Will Lankshear warning as Boro striker enjoys excellent start at the Riverside

The team is relying heavily on Lankshear to come up with the goods and so far he has responded magnificently.

However, Kim Hellberg has worked wonders in strengthening his attacking options. Other players must pick up the cudgels too.

Of Boro’s nine Championship goals this season Lankshear has scored six, while Jeremy Sarmiento, Alfie Jones and Aidan Morris have netted one apiece.

Jones is a defender, Morris is a defensive midfielder, while Sarmiento is the only other attacking player to have found the net. And he’s picked up an injury.

OK, as long as the team is winning we must look at the positives. But we must also build on them, and that means other forwards stepping up to the oche.

Kyle Joseph scored a very clever goal in the Carabao Cuptie at Doncaster and, while he was arguably not fully fit when the season started, is approaching the time when he needs to get into full gear in front of the onion bag.

And Tommy Conway is back now. Bearing in mind the number of chances which the team is creating, the opportunities are there. We can’t leave everything to Lankshear.

Joseph has walked into a team which is creating many more openings than his former Hull City team did, while Conway has an opportunity to take advantage of the lack of pressure afforded to him following the arrival of Lankshear.

On paper, there’s nothing wrong while the team is winning. One thing they do need to do is to take advantage of the total control Boro have established in the first halves of recent games.

Get the most comprehensive Middlesbrough news and analysis straight to your Inbox!

To get it, it's a quick and easy one-two:

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

Boro should have been 3-0 up at half-time at Burnley. If they had taken a couple of more of their gilt-edged chances then the game would have been over at the interval.

And Boro should have been at least two-up at QPR, which is many respects would have prevented us all biting our fingernails down to the stubs in the second half.

Hellberg can argue quite rightly that he has a relatively new-look squad which is still blending together.

That’s true, but this has not proved a negative because Boro have still managed to push themselves close to the top of the league.

The team has also worked very, very hard. But if we are going to win automatic promotion we have to start to take off like Coventry City did last term.

After their first six goals last term, the Sky Blues had scored 15 goals, while their second six games produced 19 goals.

Considering that Boro are probably creating as many chances as Coventry did and similarly have the ability to dominate games – they should try to emulate them.

In the meantime, the team can savour the joys of having beaten QPR on their home soil. The Londoners really fancy their chances of winning promotion this season.

Now it’s time to push on, starting with Norwich City on Saturday. If we are going to do that we can’t afford to become a one-man band up front.

This introductory offer saves £384 compared to the standard price, with every package also providing 100 regular channels alongside free Netflix and discovery+ subscriptions.