Middlesbrough are experiencing an unexpected drop in form at the worst possible time in the Championship season, and their automatic promotion ambitions are dwindling at an alarming rate.

Boro have won only two of their next 11 games and are winless in their past six since reaching the leadership of the second tier with a 2-1 win away at Sheffield United in early February, their sixth consecutive league triumph.

It has been a perplexing sequence of outcomes, but Middlesbrough has not been overpowered in games when they have lost points. Kim Hellberg’s team has had 146 shots in its current three-draw, three-loss streak, but has only scored four goals. In contrast, their opponents have had 40 attempts and scored seven times.

It’s easy to be angry at the Riverside, and Boro’s manager has conceded that confidence is down since it appears they’re doing everything but winning.

Kim Hellberg pushes Middlesbrough to “fight through” poor confidence, factoring in star duo’s absences.

The latest example of Middlesbrough having the higher attacking stats but failing to convert occurred last Saturday, and it was possibly the most heartbreaking of them all, as they were defeated 1-0 at home against Portsmouth at the death, despite the visitors having only three shots all game.

With Morgan Whittaker and Hayden Hackney, two of Boro’s most creative outlets, missing the last four games, the promotion-chasing side has struggled to capitalise on the opportunities they are creating up the other end.

Head coach Kim Hellberg seeks to lift his team’s spirits after a string of disappointing draws and losses.Confidence, of course. I believe you can feel it on everyone. It’s not a comfortable place to be right now when things go wrong. That is something I can understand. “We just need to get out of it,” Hellberg told Teeside Live.It saddens us that Morgan [Whittaker] and Hayden [Hackney], our two greatest point scorers or takers this season, are out. That does not help either. But we must fight through it. “It was disappointing that we didn’t win, even though we performed well.”We should not lose this game again. If you’re confident, you’ll win this game regardless of how it seems. But we don’t. So, you should not and cannot lose it. It’s a battle right now. “That’s just to be honest.”Everyone can see it, thus it is not concealing from that. We must pull ourselves out of that hole and find a way. And that was a disappointment after the last game and the games before it, which I believe were completely different in terms of energy.”

Kim Hellberg’s squad is now three points behind Ipswich Town in second place, having played a few more games. They might potentially fall to fifth tonight if Southampton maintains their excellent winning streak against Blackburn Rovers in their game in hand.

With Ipswich coming up this weekend, Boro have a huge opportunity to demonstrate that they’re still capable of producing big results and being promoted at the end of the season.

A loss there, however, would knock them all but mathematically out of the top two battle, and they might even be looking over their shoulders at the chasing playoff pack.

Middlesbrough have suffered a similar downturn under Kim Hellberg—they’ll be expecting to emerge out of the other side again, and soon.

Middlesbrough has been on a rollercoaster trip under Kim Hellberg since the Swedish manager took over in late November, and this isn’t the only low moment his team has had in the short time he’s been in charge.

After winning his first four league games, Boro would pick just one point in four games over Christmas and New Year’s, scoring 0 goals. Following that, they won six consecutive games, resulting in this 11-game streak of two victories, five ties, and four loses.

While confidence is low among Middlesbrough fans, there can be some comfort in knowing that this Boro team has already recovered from a poor run of form this season, so they know how to deal with adversity before.

Furthermore, while games against Ipswich and Wrexham between now and the end of the season may not be the easiest on paper, you can think that they’d be a lot more open, which would suit Boro better than the regular low-block defending that they’ve faced over the last several months.

So, despite this fall in form and the fact that automatic promotion seems out of their reach currently, there should still be some hope that Middlesbrough may repeat some of their earlier form off the back of a winless run, sooner rather than later.