Kim Hellberg Prepares for Norwich Test at Riverside

Kim Hellberg has spent enough time on the road. After five away trips in six games – including a draining Carabao Cup exit at Crystal Palace in midweek – the Middlesbrough head coach is desperate to feel the Riverside crackle again.

Norwich City arrive on Teesside on Saturday, and Hellberg wants the stands to do what they did the last time these two met here: tilt the contest.

“I remember that game last season, it was a brilliant atmosphere and I remember the last five minutes were absolutely crazy,” he told BBC Radio Tees, recalling the night Hayden Hackney’s goal briefly sent Boro joint top of the Championship. “Norwich are a very good side… It will be a very tough game but the atmosphere in all our home games has been very good.”

This time, Norwich come north with momentum of their own. Philippe Clement has steadied them after a shaky start, turning last season’s relegation worries into a platform to build from. Hellberg has taken note.

“Philippe Clement has done a brilliant job, he's a very good coach, builds a strong and well-coached team,” he said. “He turned the season around for Norwich last year - they were in danger when he arrived and have built through that. He's a top coach and will give us a lot of different and difficult challenges.

“I think it is going to be a very good football game, two good teams against each other, brilliant kick-off time on a Saturday and we are looking forward to it.”

If the head coach is braced for a tactical battle, he is equally clear about the edge he wants from the stands.

“After everything that happened last season, everyone has got stronger together,” Hellberg said. “Everyone has raised their level – players, supporters, coaches – everyone together to go to a higher level.

“I think the atmosphere has been very good in every game we have played and I am looking forward to being back against a very good side. We need the supporters being on our side and doing everything they can to help get us over the line against a very good opposition.”

On the pitch, one player has personified that collective surge. Will Lankshear may have missed out on the Championship Player of the Month award on Friday, but his impact has been impossible to ignore: seven goals in eight games since arriving from Tottenham in the summer.

Hellberg’s verdict is emphatic.

“I think he has done brilliantly, he's a good boy and has come into the team perfectly,” he said. “He works very hard on and off the pitch and that's the culture we are trying to create here.

“I have seen a massive difference in the group, how they have progressed from the first day here to how we have gone forward and take care of each other in a very good way.

I have so many good players here who compete in a brilliant way to try and help Middlesbrough win games and Will is one of them and it helps when you score a lot of goals.”

A rested home crowd, a rising young striker, and a coach who relishes a challenge. Norwich will test all of it. The question now is whether the Riverside can turn anticipation into another one of those “crazy” finales.