Ten Reasons Why Boro Will/Won't Survive!

Middlesbrough's next four matches are all against teams in the bottom 11 places in the table.

April's home games against Hull and Fulham offer a decent opportunity of claiming six crucial points, while forthcoming trips to Stoke and Bolton could also be an awful lot worse.

Win two or three of the four, and not only would Boro improve their own points total, they would also prevent some of their main relegation rivals from moving too far ahead of them.

Take this month's Tottenham aberration out of the equation, and Boro have conceded just two goals in their last five league games.

They boast one of the best back fours in the bottom half of the table, with David Wheater and Robert Huth forming a central defensive partnership that combines power with positional expertise.

Boro's goalkeeping position looked problematic at the start of the season, but, a jittery display at Everton aside, Brad Jones has answered his critics effectively.

This is not a new position for Boro to be in. Survival was only assured in the penultimate match of each of the last two seasons, with relegation a definite possibility with less than ten games left.

Gareth Southgate was the manager on each occasion, and having skirted with the drop before, the Boro boss should be capable of handling what is thrown at him in the next two months.

Europe might still have been a possibility last November, but in the back of his mind, Southgate will have been steeling himself for a relegation fight for some time now.

Thanks to arguably the best Academy in the Premier League, a significant section of the Boro squad have grown up together.

That has created a strong team spirit that does not appear to have been too badly affected by recent results.

While other clubs begin to tear themselves apart, Boro continue to boast a unity of purpose that could prove crucial once the stakes are at their highest.

If everything comes down to the final day of the season, Boro could find themselves facing ideal opposition.

The Teessiders travel to Upton Park, and West Ham are likely to be one of the few sides in the Premier League with nothing to play for.

Safe from relegation and unlikely to qualify for Europe, the Hammers could have half an eye on the beach on May 24.

Boro are the lowest-scoring side in the Premier League, having scored just 21 goals from their 29 matches.

If you don't score goals, you don't win games, and unless they improve their ratio dramatically in the next two months, the Teessiders will almost certainly go down.

The signs do not look good, with Afonso Alves resembling a broken man following Saturday's miss and Jeremie Aliadiere suffering a confidence crisis of his own.

It might not sound like much, but at this stage of the season, a two-point deficit is a significant gap to make up.

Throw in a margin of five when it comes to goal difference, and Boro are effectively three points short of safety with just nine games left.

Their next victory will achieve little more than bringing them back to the pack - so back-to-back wins are just about essential if survival is to be achieved.

Home form is generally the decisive factor in a relegation battle, so the civil war that briefly engulfed the Riverside on Saturday was hardly a positive sign.

Boro supporters appear to be losing faith in their team, and the final four home games could be fraught affairs.

If the crowd is on edge, the players will be similarly nervous, and the likes of Hull and Fulham will fancy their chances if they can keep things tight early on.

4 THEIR FINAL FIVE MATCHES LOOK TOUGH

West Ham away isn't a bad way to end, but the preceding four matches will see Boro face three of the current top five.

Home matches against Manchester United and Aston Villa follow an away game at Arsenal - all matches that Boro failed to win last season.

If the Teessiders are still in the bottom three when they travel to the Emirates on April 25, it is hard to see them getting out.

As a result of having one of the youngest squads in the Premier League, Boro lack leadership experience in almost every area of the field.

Emanuel Pogatetz is a chest-thumping skipper, but when the pressure is at its most intense in the next two months, it's difficult to imagine too many of his team-mates showing similar resolve.

Boro could do with a couple of gnarled old pros, but with the transfer window shut, they will have to make do with their youthful Academy products. Do they possess the necessary nerve?