Boro Relegation Battle Takes Its Toll!

Last updated : 23 March 2009 By Boro Mad

But the under-pressure Middlesbrough manager is determined to stick to his principles and believes his team can play their way out of trouble.

A late 1-0 defeat at Stoke was a crushing blow to their survival hopes as it left the Teessiders stuck in 19th place, four points from safety with eight matches to play.

Southgate: "We have got to go on a run of wins home and away. That was one of the reasons we changed the system; our away form was so poor I thought it would give them something different to focus on and I thought it did.

"We have to play to our strengths. We couldn't go to Stoke and play them at their game because they are better at it than we are.

"As much as we could we wanted to pass the ball and we did and we kept it from them for long periods of time and when we did pass it we opened them up.

"But we didn't show enough quality in the final third in terms of our final pass or finish.

"There was a lot of tension in the game and what goes in that situation is the extra bit of quality.

"We are not scoring enough. We certainly had a couple of good chances to win it and haven't taken them. In football you have to take your chances.

"The way the Stoke play the percentages there was always the chance they could pinch something and they did."