Coventry City v Middlesbrough: Championship's top two to meet

With two-thirds of the Championship season gone, the division has been dominated by two sides - Coventry City and Middlesbrough.

Since matchday four at the end of August, one of these two have occupied top spot as they aim to end lengthy absences from the Premier League.

But this is not a tale of one-way traffic to glory, but exciting twists and turns characterised by winning runs, lots of goals, managerial upheaval and poor runs.

Their top-two clash in November saw Coventry win a thrilling game 4-2 at the Riverside Stadium to open up a 10-point cushion.

Now Boro head to the CBS Arena for the return fixture with a two-point advantage after a huge shift in momentum and form.

As the two pacesetters make their final preparations for the biggest game in the division so far this season, BBC Sport looks into the key aspects of the encounter.

When you examine the cold facts, the answer might seem obvious, with Middlesbrough on fire after six consecutive wins and Coventry having only picked up four victories in their past 13 league games, including a frustrating goalless draw at home to 10-man relegation-threatened Oxford United in their last one.

But a psychological crisis for one team might be another's moment of clarity, and how the two sides respond under the shifting pressure of swapping roles will be fascinating.

Not just for this game but for the rest of the run-in.

"With a team like Coventry their dip in form is rarely tactical, it's more psychological," Peter Dutton, an elite sport performance psychologist, told BBC CWR.

"They've led for long periods, so players can shift from playing freely to playing not to lose.

"So it may take slight pressure off them, sitting in the position they're in now rather than top of the table."

As for Boro and their superb run, Dutton said they should feel similarly uninhibited.

He added: "If you look at Middlesbrough, their confidence will be high and they're playing without the weight of defending their long lead like Coventry.

"They can be more free and expressive and Coventry might feel a bit more defensive."

Frank Lampard understands why many are highlighting his side's new position in the table and how that might affect them.

"It depends how you want to frame it," the Sky Blues manager told BBC CWR.

"People are comparing the pressure of being top and being second. These pressures are great. If you'd offered me those at the start of the season I'd have bitten your hand off.

"It's important the lads are just focused on us.

"We've shown ourselves to be a very good team this season in the league and we need to bring that version of ourselves on Monday."

When it comes to big occasions, you would be hard pressed to find someone with more T-shirts in his 'been there, done that' wardrobe than Lampard.

The 106 England caps. The three World Cups. The 11 major trophies for Chelsea. Super Cup, FA Cup - and play-off finals as a manager.

By contrast, the Boro job is Kim Hellberg's first outside his native Sweden, although he had impressive runners-up finishes with unfancied Hammarby in the Allsvenskan.

The Swede admitted recently on Middlesbrough's 'Yer Joking Aren't Ya?' podcast that, growing up, he was a Chelsea fan and Lampard was his favourite player, and now the 38-year-old is tasked with getting the better of his one-time hero.

But for Dutton, Lampard's big-game experience should be a big help for the Sky Blues.

"To an extent as a manager that can help them battle," he said. "It's more of a process than about position [in the table], more about consistency rather than seeing it as a threat.

"A really good question for him and the players is 'are we maintaining who we are or are we reacting to an opponent's rise?'"

Dutton said that "changes the focus" of their preparation, enabling players to prioritise "internal cues" like "effort, process and clarity" rather than any "external narratives" in the build-up to the game.

"I still feel like they're the best two teams in the league," he said.

"I just think the experience Lampard has had as a player - and as manager in the Premier League and Championship - he's been there and done it, I just feel he's going to react and get the players to react in the right way."

Coventry may come into this game on the back of a stuttering run, but this has been a kind fixture for them in recent years.

They have not lost any of their past nine meetings with Middlesbrough, stretching back more than four years.

They beat Boro at home last May in what was effectively a play-off shootout on the season's final day, and came through a two-legged play-off semi-final against them in 2023.

But despite those successes, ultimately there was only play-off heartache for Coventry, and it is a path they will not want to go down again this season, given the position they have been in and their recent post-season failures.

Boro, meanwhile, will believe that if they can end a hoodoo against their bogey side, what can stop them ending nine years outside the Premier League.

Despite Coventry's good record against Boro there is no getting away from their current form.

Only four wins in 13 games since the end of November.

Only 16 points from a possible 39.

Seven without a win away from home.

But rather than see those wither further in the light of Boro's brilliance, Lampard said he is seeing that in isolation.

"Sometimes you just have to applaud six wins on the bounce, and even before that they had four wins when the manager came in, so it's an incredible run of form," he said.

"That's what changes the face of it slightly. We had our run, and we had a run last season of similar vein, and sometimes you say 'well done' and understand they are going to be difficult opponents.

"The players understand it. It's the top two in the league. Everyone's looking forward to it and has to have ultra focus.

"The intensity of the game's going to be big. Boro are a very good footballing team.

"Our form was amazing in the first half of the season and Boro have gone into similar form, and we've come off it."

As ever, at this stage, one result does not make a season, and Lampard knows that whatever happens at the CBS Arena on Monday, Ipswich Town, Hull City and Millwall are all demanding attention, with Millwall now just three points behind them in third.

As leaders, Coventry were the hunted. They still are.

"Is this must-win?" Lampard said. "No, because there are 14 others [games left].

"Do we want to win? Absolutely, yes.

"What's important for us now is action. We will have to be at our best to win."

It is impossible to understate just how impressive Boro have been since Hellberg took over in the aftermath of that Coventry defeat in November.

The Teesside club had started well under Rob Edwards before his departure to Wolves, but Boro have been the dominant team in the division over the past two-and-a-half months, scoring goals, dominating the ball and playing good football.

Australia midfielder Riley McGree has described the Swede's method as "controlled chaos" and it reached its peak in a fabulous opening 45 minutes at Bramall Lane seven days ago as they beat Sheffield United to pick up a sixth straight win.

A magnificent seventh would open up a five-point cushion at the top for Middlesbrough. But for Hellberg, maintaining his team's identity is just as important in the grand scheme of things.

"I always believe in my team," he told BBC Radio Tees.

"I'm always trying to find a team a way for us to play the way we want to play against. That's always the first thing.

"We want to go there and take control of the game. We want to be ourselves. That's the number one. We know that if we do that well, we have a good chance of getting the result.

"The game will probably be small margins if we win or we lose, but we will go there and try to be ourselves. Over time, that's the thing that is going to give us most points over a season."

BBC CWR Sports editor Rob Gurney

The big question we're all contemplating now is: can Middlesbrough cope with the pressure of being top, as the Sky Blues have had to since October?

Frank Lampard describes it as "great" pressure, and he would have "bitten your hand off" if you had offered him first or second place at this point of the season, before a ball was kicked.

The reality is, though, that Middlesbrough are excelling, with six straight wins, and have taken 31 points from the last 14 games, to Coventry's 19 over the same span of matches.

But City have the best home record, and the best goal difference in the Championship, so we're about to find out how Boro manage the very different mindset of being chased.

Talking about the mental preparation, Lampard confirmed to me that the club do employ the services of a sports psychologist, should the players need to tap into his expertise, although in the same breath, the manager said "that's never really been for me".

There will be 14 matches left after Monday but we've got to the stage where the Sky Blues need to strike back, after having their impressive lead usurped completely.

It's an occasion to be embraced, rather than intimidated by, but clearly one of those nights where far more than just three points is at stake.

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