Kim Hellberg issues blame for Middlesbrough's first half collapse v Coventry City | OneFootball

The Reds saw the Sky Blues reclaim top spot at their expense on Monday night

Middlesbrough head coach Kim Hellberg has blamed himself for his side's lacklustre first-half display which set the tone for an eventual 3-1 defeat to Coventry City at the CBS Arena on Monday night.

With the encounter in the West Midlands seeing the Championship's top two facing off against each other for the second time this season, it was the Sky Blues who made it 10 matches unbeaten against the Reds with a convincing 3-1 success, largely down to the stellar performance and hat-trick achieved by USMNT international forward, Haji Wright.

Hellberg had seen his side claim top spot for the first time since he replaced Rob Edwards at the Riverside Stadium in late November with a victory by the same scoreline away to Sheffield United just seven days before, but their six-game winning streak in the second tier was ground to a halt in CV6, and deservedly, too.

Despite a slight improvement in performance levels at the beginning of the second period, Wright followed up his first strike on 21 minutes with a lethal finish to take advantage of poor communication between Sol Brynn, Luke Ayling and Adilson Malanda as Carl Rushworth pumped a goal-kick upfield, before slotting home a 71st-minute penalty shortly after Riley McGree looked to drag Middlesbrough back into the contest with a well-taken finish from inside the penalty area.

As such, Middlesbrough suffered their first defeat since their FA Cup third round loss to Fulham on January 10th, with their last league loss before Monday night coming away to Derby County on New Year's Day.

With the game not exactly panning out in the manner which some would have forecasted ahead of kick-off, Hellberg has since taken a large portion of accountability for the fact his side failed to get to grips with the intensity set by Frank Lampard's side from the first whistle.

Kim Hellberg takes accountability for dismal first-half performance by Middlesbrough vs Coventry City

It was the Sky Blues who dominated the early play in CV6, with the pace and energy of Wright, Jack Rudoni, Ephron Mason-Clark, Tatsuhiro Sakamoto and debutant Frank Onyeka making it hard for the Middlesbrough players to get a foothold in the contest.

Boro were, in some ways, rather fortunate that they only trailed by one at the break, after Wright turned a low ball from Rudoni home from a matter of yards, before getting the better of Brynn twice more in the second period.

Speaking in his post-match press conference, Hellberg - who suffered just his fourth defeat in 16 matches in charge of the North East club in all competitions - was frustrated with his own decisions on the touchline as the first half continued to be an onslaught of pressure from the home side.

“The biggest frustration is on myself for not helping them better in the first half. That's the biggest frustration," he said.

"Goals can happen. It's tough when you look at the game, how it is, but I'm more disappointed that we don't get out with the ball, that we don't do a better first half.

“We do a lot of good stuff, but we don't get out with the ball - we don't take the ball forward when we solve it. That's a bigger frustration for me. It ended up being too many duels and they, of course with the home crowd, they win more duels than us," the Swede added.

“I think we solved it a lot of times but then went back into the pressure. Our positioning was not good enough. That comes from me; they’re unclear from me. They were better than us in the first half and 1-0 is maybe a fair result.

“Second half, I think we are actually brilliant if we take away the two situations where they score their goals,” he explained. “Coming out, creating a lot of opportunities around the box.

“The goals are just terrible timing; terrible goals to concede. I think they are in our half two times and they score both off them from not doing so much. You cannot let a very good opponent do that or it will be difficult to get out with some points."

Middlesbrough will have to put Coventry City horror show behind them in promotion race

Hellberg will hope this performance and result is a one-off, and that Middlesbrough can quickly return to the levels they previously showcased as they look to return to the Premier League for the first time since 2017.

Despite the defeat, they are still five points clear of Millwall in third with 14 matches remaining, with the first of those seeing them welcome Oxford United to the Riverside on Saturday afternoon.