Southgate: We Have To Do Better

"The players know my feelings. I'm somebody who likes to defend them publicly at all times, but on afternoons like today it's difficult to do that," the Boro boss said after the 3-0 defeat at The Riverside.

"We quite simply have to do better. We are where we are because we deserve to be.

"Somehow, which is beyond me, we've managed to stay out of the bottom three so we're very, very lucky that that's happened.

"I'm the manager and I'm a fighter. But they've got to fight and scrap now because it's a collective that gets us out of it. They know I'll give absolutely everything for them.

"It's going to be tough because we're going to get hammered externally and we deserve to be. So we've got to take that on the chin and it's how we react that's the important thing."