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Kim Hellberg believes his aptitude for mathematics helps him solve complex tactical problems but the Middlesbrough manager’s on-field equations refused to balance here as two goals from Josh Coburn sent Millwall second. Alex Neil’s resilient side came from behind to move one point and one place above Boro in a Championship table topped by Coventry.

Although much in the race for automatic promotion depends on Ipswich – three points behind Millwall with two games in hand – Neil’s team are within touching distance of the Premier League. Hellberg, meanwhile, has presided over a run of four games without a win at just the wrong stage of the season.

The team sheet brought bad news for Boro fans and neutrals but good tidings for Millwall. With a calf strain once again keeping Hayden Hackney out of Hellberg’s matchday squad, arguably the Championship’s best midfielder looked on from the sidelines. Hackney’s passing and movement are invariably a joy to watch and without him around to control the midfield tempo, Boro are almost always a poorer team.

A strong start from Hellberg’s players initially suggested that this might be an exception to that rule. Boro had already created – although not quite managed to convert – a litany of half chances by the time Dael Fry headed them into a 26th-minute lead. When Millwall failed to clear a corner, Alan Browne crossed expertly to the far post and, with Tristan Crama suffering a momentary concentration outage, Fry nodded beyond Neil’s Sunderland loanee goalkeeper, Anthony Patterson.

That goal atoned for Fry’s earlier glaring, if possibly offside, volleyed miss and prefaced a period of intense Boro pressure as they repeatedly dismantled Millwall’s press.

Yet if there was a lot to like about Hellberg’s possession-heavy passing game, it tended to peter out in the penalty area where – bar the moment when only Femi Azeez’s brilliant block came between Fry and a second goal – Patterson remained relatively well protected.

Home fans feared that Millwall might catch their team out on the counterattack and, sure enough, Mihailo Ivanovic’s sharp swivel and shot might have confounded Sol Brynn had it not taken a deflection off Adilson Malanda en route to flying narrowly wide.

In the 58th minute Brynn was beaten, though. Millwall had been gathering a bit of momentum before a corner. Boro struggled to deal with it and eventually the ball dropped for a sharp turning Coburn to unleash a powerful close-range volley.

Although Brynn “saved” it the ball had just crossed the line and the former Boro striker from just down the road in Bedale was able to celebrate a special moment in front of his former public.

There would soon be another. Eighty-six minutes were on the clock when Malanda’s tired pass was intercepted and the visiting substitute Barry Bannan advanced with menace. The former Sheffield Wednesday midfielder may be 36 now but he remains a master craftsman who knows how to pick a pass and he duly prefaced Coburn sweeping a gloriously angled shot low past Brynn.