Middlesbrough have given themselves fresh hope of breaking into the Championship play-offs in the past week.
Tuesday night’s 1-0 win at Birmingham City, means Michael Carrick‘s side have now picked up three straight wins.
That run has lifted them to 9th in the Championship table. Thanks to that, they are now just five points adrift of 6th Norwich City in the race for a play-off spot.
Meanwhile, the two places sepearting those two teams, are currently occupied by Hull City and Coventry City respectively.
Now it seems as though there is some belief that Middlesbrough may be able to overhaul that deficit before the end of the season.
‘Entirely plausible’ play-off rivals could slip up
As things stand, there are now nine games remaining in the regular season.
While that does give Middlesbrough time to make up the five points they trail the Canaries by, they will likely need things to go in their favour if they are to do that.
Speaking on The Second-Tier podcast though, Ryan Dilks believes there is a chance that could open.
Discussing what needs to happen for Middlesbrough to reach the play-offs this season, the EFL pundit said:
“I think, what you were saying about Coventry, Hull, Norwich etc. dropping points, that seems entirely plausible in itself, because Hull have been pretty consistent all season. Coventry and Norwich, not particularly, so a five-point gap, it’s not a huge ask is it?
“So Middlesbrough will have to go on a pretty good run between now and the end of the season for it to be a genuine play-off push, but I could definitely see that happening.”
The next assignment for Carrick’s side in their attempts to secure a top six spot comes on Saturday afternoon. That will see them host Blackburn Rovers at The Riverside Stadium.
Middlesbrough cannot let form slip
It seems vital that Middlesbrough maintain this excellent run of form they are currently on through until the end of the season.
As has been noted here, both Norwich City and Coventry City have dropped points at times this season.
Given how most clubs have done that over a period at some point during the campaign, there may also be a chance it happens to Hull City in the coming weeks.
Should that be the case, Middlesbrough must ensure they take advantage of that with their own results.
If they are able to do that, then they do have a chance of breaking into the top six late in the campaign.
In the wake of those three straight wins, they may feel they do have some hope of succeeding with that.
However, it should not be forgotten that before this run, they had won just one of their previous seven.
That is of course, not the sort of form that is going to see any team break into the top six spots in any division.
With that in mind, the pressure may now be very much on Middlesbrough to ensure they do not drift too far from their current form in what remains of this season.