“I haven’t planned anything” – Boro boss Hellberg on possible Southampton ban after playoff semi-final defeat | OneFootball

Middlesborough manager Kim Hellberg admitted he has no contingency plan in place for the possibility that Southampton are removed from the Championship playoff final amid allegations of spying after a 2-1 defeat at St. Mary’s.

It was Shea Charles’ cross-turned-shot deep into extra time that secured a second trip to Wembley in the space of a month for the Saints, to complete the comeback after Ross Stewart cancelled out Riley McGree’s strike inside five minutes.

The Boro boss refused to comment on the side’s hope that they will be reinstated into the playoff final by the EFL, who plan to hold a hearing to address the accusation that a Saints analyst spied on their first-team training prior to last week’s first leg.

He said: “I haven’t planned anything. We had a plan if we were going to win the game, and we haven’t. I thought we were good enough to do it.

“I’m not going to make any suggestions or say anything about that question. We’ll see what happens.”

If found responsible for instructing the member of staff photographed at Middlesborough’s training ground last week, Southampton would be in breach of Rule 127 – established after Leeds were fined £200,000 for spying on Frank Lampard’s Derby County during the 2018/19 playoffs.

The South Coast side have request more time to conduct an internal investigation on the incident, yet this might not be granted with the possibility of a similar fine, point deduction, or worse depending on the EFL’s ruling.

It was a lightening quick start from the visitors, which they couldn’t follow up on to kill the game as Southampton continued to build and were rewarded with the equalizer before the break.

Hellberg made sure to praise his team’s dominant first-half performance before being quizzed on ‘Spygate 2.0’, as their wait for a return to Wembley for the first time since 2015 goes on.

The Swede said: “I am unbelievably proud of how the players played, [to] fight through two games.

“It was tough, of course. I think we played a very good first half, unbelievably good, had chances to go for two and then they score just before half time from a free kick.

“We fight with everyone, we played a very good team, massive squad [with] top quality players. To go here and dominate the first half in that way, with that crowd, it was very, very impressive.”

The 38-year-old offered congratulations to the players and supporters of Southampton, despite some fans arriving at the tie dressed in camouflage and wearing binoculars amid the off-pitch controversy.

As it stands, Southampton are set to face Hull City in the playoff final on Saturday 23rd of May.