Birmingham 1-3 Middlesbrough: Hellberg’s side return to winning ways in brilliant manner

Middlesbrough earned a valuable three points on the road in the EFL Championship with a 3-1 win at Birmingham on Monday night.

A brace from Boro’s Matt Target was met by a goal from Marvin Ducksch, but that turned into merely a consolation, as David Strelec’s second-half header saw the points return to Teesside.

A big in the second city pic.twitter.com/d2oAldKKIW

— Middlesbrough FC (@Boro) March 2, 2026

Kim Hellberg’s side went into the game following a dip in form and without a win in three, which saw promotion rivals close the gap on them in the automatic promotion race.

The home side almost made a brilliant start when with less than three minutes on the clock, as Tommy Doyle’s powerful strike from outside the box was well-saved by Sol Brynn.

Birmingham again came close when a poor pass from Adilson Malanda found the feet of Jay Stansfield. His quick counter-attack found Demarai Gray on the opposite flank in space, when the ball came to him, his shot was brilliantly blocked by Callum Brittain.

Despite an electric start from the hosts, Boro took the lead, when Aidan Morris’ long ball found Targett in space and after Bright Osayi-Samuel missed his clearance, the full-back was able to get into the box unmarked and calmly slotted the ball past James Beadle in goal.

10 minutes later, Boro doubled their lead again through Targett. A loose ball picked up by Hayden Hackney on the edge of the box was crossed to Targett, who was again able to pass it beyond an isolated Beadle.

With only minutes played in the second half, Birmingham earned one back through Ducksch. A ball down the flank found Stansfield in space, whose cut-back cross found Ducksch and he smashed it past Brynn in goal.

Ducksch almost levelled the game five minutes later, when his long range effort saw Brynn scramble into action and push it wide of the goal.

However, with just under half an hour still to play, Strelec regained Boro’s two-goal lead with a sublime header. Luke Ayling’s whipped cross found him in space between the defenders and he rifled the ball past Beadle and into the goal.

Boro next play QPR in the EFL Championship at 16:30 on Sunday 8th March.