Kim Hellberg: Middlesbrough face five must-win games to keep promotion bid alive

Boss Kim Hellberg accepted his Middlesbrough side were now likely facing a run-in of five must-win matches if they were to keep their automatic promotion hopes alive after a 2-2 Championship draw at Swansea.

A fifth-straight game without victory has left Boro trailing in the race for the top two and, with Ipswich climbing above his team on goal difference, Hellberg did not shy away from the scale of the task ahead.

“Ipswich are in a massive pole position,” said Hellberg. “We have to find wins and points. Even though this period has been poor, we have suffered only a few defeats. It’s the draws that have killed us.

“We probably have to win all five of our remaining games to get past them. It’s very difficult to get those wins, but we will try and get as many points as possible and then we will see where we end up.”

Boro at least avoided defeat thanks to Tommy Conway’s 75th-minute penalty in a contest dominated by three successful spot-kicks.

They had started brightly, taking the lead through a superb strike from Alex Bangura, but their grip on the game slipped before half-time as two rash challenges handed Swansea the initiative.

Zan Vipotnik – the Championship’s leading scorer – punished both errors from the spot, cancelling out Bangura’s opener and then putting the hosts ahead in stoppage-time after Sol Brynn brought down Jisung Eom.

Conway eventually restored parity after another penalty decision, but the result still felt like two points dropped for the visitors.

Hellberg added: “You cannot concede penalties like that. I know that, the players know that, but everyone makes mistakes – I do it every day.

“It’s how you recover that matters. It’s easy to blame people but I thought we were strong and I was impressed with the group.”

Middlesbrough responded with greater intent after the break and goalkeeper Lawrence Vigouroux had to be at his best to keep out Aidan Morris’ curling effort from distance.

But Swansea’s advantage was wiped out when referee Matthew Donohue awarded a third penalty after Eom went down under pressure from Callum Brittain.

Conway stepped up and drilled his effort straight down the middle to make it 2-2.

Swansea, meanwhile, remain 15th after extending their winless run to three matches and head coach Vitor Matos said: “We needed to control the game without the ball, getting compact, getting the right timings, the right positions, the right organisation.

“We knew Middlesbrough is a really good team with the ball, with a lot of individual technique in all positions, which can hurt you.

“With two games (over Easter) and all the internationals arriving last Thursday, you need first to be organised and compact and then you can put pressure and be effective.

“That’s what we tried and then when we had the ball, we tried to use it to create some good chances.

“We needed to use counter-attacks and for that some players were really important. I think overall it was a good game.”