Middlesbrough look to have put their early season woes behind them as they recorded a second successive league win against Hull City on Tuesday night.

The Boro have had a stop start season so far, with Monk’s men failing to find any sort of consistency in the league. But a 3-0 victory over Bolton being followed my a 3-1 win over Hull has sent them 7th in the table, just 9 points off top spot.

Of course, 9 points sounds like a long way off, but it is still very early days for Garry Monk’s men and if they can string together a few more wins then they will certainly be up there in no time.

Hull City are in a spot of bother themselves now, sitting 17th in the table. New manager Leonid Slutsky’s job might well be under threat, but has been quick to praise his opponents Middlesbrough for their first-half performance which he describes as having ‘broke’ his side.

First-half goals from Martin Braithwaite and Britt Assombalonga put Boro well ahead in the game, and although Hull did pull one back, the match was ended when Grant Leadbitter scored a penalty late in the game.

After the game, Slutsky and his men were booed off by Hull fans, and his job certainly seems like it could be reviewed this week. But the Russian says his future lies in the hands of the club’s owners, and instead pointed out just how good Boro were in the game.

“It’s very difficult to understand,” the Russian said. “For the first 15 minutes we played really well and created chances.

“But after conceding a simple goal we stopped playing and didn’t control the game.

“We didn’t know what we were doing on the football pitch. It’s difficult to change something and only at half-time could we change it and start playing again.

“Each goal changed the game and we were broken after each goal. Of course, it’s difficult because Nottingham Forest scored with their first shot on target on Saturday, and today was the same situation. So we lost confidence.”
[Quotes via Gazette Live]

Regardless of Hull’s struggles, Boro’s seem to be a thing of the past as they are really starting to look like challengers once again.