Kim Hellberg was proud as punch with his new Middlesbrough charges after they ran riot at a wet and windy Hull to consolidate second place in the Sky Bet Championship.
Hellberg’s tenure following his appointment as Boro boss last week started with a come-from-behind win over Derby but they cruised to a 4-1 victory at the MKM Stadium thanks to a four-goal first-half rout.
David Strelec, Alex Gilbert, Morgan Whittaker and Riley McGree scored before Joe Gelhardt pulled one back from the spot after half-time as Boro moved five points clear of third-placed Millwall.
“We played amazing attacking football, we controlled the game,” Hellberg said. “I’m very proud of the players.
“I think the first half from the players in terms of how brave we were and the quality we had was amazing to watch. Then we had a brilliant second half in terms of killing the game off.
“It’s difficult when you go in 4-0 because how are you going to solve the second half? It’s more about killing the game off. We defended very, very good in the second half and the first half was brilliant.”
Gilbert was handed his first league start for Boro since May 2024, having fallen out of favour under previous boss Rob Edwards and spent the second half of last season on loan at Charlton.
He scored the only goal when the teams last met on New Year’s Day and he struck again from outside the area before teeing up the in-form Whittaker, who netted for the fourth consecutive game.
“Alex is a very clever footballer, he’s very quickly learning to adapt to what I want from him,” Hellberg added. “He’s good on the ball, he’s brave and you could see that.
“He’s shown off a brilliant 90 minutes in everything. You can see in training he’s a clever boy who wants to learn, he trains very well. He repaid me 10 times with that performance. He deserved it.”
Hull could have moved up to third with a win but their leaky defence – only crisis club Sheffield Wednesday have conceded more than the Tigers’ 34 goals this season – was their undoing.
“Every time we make a mistake, it’s a goal, this is the biggest problem right now,” Hull head coach Sergej Jakirovic said. “This is something we need to sort out – I know 34 goals is a lot.”
Jakirovic did at least take some comfort from how Hull repelled Boro and scored themselves in the second half, having been jeered when they conceded the fourth goal and again at half-time.
“At least we showed a reaction in the second half and I can be pleased with what I saw because we fought til the end, but Middlesbrough were much better than us,” Jakirovic added.
