Middlesbrough 1-1 Coventry City: Sky Blues secure play-off semi-final against Boro with draw

Gustavo Hamer’s opener against Middlesbrough for Coventry was his ninth goal of the season

Coventry City drew with Middlesbrough on the final day of the Championship season to set up a play-off semi-final with the Teessiders.

Results elsewhere meant that the Sky Blues finished fifth in the table to see them progress to a two-legged showdown with Boro for a place in the Wembley promotion final.

Gustavo Hamer’s excellent finish from just inside the box for his third goal in five games put Coventry ahead midway through the first half.

Cameron Archer levelled in first-half injury time, forcing the ball home after scramble in the box.

Boro heaped pressure on in search of a winner, but Coventry held on for the point that saw them finish ahead of Sunderland, who claimed the last of the play-off places.

Boro now head into the play-offs without a win in their past three games, having lost at both Luton and Rotherham before the draw with Coventry.

The Sky Blues, meanwhile, extended their unbeaten run to seven games as they bid to return to the Premier League for the first time since 2001.

At the start of the day Coventry knew a win would seal a fifth-place finish and set up two more meetings with Boro in the two-legged semi-finals, and they began brightly with Hamer testing home goalkeeper Zack Steffen with a shot inside the first two minutes.

Hamer made his second shot on goal count, beating Steffen with a strike from just inside the area to put the Sky Blues ahead in the 22nd minute.

While the hosts were kept well contained for much of the first half, a quick corner caught Coventry’s defence out and Archer was able to level in the fourth minute of injury time.

Boro were more of a menace after that, and Riley McGree tested the Championship’s goalkeeper of the season Ben Wilson with 30 minutes remaining.

The tension remained high at the Riverside as results elsewhere saw teams dip in and out of the play-off places, but neither side managed to find a winner to change how the day started for them.

Line-upsMiddlesbrough

Formation 4-2-3-1

1Steffen

14Smith17McNair26Lenihan3Giles

30Hackney4Mowatt

2Jones29Akpom8McGree

10Archer

Substitutes

Coventry

Formation 3-5-2

13Wilson

16McNally5McFadzean3Doyle

7Norton-Cuffy38Hamer6Kelly28Eccles27Bidwell

24Godden17Gyökeres

Substitutes

Referee:John Busby

Attendance:32,187

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