Middlesbrough FC chief Kim Hellberg glad to have former Championship play-off enemy on his side
A KEY figure who helped mastermind Middlesbrough's downfall in their last play-off foray is very much in their corner this time around.
At the end of the 2022-23 season, Adi Viveash - widely credited as the tactical brains behind Coventry City's rise through the EFL under Mark Robins - was in the visitors' dug-out on the night that the Sky Blues ended Boro's Championship promotion hopes at the Riverside Stadium in a tense semi-final second leg in May 2023.
A tweak for the second instalment saw Coventry employ an extra deep-lying central midfielder in Jamie Allen and it worked a treat as the Midlanders won 1-0 on the night and on aggregate.
The coaching savvy of Viveash, 56 – now at Boro - is likely to leant upon by Hellberg in a similarly tight-looking tie with Southampton on Saturday. This time, the first leg is on Teesside in the Swede's first experience of play-off football in England.
Explaining what the influence of Viveash at the season's critical juncture might entail, Hellberg said: "It's (previous) experience of being in this play-off in how do you maybe handle (training) sessions, minutes up to the sessions and how long can the sessions be?
"When do you think is right to have the day off (or) do you have a day off? It's things around how you balance the structure of it. Do we go one day before or do we go two days before?
"Then of course, there's always football and we talk football all the time. But in general with his experience from play-offs, I think that is the key thing in terms of how you handle those things and what he learned from his experiences.
"He always tells me he’s also been in as a player in one of them and as a coach too."
A sell-out crowd - almost exactly 10 years on from when Boro last clinched promotion back to the big time against Brighton - will create a big-game feel reminiscent of the Riverside in its pomp.
It will extend to Boro's players arriving by coach at the stadium in mid-morning, with supporters encouraged to gather around the arrival route and gave home players a raucous welcome.
Plans are in place for the coach to make good time on this occasion. When the club last reached the play-off final back in 2015, Boro arrived late at Wembley and promptly lost.
On fans lining the stadium route, Hellberg - who is not ruling out talisman midfielder Hayden Hackney from making a comeback from the bench and also featuring in the second leg - continued: "I see it as a big thing for everyone in terms of togetherness. And then of course for the players, I think that means everyone understands this is a massive game.
"If you can get up from 95 to 96 per cent - by doing something (you do it). Sometimes, it's also about putting love and energy into the situation, putting things in together that we are with you. Those emotions can bring out more of your performance, I think."
Hellberg confirmed that another major Boro player in Riley McGree, who returned from injury last weekend, is ‘ready to go’ if called upon from the start.