Kim Hellberg offers his thoughts as Middlesbrough were beaten 2-1 by Millwall
Head coach Kim Hellberg looks dejected(Image: Greig Cowie/Shutterstock)
A downbeat Kim Hellberg admitted he was heartbroken after Middlesbrough’s defeat to promotion rivals Millwall – with his side unable to reward supporters for their backing.
Boro were beaten 2-1 at a sold-out Riverside, with their dominance in the first half only counting for a one-goal lead through Dael Fry. As they suffered a drop off in the second half, academy graduate Josh Coburn came back to haunt Boro, as he bagged a brace to send Millwall above Boro into second.
It was a familiar story for Boro. Although they did manage to get a lead in this one, and produced what Kim Hellberg described as the best first-half performance of the year, they ultimately didn’t kill the game off and were punished, despite the best efforts of over 30,000 Boro supporters trying to drive the side on.
Hellberg said after: “It’s disappointing not to win. But they scored two goals, we scored one. That’s the result of the game. Performance-wise, I’m unbelievably impressed by our players – all of them coming back and putting up this type of performance, together with the crowd.
“I think that was the best first half I’ve seen us play this year. It should have been done and buried after 60 minutes; it should have been over. And then they score on a throw-in, I think it is. It bounces around a bit and then it’s a good finish.
“Then the second is in transition, late stages of the game, and he puts that one away and it’s 2-1. That’s what football is about, scoring. They get the win and you have to say congratulations for that. They’ve had an unbelievable season and took the three points.”
He continued: “I think everyone who watched this game will struggle to understand how we lost this game in terms of performance. Except it’s 2-1 against us. And that’s what it’s all about, it’s all about the result and that wasn’t what we wanted.
“That breaks my heart in terms of going into the players after this one after seeing them do everything. Going out to see the supporters after this performance. They were absolutely brilliant and the way we worked together was great.
“I love that intensity, that loudness. It breaks my heart we’re not able to help them get what, in my opinion, we deserved from this game, and that was three points.”
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