Uefa Cup: Middlesbrough need to start proving what a good team they are on the pitch rather than talking a good game off it as they jetted out to Greece yesterday for tonight's UEFA Cup qualifier second-leg clash with Skoda Xanthi.
Boro take a comfortable 2-0 lead but Sunday's dismal derby defeat by bottom-of-the-table Sunderland is still reverberating all around them.
Manager Steve McClaren, in public at least, dismissed the weekend's events as a blip and promised things would improve. However, skipper Gareth Southgate was more forthright, claiming Boro need to stop believing their own publicity and translate their good intentions into performances.
Boro, who will be without the injured Mark Schwarzer, Mark Viduka, Ray Parlour and Ugo Ehiogu as well as the ineligible Fabio Rochemback, and could also lose Franck Queudrue to a shin problem, should progress comfortably at the Xanthiu Stadium, although they saw enough in the first leg to know they cannot afford to give their hosts anything.
McClaren's side was coasting at the break, but were run ragged for 20 minutes after the restart and were fortunate to escape with a clean sheet.
"We know we have to put in a really concentrated performance, and if we do and if we play as well as we can, we will go into the group stage," said summer arrival Emanuel Pogatetz.
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