Warnock: Other clubs will not do us any favours

NEIL Warnock has warned Middlesbrough they cannot rely on others to get them out of Sky Bet Championship relegation trouble.

Boro remain just two points clear of the dropzone after yesterday’s 3-1 home defeat by Bristol City, although Barnsley, Hull and Charlton below them were unable to take advantage.

However, they head for Reading on Tuesday evening with their manager having told them they need to dig themselves out of the hole into which they have slipped.

Asked if they could afford to rely on others, Warnock said: “Not at all, no. They are all tough games. We have three tough games.

“When you don’t score enough goals and you concede silly goals like we do it is a bad recipe.

“There are other teams down there, I think, in a worse situation and we have to capitalise.

“We must not feel sorry for ourselves, we do not have to worry about what is said about us or anything like that.

“We just have to re-group and get the points.”

The Teessiders were undone by sumptuous first-half strikes from Nahki Wells, who helped himself to a second as time ran down, and Jamie Paterson at the Riverside Stadium with Britt Assombalonga’s 82ndminute reply providing scant consolation.

Things might have been different had defender Dael Fry managed to level from close range or had George Saville’s header not come back off the crossbar at 1-0 - but it was not to be.

Warnock added: “Dael’s, when you watch it back, I don’t know how he hs missed it and neither does Dael.”

For opposite number Dean Holden, who took over from Lee Johnson on a caretaker basis last weekend, it proved a good afternoon as he guided his side to back-to-back wins for the first time since February.

Asked if the play-offs remain a possibility – the Robins sit in 11th place, three points shy of Cardiff in sixth – Holden said: “Who knows?

“You cannot really take care of the result, but you can take care of your own performance.”