Darragh Lenihan and George Edmundson injury updates as one word sums up Middlesbrough's win

Rob Edwards is hoping defensive injuries don’t mount to derail Middlesbrough’s incredible start to the season, as he praised his side’s ‘resilience’ to beat West Brom.

Boro beat the Baggies 2-1 at the Riverside to stay top of the Championship. David Strelec and Kaly Sene both scored their first goals for the club to seal the three points on a night the Boro boss didn’t feel his side were at their best.

But in recording a fifth win in six games, Boro have made their best start to a league season as they came through moments of adversity to bag the three points. No more so than their defensive woes, which worsened on the night.

Already without Dael Fry after a calf issue ruled him out at Preston North End and again for the West Brom game, they were also without Darragh Lenihan in this one, after the Irishman had replaced Fry in the side at Deepdale, making his first start in almost two years after injury.

On Lenihan, the Boro boss explained: “We’ll see how Darragh is. Hopefully things are okay. After 90 minutes of football, we’ve got to try and manage that situation. Especially because we don’t have Dael at the moment, we’ve got to try and look after people.

“We felt it would be George [Edmundson]’s night up against Heggebo. And we always had in mind that if we did lose anyone, we’ve got Matty Targett to go centre-back with Sammy on. We managed to cope just about. We’ll see how it is.

“We’re not aware of any injury at the moment. We’ll just see how the week goes. What we don't want to do is put people in unnecessary positions and then we're down to the bare bones. There's probably still a bit of fragility there. When you come back from a couple of years and play a 90 minute block, a really tough game.”

If that wasn’t bad enough for Boro, George Edmundson replaced Lenihan in the line-up and was enjoying his own positive return to action before a nasty head clash just before half time left his eye swelling to the point of being closed. Comparing it to Hollywood boxer Rocky, the Boro boss did at least have one positive update.

“George’s eye was bad,” he said. “He can’t see out of one eye and it looked nasty. He wanted to, but it was impossible for him to stay on. We couldn’t keep him on but hopefully it’s not too bad. He looked like Rocky at the end of one of his fights! He's alright. He's okay.

“We'll have to see how he is. I don't think there was any concern from a concussion point of view, he just couldn't see. It closed up so quickly. Hopefully he'll be okay for next week. He's a real warrior and wanted to carry on but that was impossible. Matty has to go to centre-back and we do what’s needed to win the game. We showed that.

“We have to try and manage it and get that right. We'll hope we can get a good week, we'll see how that goes. We'll see how George is. Dael is progressing well. It's not all bad news, but we have to manage Darragh and see how it is.”

Despite the adversity and finishing the game with Matt Targett as a makeshift centre-back, Boro managed to get the win. Weathering an early second half storm from the visitors, they secured an important cushion through Sene just after the hourmark and held on for all three points even after a late lifeline for Ryan Mason’s side.

“Really pleased with that,” Edwards said. “We weren’t at our best, but I give credit to West Brom for that. They’re a good team, really well coached with some good players. It was hard. But when we’re 2-0 up we don’t have to go chasing the game and we can control the game with or without the ball.

“The last moment changes that slightly. I’d felt relatively secure with the adjustments we’d made. Britts got cramp though and wasn’t able to get out to the throw in, which just gave the lad loads of time to get the cross into a dangerous area. That makes it a bit nervy for the final five minutes.

“But, credit to the lads, we showed a lot of resilience tonight, and that was probably my most pleasing thing from tonight. We lost George in the first half so we had one centre-back on the pitch for the majority of the game. To show that resilience and that side of us, that was very pleasing.”

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