Boro aim to rein in soaring Sky Blues as top two meet

An incoming head coach watching from the stands. The interim boss taking charge for a final time against his old club. The leaders in town hoping to open up a double-digit lead at the top.

Meetings between the top two sides in a division are not normally like this.

But that's where we find ourselves as Middlesbrough welcome Coventry City to the Riverside for the Championship's biggest game of the season so far on Tuesday (19:45 GMT).

Kim Hellberg has been announced as Rob Edwards' replacement in the Boro hotseat but will take charge after Tuesday's match, with the experienced Adi Viveash running things against a club where he spent seven seasons as assistant to Mark Robins.

And the key question will be what secrets Viveash has for stopping the free-flowing Sky Blues goal machine.

Frank Lampard's side have racked up 43 goals in just 16 games and will go 10 points clear at the top if they earn a 10th win in 11 matches.

Hellberg will be introduced to Boro fans prior to kick-off, before focus switches to Viveash in his third and final game in interim charge.

He was brought to the club by Edwards, but while the head coach headed south to Wolves, the 56-year-old has stayed on Teesside.

Having collected a win and a draw in the two games without Edwards, Viveash rounds off with a "mouth-watering" fixture against a club to which he has strong professional and personal ties.

His seven years working with Robins saw the Sky Blues climb from the depths of League Two to losing penalty shoot-outs at Wembley in an FA Cup semi-final and the Championship play-off final.

His fiancee is from a Coventry family and it is a game he has had circled since it was announced in the summer, well before they were first and second in the league.

"It's a club that means a tremendous amount to me," he told BBC Radio Tees. "I worked as part of a group of staff and players that was tremendously successful.

"We had some great times, worked with some really good players, great staff and a wonderful fanbase.

"Apart from tomorrow and 16 February [the date of the return fixture], I wish the club nothing but the best."

It would take even the most casual of football observers little time in pinpointing the reason for Coventry's ascent to the top of the Championship.

A free-flowing approach and clinical finishing has brought the Sky Blues a staggering 43 goals in just 16 Championship fixtures - 15 more than the next most prolific scorers, Hull City, and remarkably, 23 more than second-placed Boro.

Yet what is perhaps most ominous for rivals hoping for a stumble from the runaway leaders is how the goals are being spread through the squad.

Against West Bromwich Albion on Saturday, Coventry started without either of their leading scorers in Brandon Thomas-Asante (10 goals) and Haji Wright (eight).

So it will have added even more belief in the building bank of confidence to see their replacements, Josh Eccles and Ellis Simms, pop up with a goal apiece to haul them level from 2-0 down.

"It shows every player that if you aren't starting because the team's winning a lot, you've got to keep training and keep going and keep pushing, and Josh and Ellis are big examples of that today," Lampard told BBC Radio WM.

And Victor Torp's winner - his seventh goal of the season - will convince Lampard his resilient team can win from almost any position.

"What I liked was the players never stopped," he added. "My feeling, even at 2-0, was that we could definitely get back in this, the way we were moving the ball."

The two clubs have plenty of recent history, although most of it falls in Coventry's favour.

They came out on top in the play-off semi-final in 2023 when Gustavo Hamer's goal took them to Wembley, even if Luton Town pipped them in the final.

Coventry's 2-0 win on the final day of last season denied Boro a play-off spot in what turned out to be Michael Carrick's last game in charge.

In fact, the Sky Blues have lost none of their past eight against these opponents. If that record remains intact, it will be another step in the right direction that they hope is heading towards the Premier League.

The rest of the chasing pack will be just hoping that Boro can slow down Coventry's relentless early pace.

"Coventry at the moment is the biggest challenge," said Viveash. "We've got to make coming to the Riverside their biggest challenge."