Riggott is one of the elder statesmen of the playing staff at 29, and had not played a competitive fixture since limping out of the defeat at Man City in February with ankle trouble.
He was used as a late substitute against Scunthorpe on Boxing Day and played against Barnsley.
But he is out of contract in the summer, and wants to make sure Boro can revive their promotion hopes, and win himself a new deal.
Chris Riggott: .It was fantastic to play 90 minutes again; great to play again.
“In a way I enjoyed every minute of it but it’s a shame we didn’t come away with the victory.
“My emotions are mixed. I enjoyed being out there, felt leggy in the end, but it was a big relief for me. Hopefully I will remain in the team now for the rest of the season. 90 minutes will have helped me a great deal.
“Barnsley came out fighting on Monday, changed a few things and we buckled.
It wasn’t good enough and we have to defend better than that.
“On the evidence of Monday we were poor. We have to do better than we did.
“We didn’t create many chances. People talk about the talent we have going forward but we didn’t create much going forward.
“Then we conceded a couple of silly goals. As soon as the tide changed we didn’t have the belief we needed.
“We need to change that if we want to think about going up.”