Championship boss left baffled after losing Premier League promotion six-pointer

Middlesbrough boss Kim Hellberg believes a ‘higher power’ is testing his side after their latest promotion chase setback.

The Championship outfit were beaten 2-1 at home by Millwall on Good Friday.

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Boro had taken a first-half lead at the Riverside Stadium through captain Dael Fry.

However, they were pegged back after the interval by former player Josh Coburn.

The Millwall forward, who used to play for Boro, then grabbed the winner four minutes from time.

But despite the result, Hellberg was impressed by his side’s performance, which he felt deserved more goals.

Hellberg’s honest assessment

Speaking to talkSPORT after the match, the Swedish coach explained: “If I’m talking about the performance, I think we were excellent. It should have been 4/5-0 and the boys were brilliant.

“We had one or two days here with the players that came away from the international break.

“So if you’re talking about the performance, I think it was brilliant. It should have been 4/5-0 against a very good team.”

When asked what went wrong as Boro suffered a blow to their promotion hopes, he had little excuse for the second-half collapse.

Hellberg, who has been in charge since November, admitted: “I think when you face a good team, and I think together with the crowd, I think our first half was excellent.

“I think we were firing. I think we were like you want to see a team, you fight, you run. Of course, we have so many opportunities and just have 1-0 into the half.

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“You know something’s going to change because it’s a good team we play with a good manager and good players and (they) have done very, very well this year.

“Something’s going to change and it was the same thing as we saw in the Ipswich game. The game totally changed in the second half.”

The 38-year-old continued: “I think we were still the better team in the second half, not as good as we were in the first half.

“They get some more crosses in and of course from a set piece, corner, second ball or throw-in they score one and then change a little bit of momentum.

“But we turn that back and we have a lot of opportunities and possibilities to score.

“Then they go on the counter and he (Coburn) does a very good finish. I have to give him that, top, top finish from the corner into the net and there’s 2-1.

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“That is football and sometimes it feel like it’s someone, a higher power, that is testing us.”

Promotion setback

Friday’s result sees Millwall leapfrog Boro into the automatic promotion places.

Alex Neil’s side are now a point clear of their opponents with six matches to play.

However, fourth-place Ipswich are just two points further back with two games in hand.

The Lions have contested just two seasons in the top-flight in their history, with their last appearance coming in the 1989/90 season.

Meanwhile, Boro have been away from the Premier League for nine years.