Middlesbrough head coach Kim Hellberg has faulted himself for his team’s poor first-half performance, which set the tone for a 3-1 loss to Coventry City at the CBS Arena on Monday night.

The Championship’s top two met in the West Midlands for the second time this season, and it was the Sky Blues who made it ten matches unbeaten against the Reds with a convincing 3-1 victory, thanks in large part to a stellar performance and hat-trick by USMNT international forward Haji Wright.

Hellberg’s side had regained 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 earlier, but their six-game winning streak in the second tier had come to an end in CV6, and deservedly so.

Despite a slight improvement in performance levels at the start of the second half, 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 attempted to drag Middlesbrough back into the contest with a well-taken finish from inside the penalty area.

As a result, Middlesbrough suffered their first defeat since losing the FA Cup third round to Fulham on January 10th, with their previous league loss being away at Derby County on New Year’s Day.

With the game not going as planned, Hellberg has now accepted responsibility for his team’s failure to match Frank Lampard’s intensity from the start.

Kim Hellberg accepts responsibility for Middlesbrough’s terrible first-half performance against Coventry City.

The Sky Blues dominated the early stages of CV6, with the quickness and energy of Wright, Jack Rudoni, Ephron Mason-Clark, Tatsuhiro Sakamoto, and newcomer Frank Onyeka making it difficult for Middlesbrough players to establish themselves.

Boro were, in some respects, fortunate to be only one goal down at halftime, after Wright converted a low ball from Rudoni from a few yards out, before outscoring Brynn twice more in the second half.

Hellberg, who suffered only his fourth defeat in 16 matches in command of the North East club in all competitions, expressed frustration with his own mistakes on the touchline as the home side continued to apply pressure in the first half.

“My biggest frustration is that I didn’t help them more in the first half.” “That’s the biggest frustration,” he stated.Goals can be achieved. It’s difficult to look at the game as it is, but I’m more frustrated that we don’t get out with the ball and don’t play a stronger first half.

“We accomplish a lot of nice things, but when we fix a problem, we don’t move forward with it. That is more frustrating for me. It ended up being too many duels, and of course, with the home audience, they won more duels than us,” the Swede remarked.

“I think we fixed it several times but then returned to the pressure. Our positioning wasn’t good enough. That is from me; they are unclear from me. They outperformed us in the first half, and 1-0 is perhaps a reasonable outcome.

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

“The goals are simply bad timing; terrible goals to concede. I believe they are in our half twice and score both times despite their lack of effort. You can’t allow a good opponent do that or you’ll struggle to get out with a few points.”

Middlesbrough must leave Coventry City’s horror show behind them in the promotion battle.

Hellberg will hope that this performance and outcome are a one-time occurrence and that Middlesbrough can swiftly return to their prior levels as they seek to return to the Premier League for the first time since 2017.

Despite the setback, they stay five points ahead of Millwall in third place with 14 games remaining, the first of which is against Oxford United at the Riverside on Saturday afternoon.