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  1. Pick of the stats: Middlesbrough v Watfordpublished at 17:20 BST

    Side-by-side of Middlesbrough and Watford club badges

    Middlesbrough will hope to keep their automatic promotion bid alive as they host Watford on Saturday (12:30 BST).

    Boro won their first home game in seven league matches when Morgan Whittaker scored the winner against Sheffield Wednesday on Wednesday.

    But they are still three points adrift of the second spot with four teams all vying for the coveted second automatic promotion position.

    • Middlesbrough have lost each of their last three league meetings with Watford, their longest ever losing run against the Hornets.

    • Watford, 1-0 winners in this exact fixture last season, are looking to win back-to-back league visits to Middlesbrough for the first time since April 1992 (3 in a row).

    • Middlesbrough have only won their final home league game in two of the last six seasons (D2 L2), although one of those was against Watford in 2023-24 (3-1).

    • Watford have lost their final away league game in nine of the last 10 seasons (D1 – v Sunderland in 2022-23) since a 2-0 win at Brighton in 2014-15.

    • Watford have lost each of their last three league games, all without scoring; outside of the top-flight, only from December 1971 to February 1972 have they ever lost more in a row without reply (7)

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  2. Is the automatic promotion dream still alive?published at 12:25 BST

    Middlesbrough have your say banner

    Okay, they made rather hard work of it, but Boro's winless streak at The Riverside is over after Wednesday's 1-0 victory over Sheffield Wednesday.

    Barring something truly extraordinary in the final two games of the season, which would need Boro to lose at home to Watford and at Wrexham on the final day, and two wins and a swing of more than a dozen in goal difference from the chasing pack, Boro are play-off bound, at least...

    But they are also three points behind second place and the final automatic promotion place.

    Six points to finish the season would make things very interesting, especially as two of the three sides in the race face each other next Tuesday as Southampton entertain Ipswich.

    So how are you feeling, Boro fans? Are you plotting which play-off match-up would suit you best, or holding out hope that Millwall, Ipswich and Saints will drop points?

    Click here to have your say.

  3. 'It didn't matter how it looked' - Hellbergpublished at 23:06 BST 22 April

    Middlesbrough manager Kim Hellberg looks onImage source, Getty Images
    Image caption,

    Middlesbrough boss Kim Hellberg was satisfied his team got the job done against Sheffield Wednesday

    Middlesbrough boss Kim Hellberg was pleased by his side's return to winning ways as they narrowly defeated Sheffield Wednesday at the Riverside - and he conceded that doing so in style was not a priority.

    Morgan Whittaker scored the only goal of the game when he intercepted Gabriel Otegbayo's pass-back to Murphy Cooper and finished beyond the Owls goalkeeper in the 11th minute.

    Things might have been more comfortable for Boro, whose automatic promotion hopes remain alive with two matches left to play, but they instead had to come through a nervy finish to seal all three points.

    Hellberg told BBC Radio Tees: "It's difficult when you have not won in a long time, especially at home. In this kind of game, when you are not 3-0 or 4-0 up, you know it's going to be a tough last ten minutes.

    "We could have scored two or three, which would have made it easier for us. You can feel that we haven't won at home in a while, and everyone gets nerves. We had to switch momentum - we backed up a top performance on Sunday with a win here.

    "It wasn't a good game from us in general, but that does not matter.

    "It didn't matter how it looked, to be fair. It didn't matter how we scored. We just needed to score, needed to win - and we did, against a team who hadn't lost in three."

    Listen to the full interview on BBC Sounds