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Kim Hellberg highlights the beautiful side of Middlesbrough's Lincoln win and the ugly side Kim Hellberg's verdict after Middlesbrough began their league campaign with a 2-1 victory over Lincoln City A relieved Kim Hellberg thanked his players and the Middlesbrough supporters as he described Will Lankshear’s late opening-day winner against Lincoln City as beautiful. The Boro boss admitted his frustrations in a poor first half, as Boro trailed at half-time on the opening day of the Championship campaign. But praising the players for their second-half response - and the fans for pushing them on - Hellberg was delighted that his side were able to send fans home happy thanks to Lankshear’s two goals in a 2-1 victory. “It’s for everyone,” Hellberg said. “I think you can just see after the game, it's important for everyone. It's important for people going home on a Saturday to be so happy. “For everyone seeing the game and getting this type of experience: the power, the late winner… there is no better feeling! “For my heart, I would have wished it was 3-0 and winning early in the first half! But for the emotion, for the love of football, I think this is absolutely beautiful. “There's so many people going home happy today, and I love that. That's what I want to try to give back, and the players did unbelievable today. “That's why I'm so impressed by the players in the second half. They carried us, together with the supporters. They did absolutely brilliantly, and saved the day for us. “I give more credit to the players for coming out with the passion, and the crowd together with them, because I think this place was electric in the second half. “We just ran and chased the ball, and getting it into play all the time.I just have to say thank you to the players because I think they did it, together with the crowd, so that's what it was about.” The opening day win was not without complication. Boro were behind at half-time to former man Adam Reach’s 12th-minute opener. It came as Boro started sloppily, looking frantic in possession and therefore struggling to find they usual control and grip of the game. Even as they settled, they struggled for quality on the ball to carve open many opportunities. Placing the blame at his own door, Hellberg said: “I was not happy with my first half. I think it was my structure in the first half that was not good enough. I should have helped the players better, so I think that's on me a little bit. “Credit to Lincoln, we played against a good team. I think in the first half, to be honest, they were better than us. I think it’s a long time since an away team was better than us in the first half here. “They deserved to be ahead even if they didn't create many chances. They were good in the press, and we struggled with our way of playing. We couldn't create much. “So that was tough. I think that also goes together with what I talked about in terms of so many new players coming in, coming back, haven’t been around us for a long time. “And then when you get this type of game against a team that played together for a long time and won a lot of games, we couldn't put together a structure that was good enough. So we didn't look like ourselves in the first half.” Things were much-improved after the interval, with Hellberg able to call on far stronger options from the bench to flip the game and get the win - despite playing against a system that proved so troublesome last term. The Boro boss continued: “In the second half, I think we are as good as you can be against a low block, breaking them down, creating a lot of opportunities, playing with power. “We scored two beautiful goals. We also defended well - handled those things very well. And at the end, I think we deserved the win because, over 90 minutes, we were the better team. But a lot of credit to the opposition for how they handled the first half. That was impressive.” ------------- Get Teesside Live Premium now for just £1 HERE – exclusive Boro news and features, transfer notebooks, comment and analysis from Eric Paylor, plus an ad-lite experience Join our WhatsApp community to get all the breaking news and best analysis sent straight to your phone by clicking here to subscribe. Your information will be hidden, you'll only ever receive messages from the Teesside Live sports team, and you can leave any time you like. To leave our community click on the name at the top of your screen and choose 'Exit group'. If you’re curious, you can read our Privacy Notice.