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Premiership Football News: Middlesbrough

Marc Fox

Gareth Southgate admits his side's current run must be testing chairman Steve Gibson's resolve.

Southgate, the under pressure Middlesbrough manager, would rather have shifted some portion of the blame for Saturday's 3-0 hiding at West Brom onto referee Mark Halsey.

But he also conceded that he wouldn't blame self-made millionaire Gibson for pulling the trigger on Southgate's 30-month stint at the helm of the Teesside club.

Southgate was the league's manager of the month for August, but that now seems a distant memory.

Such a rotten run means you simply cannot afford to slip up against bottom-placed teams such as West Brom. But Boro wasted enough goalscoring chances to take something from the game before Didier Digard was rightly red carded for a two-footed lunge on Albion midfielder Borja Valero on the hour mark.

The game had already got off to a contentious opening when referee Halsey allowed Chris Brunt's opener to stand despite the West Brom winger clearly loitering a metre offside in the build-up.

That early strike took the wind out of Boro's sails somewhat and they desperately needed Afonso Alves to convert one of his three gilt-edge chances in the first-half to launch a comeback. Alves crashed the easiest opening against crossbar with Scott Carson stranded.

Debutant Marc-Antoine Fortune, a loan signing from French club Nancy, got the final touch on Albion's second before man-of-the-match Robert Koren made certain with their third.

Southgate later branded the scoreline 'horrific' and conceded Middlesbrough dropping into a jam-packed bottom three over the weekend might well prove too much for Gibson to endure.

"I don't sit here thinking I'm bulletproof," the former England defender admitted. "Steve is a ruthless businessman so if he thinks there needs to be change he'll make change. I couldn't have any complaints if he did that based on the run of results we've had."

The jury's out on whether Southgate having steered Middlesbrough out of a similar predicament last season will help or hinder his cause. Boro went 10 games from mid-September without winning before beating Arsenal at the Riverside before Christmas and eventually recovering to finish 13th.

Given the extreme congestion in the table's lower half they may end up even higher this year. But the question is will Gibson's patience run out before then.

Middlesbrough visit Championship leaders Wolves in the FA Cup this Saturday. Next up it's Chelsea at the Bridge.

"We understand the spotlight will be on us and everybody will be asking plenty of questions about us," said Southgate. "We have to stand strong and take the criticism. And we have to respond on the field.

"Everybody has to look at themselves. We can't hide from the fact that we've had a run of 10 league games without a win."

Marc Fox

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