Kim Hellberg angered by Middlesbrough’s failure to turn dominance into victory

Middlesbrough head coach Kim Hellberg was “angry and disappointed” to leave Vicarage Road with only a point after a goalless draw denied them top spot in the Championship.

A magnificent display by Watford goalkeeper Federico Ravaglia shut out the visitors, with Birmingham taking over at the summit on goal difference, and Hellberg admitted he was frustrated by Boro’s meagre reward for a dominant performance.

Stung by the loss of their unbeaten league record at Wrexham in midweek, and rocked by 15-goal top scorer Will Lankshear’s absence with a hamstring injury, Boro could not make their 74 per cent possession and 18 goal attempts count.

Hellberg said: “I’m very happy and proud of the players’ performance. We were angry, devastated and disappointed after the game at Wrexham.

“We didn’t look for one minute in that game as we want to look and it was important for us to bounce back to being the team we want to be.

“Here we controlled the game, we ran forward, we didn’t concede many chances and we created loads of them. Everyone who watched the game knows we were the dominant side.

“It’s tough when you don’t have the top scorer in the league and there’s no place to hide from that. But we should be – and we are – good enough to score goals and, although we didn’t score again today, there were six or seven players who had big chances.

“Overall I’m very happy with how we’ve started the season – 14 games in, I’m happy with how brave we’ve been and how many points we have got.

“We were not good enough, or perform how we want to look, at Wrexham, and the performance here in terms of energy was so important for us.

“Of course when I look at the scoresheet and see it’s 0-0, my honest answer is that I’m very angry and disappointed over that because with all those chances created, all those beautiful attacks we had, it’s disappointing we didn’t win the game.”

Livewire Jeremy Sarmiento could have scored three times in the opening 13 minutes alone, but Ravaglia’s defiance set the tone for a frustrating afternoon for the Teessiders.

The Italian later made vital stops to thwart Boro skipper Callum Brittain and substitute Kyle Joseph, while Watford’s only genuine chance fell to Iker Bravo, who was denied at the near post by Radek Vitek.

For under-pressure Watford head coach Alessio Dionisi, a third consecutive clean sheet at home was reassuring.

He said: “It’s a very good point for us. I don’t know if it’s the best one this season, probably yes, but I’m very happy because it was difficult for everyone.

“I’m very proud of the performance, for the supporters and the coaching staff, because playing against Middlesbrough is very, very difficult. They have a lot of quality and the first half was crazy.

“Probably it was Ravaglia’s best game, but it’s not easy to speak about one player because everyone played well.

“Martin Payero, for example, only trained with the team for 20 minutes because he had a fever and he had never played at number six before in his life, but he did very well.

“It’s been a good week. I’m very happy for another clean sheet, but now it’s important to recover some of our injured players because it is hard to play without six, seven, eight players every match.”