‘Brilliant’ second half cheers Kim Hellberg as Middlesbrough see off West Brom

Kim Hellberg was delighted to see his Middlesbrough side turn things around after a “terrible” first half to claim a 3-1 win over West Brom.

Boro were well below par in the first half of the Sky Bet Championship contest at the Riverside, but while West Brom dominated possession before the break, they failed to seriously threaten home goalkeeper Radek Vitek.

As a result, Will Lankshear was able to open the scoring at the start of the second half, and with Hellberg making personnel and tactical changes after the interval, Lankshear scored again before Alfie Jones made things safe by slotting home with three minutes remaining.

Hellberg said: “I am very happy with the win. How we turned the game around in the second half is absolutely brilliant – intense pressing, creating loads of opportunities.

“That’s what I want this football side to look like. The second half, against a very good side, I thought was brilliant.

“The first half, I have to be honest, we were terrible, to be fair. In the first half, there was a lack of intensity to how we were pressing and our pressing structure was not right. We gave them a lot of time with the ball.

“They are a very good side, very similar to us, but while they played well, they only really had one or two chances. They had the ball and frustrated us though, and were very good at it.

“We lacked intensity in how we pressed, and then we were tired when we did get the ball so we did a lot of basic things wrong.

“Sometimes, football is about pressing and winning your duels, and we didn’t do that well enough in the first half. Second half, we turned it around and over 90 minutes we won fair and square.”

West Brom boss James Morrison felt his side had played well for long periods of the game but was frustrated at the costly errors that led to his side’s defeat.

The Baggies equalised midway through the second when Jimmy-Jay Morgan headed home, but Lankshear re-established Boro’s lead as he scored from the rebound after Kyle Joseph’s shot had been saved and Jones slid in a third goal for the hosts with three minutes left.

Morrison said: “We talk a lot about managing momentum and starts to halves. The goal [Middlesbrough’s opener] is offside, but I’m not going to complain too much, hopefully we’ll get a few ourselves this year.

“I thought we were comfortable, but I don’t want to be that team that concedes silly goals. I don’t want to be that.

“We’re a new team and we’re trying to build something so there’s going to be little knocks along the way. It’s probably part of our learning curve, and we’ll get stronger as we go along and won’t make those mistakes.

“I’ve seen how far we’ve come. But it’s the timing of goals that is most frustrating at the moment – Newcastle scored against us [in the Carabao Cup] just after we had scored. That’s the disappointment.”