Middlesbrough v Coventry City: Chris Wilder welcomes pain of Boro defeat

That was where Boro had their first real setback since the former Sheffield United manager set the ball rolling at the Riverside, his only defeat apart from the loss at home to Preston North End in his second game.

Today they host Coventry City, with the manager hopeful of seeing a reaction on the field having already seen one off it.

“That defeat hurt on Monday and do you know what? I’m really glad it does,” he said, reflecting on the 1-0 defeat.

“I said to the players, it’s been really good, the crowds have followed us and got right behind us, there’s a buzz about it, but I’m glad it hurt as much as it did.

“It reinforced where I’m at in my career and the drive and desire myself and the coaching staff will put into this job.

“We’re here for the medium and longer term but we want to win games and I think it was a missed opportunity on Monday because I believe we definitely should have got something out of the game but the first-half performance was not what I’m after.”

Wilder has already made significant changes to his squad, signing Aaron Connolly, Caolan Boyd-Munce, Florian Balogun and Riley McGree this month, but hopes they will not be the last.

“There’s a couple of positions I think we’re really light on and if we do manage to do it, it will be business that will make us better in the second half of the season but we can’t bring in players for the sake of it,” he said.

There has to be some balancing of the books too, and Cardiff City are leading the Championship clubs interested in Uche Ikpeazu, while Wilder is hopeful an arrangement can be made with Rennes to cancel James Lea-Siliki’s loan.