Kim Hellberg’s verdict as Middlesbrough lost 1-0 to Portsmouth
Kim Hellberg, head coach of Middlesbrough(Image: Richard Lee/Shutterstock)
Kim Hellberg pulled no punches in a scathing post-match press conference after Middlesbrough’s 1-0 defeat to Portsmouth.
Clearly angered by the nature of his side’s 1-0 defeat at home to Portsmouth, the Boro boss described his side’s first half in particular as ‘like watching paint dry’, describing it as a ‘terrible’ and ‘boring’ performance.
The Riverside loss was a sixth straight game without a win for Boro, and leaves their automatic promotion chances in tatters. It was another game where they had all the ball, and conceded so few chances, but failed to do much with it in the final third.
Pompey’s 96th-minute winner was their first shot on target, and came via Conor Chaplin deflecting what had been a poor initial effort from Adrian Segecic into the back of the net for the ultimate smash and grab.
“I’m disappointed, devastated… yeah, something like that,” a distraught-looking Hellberg said at full-time. “The performance was poor, actually. First half was terrible. It was like watching paint dry.
“I don’t know why. I must have failed with everything I told them before the game because we weren’t good enough. Second half, we came out better. Our best spell was in that first 15-20 minutes in the second half when we created enough to at least score the goal.
“But we are not efficient enough to do that. To be fair, the defensive part is okay during the whole game. I don’t recognise them having any goal-scoring opportunities through the whole game.
“And then it’s a set piece again. Ball comes out, shoots, deflects. I think it’s their two shots in that whole game. 96 minutes. Deja vu from the Bristol City game. It’s tough to take.”
Hellberg has praised his Boro side throughout this difficult run, which now stretches to six without a win, and just two in 12. Despite not winning games, Boro have been playing well in the main, with a failure to kill games off their only real weakness.
In contrast, however, the Swede said of this one: “This was different, we have to be honest with that. I don’t think this was a good performance at all. I’ve praised the performances even when we’ve not won. But not today.
“Again, we created most of the chances, but this performance was not good enough. It was boring, it was lazy, it had no energy, except in that first 15-20 minutes in the second half.
“In the first half, it’s slow, it’s boring, and there’s no energy. It’s not the same way taking the ball back. It’s passive. That is the disappointment.
“But, I want to be clear, we should not lose this game. This was poor by the high bar we’ve set ourselves. We maybe don’t deserve to win, but we have enough chances second half to. You cannot lose this game, when they have no chances in the whole game.
“For the moment at home, we’re struggling in terms of that, and we for the moment find a way to not win. I have to be honest, because everyone sees it. There’s no hiding from that, and that we have to sort out.”
A rarity for Hellberg, so disappointed in Boro’s first half was the head coach, he made two changes at the break. Matt Targett and Jeremy Sarmiento were axed.
Hellberg explained: “In general, our structure was not as good as we wanted. That was the negative thing. I’ve praised the performances when they’ve been good enough.
“This game, I don’t think the performance was good enough. They were unclear with the structure, which means that how we wanted to attack them doesn’t happen. That is a big failure from me, if that was unclear.
“We switched it and tried to bring in some energy at half-time and succeeded better. I could have taken any one of them off. I think everyone felt that energy was not good enough in the first half.”
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