McKenna said.
"There's going to be so much to take from tonight. There's negatives in there, things we need to do better, but there's some big, big positives from what the group showed in difficult circumstances and they're going to need to show those qualities, learn the lessons and put all that into the last 10 games."
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