Middlesbrough boss Rob Edwards lauds Hayden Hackney after summer of uncertainty

Middlesbrough head coach Rob Edwards praised how Hayden Hackney has knuckled down despite all the speculation around him after his starring role in his side’s 3-0 victory at Millwall.

Hackney struck the opening goal at The Den and was at the forefront of an impressive second-half performance by ‘Boro to continue what has been an eventful summer for the 23-year-old.

After being part of England’s success at the European U21 Championships, Hackney turned down a move to Ipswich at the start of the month, although other clubs are still being linked with his signature.

It was a superb afternoon in south London for Edwards as he became the first Middlesbrough boss to win the opening two games of a league season since Bryan Robson in 1994.

Edwards said: “I thought Hayden was excellent. Loads of energy, loads of quality, desire, passion and he won a lot of duels.

“His running was really good – that’s the best he’s looked since he’s come back from the success that he had with the national team.

“You can see it out there that he loves the club and he’s been extremely professional, so I couldn’t be happier with him.

“The way I see things right now is he’s here with us, he loves this place, I thought his performance showed that.”

On his team’s good start, Edwards added: “You’ve got to defend and you’ve got to attack and I thought we defended really well in the two games.

“We’ve limited both teams – Swansea and Millwall – to fairly little.

“To come here and limit them to that, with the lot of the set-pieces that they had and the threat they’ve got on the pitch was very pleasing. We’ve got to learn to love that stuff.”

Millwall came closest to scoring in the first half when Casper De Norre’s shot was brilliantly cleared off the line by Luke Ayling.

Four minutes into the second half, ‘Boro took the lead when Morgan Whittaker’s cut-back was slammed in by Hackney.

Josh Coburn came agonisingly close to levelling for the Lions when his diving header from Femi Azeez’s cross hit both posts.

Middlesbrough wrapped up the win in the 87th minute when Alfie Jones fired in after the hosts failed to clear Hackney’s corner.

Delano Burgzorg then added a third with almost the final kick when he brought down Finn Azaz’s pass before finishing beyond Millwall goalkeeper Steven Benda.

Millwall boss Alex Neil said: “I felt we missed a lot of opportunities in the first half to cross the ball.

“We got into some good spaces, which was really frustrating because the amount of times we got into good areas and we sort of turned it down and the ball ended up back at the halfway line.

“We had the best chance of the first half with Casper, he hits one and the lad blocks it on the line.

“It was one of them ones where I’m relatively pleased but frustrated at the same time at half-time because I thought we were the better side.

“What really irritated me was we spoke at half-time about transitions, about not giving the ball away cheaply, because I felt their best moments in the first half came through us playing sloppy passes, wanting too many touches.

“And the first goal comes from us giving the ball away down our left-hand side.”