We need to be more clinical, admits Monk

BRITT OF A HARD DAY AT CITY GROUND FOR OLD BOY

Britt Assombalonga of Middlesbrough and the Boro fans, laugh off the abuse from his former club’s fans. Inset, the striker tries to find a way to goal GARRY Monk has demanded his Boro side find their ruthless streak after a frustrating day in Nottingham.

But the Boro boss said he wasn’t downhearted over his side’s performance in the 2-1 defeat at Nottingham Forest.

Monk saw Britt Assombalonga in particular spurn three good chances against his former club, but insisted if the match were played again, his side would be victorious.

“I can’t criticise any of my players today,” Monk said. “After the first 25 minutes we got to grips with them and we created some good chances of our own.

“We couldn’t have done any more to create chances and opportunities to win the game.

“I feel for the players in terms of how we came off the pitch with no points. We feel hard done by.

“We did more than enough to win the game. Luck is part of football and we have to dust ourselves down and move on.

“If we played that game again tomorrow we would probably win it with the number of chances we had. We were not clinical enough.

“We need to start the games better. We can’t take so long to take a grip on the game.

“But we are creating chances in every game and we need to be more ruthless. But that will come, because the players are working hard.”

His opposite number Mark Warburton hopes Forest will start to understand how good they are capable of being this season after seeing off the promotion favourites.

Warburton had challenged his players to prove a point to themselves prior to kick-off, by securing three points over a Boro side who are looking to secure an immediate return to the Premier League.

And Forest did exactly that, as a brilliantly carved out 16th-minute goal from Barrie McKay and an 80thminute penalty from Daryl Murphy – his third goal of the season – set the home side on the path to victory, with Ben Gibson’s 83rd-minute finish ensuring some late nerves.

“We said to the players that Boro know how good they are – but we don’t think you understand how good you can be as a team, just yet,” said Warburton.

“I thought we were very good. We have to learn from the last few minutes, but we also have to learn from Tuesday night at Barnsley, when we absolutely dominated but came away with nothing.

“We will take it one game at a time. It doesn’t raise expectations. We know what we have to do. We have to go into games knowing what we have to do to win.”

Forest dominated the first half but had to show some steel after the break.

“It was a great game in the first half, we were tremendous. We deserved the lead we got from a well-taken goal,” Warburton added.

“Middlesbrough are a very strong outfit. They have many Premier League players so, overall, this was a tremendous performance.

“We have shown how good we can be, particularly in that first half. They are one of the promotion favourites.”