Middlesbrough vs Stoke Prediction: Conway to make it three in a row at the Riverside

The sacking of Steven Schumacher failed to pay immediate dividends for Stoke City last week as the Potters suffered a 3-1 home defeat to Hull City in Narcis Pelach's first game in charge. The Staffordshire club's next assignment comes at the Riverside Stadium on Saturday (15:00), where a hurt Middlesbrough lie in wait.

Read below for my Middlesbrough vs Stoke prediction and all the latest team news ahead of this EFL Championship clash on Teesside.

Team News

Middlesbrough head coach Michael Carrick still has a lengthy injury list to contend with, as Tommy Smith, Darragh Lenihan, Jonny Howson, Dael Fry, Marcus Forss and Alex Bangura are yet to recover from their respective issues.

Carrick may also decide to freshen up his starting XI following his side's 1-0 defeat at Sunderland last weekend, where the Teessiders created little to nothing in front of goal.

Micah Hamilton and on-loan Liverpool winger Ben Doak both came on as second-half substitutes at the Stadium of Light and will be in contention to start on Saturday while Riley McGree, who hasn't played since the opening day victory over Swansea City and has stayed rooted to the bench for the last two matches, will also hope to be in his manager's thinking.

Football Odds

Stoke have their own injury problems with Ben Pearson, Ashley Phillips, Bosun Lawal, Lynden Gooch and Sam Gallagher all still in the treatment room, though Enda Stevens and Michael Rose did make their first Championship appearances of the campaign against Hull after recently recovering from issues.

Emre Tezgel was Stoke's first substitute of that game, replacing on-loan Liverpool forward Lewis Koumas on the hour mark, and that could be a change made to Pelach's starting XI at the Riverside.

Middlesbrough vs Stoke Odds

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Middlesbrough are 4/6 to triumph for the first time this month after kicking off September with a 1-1 draw at home to Preston North End and following that stalemate up with a loss at Sunderland. Those odds give the hosts an implied win probability of 60%, while Stoke are 4/1, or a 20% chance, to win for the first time under Pelach.

The draw is available at 3/1, both teams to score at 8/11, and over 2.5 total goals at 4/6.

Boro's Emmanuel Latte Lath (7/5) is the favourite in the anytime goal scorer market, with Tom Cannon (100/30) considered the most likely player to net for Stoke.

Match Result & Total Goals Over/Under 3.5 - Middlesbrough & Under 3.5 Goals @ 7/5

This is a meeting between two out-of-form teams, with neither winning in their last two league games. In fairness to Boro, they did at least take a point against Preston and were away last week to a side that has won five out of six in the Championship.

Stoke, meanwhile, have lost their last two in the division, going down 1-0 at Oxford United in Schumacher's final game in charge, and caretaker Ryan Shawcross could only inspire the Potters to a penalty shoot-out victory at home to League 2 Fleetwood Town in the Carabao Cup third round.

Boro and Stoke have already met at the Riverside this season, in the second round of the Carabao Cup in August, when the visitors inflicted a humiliating 5-0 defeat on the Teessiders.

Importantly, though, both clubs named second-string starting XIs, meaning there is little to no relevance to it ahead of Saturday's contest.

There have been no such wild scorelines in the Championship for Boro, who have seen five of their six league games finish with under 3.5 goals - a 2-2 draw with Portsmouth proving to be the outlier so far.

It's the same for Stoke, whose 3-1 defeat to Hull last week was their first league match to see four goals this season.

Both teams have struggled for goals in the second tier, with the Potters only managing four in six games, and Boro just two more.

I'm expecting a close encounter at the Riverside this weekend but Boro, who are unbeaten at home in the Championship this term, should have just enough to get past a Stoke side that has lost two of their three away matches in the division - failing to score in either.

Anytime Goal Scorer - Tommy Conway (MID) @ 8/5

Boro didn't have many issues finding the back of the net last season, with only five clubs - all of whom finished in the top six - bettering their tally of 71 goals. Latte Lath was key to that total as the striker struck 16 times in the competition - only five players netted more.

However, Latte Lath has only scored once this season, and that was from the penalty spot on the opening weekend of the campaign. He appeared to have his head turned by a potential Premier League move towards the end of the transfer window and has yet to get in the goals since.

Luckily, one of Boro's summer signings - Scotland international Tommy Conway - has been on hand to help Carrick's side. The 22-year-old has scored twice since his August move from Bristol City, and both strikes were Riverside equalisers - in the 2-2 with Portsmouth and the 1-1 with Preston.

Conway is starting to establish himself in the team, making three consecutive starts and playing the duration of the last two.

In a match between two low-scoring sides, he's a player that jumps out in the anytime goal scorer market, and a strike on Saturday would make it three in a row at the Riverside (in the Championship).

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