Chris Wilder thinks the match-winning impact of his substitutes against Coventry highlights just how much progress Middlesbrough have made in a short space of time under his watch.
Wilder was satisfied with the way his side bounced back from defeat at Blackburn last Monday by recording a 1-0 victory over rivals for a play-off place.
Andraz Sporar’s eighth goal of the season proved the difference at the Riverside to lift Middlesbrough back into a play-off place.
Slovenian Sporar, on loan from Sporting Lisbon, timed his run to perfection to get on the end of Folarin Balogun’s low delivery in the 58th minute.
That was less than two minutes after Balogun, on loan from Arsenal, had been introduced along with Martin Payero in a bid to change the flow of the game, with Coventry pressing.
Wilder, whose side have lost one of their last nine, said: “We have talked long and hard about the depth off the bench and now we have game-changers in there. We have competition for places.
“I was delighted we had that opportunity to make those changes when we wanted to. We felt the time was right, we needed a spark from somewhere and got that from Flo.
“It is a good result. It wasn’t a stand-out performance from us, it wasn’t a Forest, Huddersfield or a Stoke performance that we have previously turned in, and you have to look at your own performance and we gave it away cheaply.
“The result always is the focus and we would have liked our performance to be better.
“We didn’t get the result on Monday when we felt the performance was good enough to get something.
“They have hit the bar, they have had a couple of good chances. They were as bright as we have played all season. It was bright, tough from them, they were good.
“We have to get the mentality right now and we need the players to be brave to get to the level of domination Coventry had against us.”
Coventry boss Mark Robins was frustrated after watching a defeat that has left his side five points shy of sixth-placed Boro.
The Sky Blues had their chances, with Callum O’Hare forcing Middlesbrough goalkeeper Joe Lumley into a couple of strong saves.
But overall, despite plenty of good passing play, Coventry lacked that extra little spark to break down the home side and Robins was annoyed by the way the winning goal was conceded.
He said: “We should be talking about a win, never mind a defeat. It was similar to QPR last weekend.
“We have to take the chances when they come. We didn’t do that.
“We probably got it wrong once and they scored from that. There was a bit of luck from a one-two, a deflection, there was then a nutmeg and we were out of position.
“There was only one place the ball could have gone from there. The striker got to it bravely and got it in the back of the net, but at first viewing it was close to the goalkeeper as well so I will look at that.
“It was a disappointing goal to concede, then they drop away and make it difficult for you, fall over, buy time from the referee. We then committed some fouls we needn’t have done. We also played a bit more direct than we wanted to.
“We can’t be down about it. There are a lot of positives to take on to the next games. From where we were last season, we are getting closer to the teams higher up in the table.”
