After Saturday’s goalless first leg, Middlesbrough head coach Kim Hellberg made clear his feelings about the alleged spying. In his words, “there’s someone who makes decisions to go and try to cheat”.
Following defeat at St Mary’s on Tuesday, Hellberg spoke with emotion.
The Swede, in his first job in England, talked of how working in the Premier Leaague was a dream he had been carrying for 15 years as a coach and about hours spent watching videos of Southampton in the build-up to this play-off tie that kept him away from his young family.
“If we hadn’t caught that man that they sent up five hours to drive, you would sit there and say well done in the tactical aspect of the game and I would go home and feel like I’ve failed,” he said.
“When that is taken away from you – we’re not going to watch every game, we’re going to send someone instead and film the sessions and hope they don’t get caught – it breaks my heart in terms of all the things I believe in.”
Hellberg’s team had taken the lead on the night and in the tie through Riley McGree’s early goal, but after another strong first half, they allowed Ross Stewart to equalise at the end of it.
From there, Saints took control as Boro’s players became increasingly leggy, although it still took a moment of fortune to defeat them.
And having suffered a bad run at the wrong time in the run-in as they missed out on automatic promotion on the final day, a season of such promise had produced heartbreak.
But he was left feeling a range of emotions in the aftermath of such a painful loss.
“When I took the Middlesbrough job, I know there are clubs with bigger resources, parachute teams that can spend more money, that are teams with bigger squads than us,” he said.
“What you have a coach is the tactical element of the game and where we can beat the opponent. You have to find a way of getting an advantage.
“That’s what you always try to do as we can be better in that element. And when that is taken away from you…”
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