Tommy Conway or Kelechi Iheanacho? A battle royal for the main striking role could yet give a major boost to Middlesbrough’s play off prospects.

Conway’s timely return from injury paves the way for hot competition with new boy Iheanacho to win a place in the starting line-up. The Nigerian has been brought in as replacement for the departed Emmanuel Latte Lath, whose own struggle for the striking role along with Conway was just about to move into top gear.

On the face of things, Conway has just cause to believe that he should be given the nod at Sheffield United on Wednesday. He’s scored eight goals before the end of November and, but for the injury, would surely have been comfortably into double figures by this stage.

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In many respects, Conway is similar to Latte Lath. He’s a livewire on the pitch and constantly chasing apparent lost causes. Yet Iheanacho offers a similar approach to his football. He is allegedly effective at getting his shots on target, holds up the ball well and rarely loses it under pressure and he’s a decent passer.

The big difference is that Conway has hit the back of the net on eight occasions this season while Iheanacho, following an unproductive spell at Sevilla, is still awaiting his first goal of the campaign. This suggests that there could be a marked difference in the players’ current levels of self belief.

On the other hand, this is a massive move for Iheanacho because he knows full well that if he does well on Teesside that he will probably earn himself a contract somewhere back in English football in the summer. This new deal could even be with the Boro.

Iheanacho will be aware that his first task is to impress Michael Carrick. Which of the two forwards start at Bramall Lane remains to be seen. But Iheanacho will be looking forward to at least earning some pitch time against the Blades, especially having scored a hat trick against them early in his Leicester City career.

With Conway just back, Boro’s attacking unit will have a generally new feel about it on Wednesday. Morgan Whittaker and Samuel Iling-Junior will hope for starting places. They both have plenty of experience under their belts and there are high hopes that Whittaker in particular will be a huge hit with the Boro.

However, they need to hit the ground running and this applies to all the new boys. Boro’s back line has taken a lot of criticism lately though the defence has done slightly better than at the same stage last season. Thirty nine goals have been conceded this time around compared to 44 last term.

With Conway and Delano Burgzorg signed last summer we had every right to believe that the Boro attack would improve its goals output this season, especially as the squad was without a single available forward for a long spell last term. To be fair the attacking players have done better so far with 49 goals scored compared with 44 last season.

Yet the goal tally should have been considerably higher than this. Boro have been one of the most creative sides in the Championship this season but unfortunately dozens of decent chances have gone begging. It almost goes without saying that Boro’s new look attack must make a big difference to the team’s results in the final third of the season.

In some respects it’s a little bit frustrating that Boro should be facing Sheffield United just as they need to hit the ground running with their revamped line-up. On the other hand, a point or three at Bramall Lane would get the Boro dressing room buzzing again. This would surely get them in the right frame of mind for the seemingly decent run of fixtures which follow.