Middlesbrough vs Bristol City Prediction: Boro to bounce back

Middlesbrough’s promotion bid suffered a blow in midweek as they lost 1-0 at home to Charlton Athletic at the Riverside. 

With Millwall now just one point behind them and Ipswich boasting a game in hand, the pressure is on as they host Bristol City on Saturday (12:30 GMT, Sky Sports +). Below you can find my Middlesbrough vs Bristol City predictions featuring team news and more.

Team News

Adilson Malanda partnered Luke Ayling against Charlton, with Dael Fry out of action for the time being. He may come back into the fold here but I wouldn’t expect too many changes despite defeat on Wednesday night. 

Kim Hellberg has urged calmness amongst his squad, and so we can expect Tommy Conway to start against his former club, potentially alongside David Strelec. Aidan Morris and Hayden Hackney will play in midfield while Riley McGree and Morgan Whittaker are the first-choice wingers.

Gerhard Struber is looking for a response after a pretty poor run of form, but injuries to his squad have hampered him, especially in defence. Centre-back duo Rob Atkinson and Rob Dickie have joined Joe Williams, Luke McNally and Adam Murphy in the treatment room in recent weeks.

Adam Randell was sent off against Coventry but has now served his suspension and I’d expect him to come straight back into the XI. 

Football Odds

Middlesbrough vs Bristol City Odds

Middlesbrough are the favourites here, priced at 4/9, giving them an implied win probability of 69%. Bristol City are 11/2 for the win while a draw is 7/2. 

Over 2.5 goals is 8/13, BTTS is 4/5 and Whittaker is the 7/2 favourite to score first. 

Middlesbrough to win to nil @ 7/5

I know there will be some concern about Middlesbrough given that midweek defeat, but they had impressively won two games on the bounce prior to that, with good performances at Birmingham and QPR.

Bristol City should provide fairly simple opposition given their dreadful form. They’ve lost each of their last four games and failed to score in their last three - including the FA Cup defeat to Port Vale.

"We have conceded one goal in six home games," said Hellberg. "It's been very good in that part, so we just need to keep scoring goals. That's the aim of the game. High block, low block, whatever.

"We're mainly preparing to try to do a good performance, not thinking about the games we played in that way."

A home win to nil would provide a good response to the critics.

Sam Morsy to be carded @ 13/8

I think Hackney and Morris are likely to give Bristol City’s midfield the runaround and Morsy does often find himself in the book. He’s made nine Championship appearances since joining the Robins in January but he’s picked up four bookings during that time - so he looks like the obvious pick to get carded again. 

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