BORO MIX IS THE PERFECT RECIPE FOR BOSS WILDER
CHRIS Wilder insists the mixture of Middlesbrough’s squad makes life “easy”, but the manager says they have to “earn the right” to win promotion.
Young stars like Isaiah Jones and Marcus Tavernier, 22 and 23, have played a key role this term alongside 33-yearold skipper Jonny Howson.
Defenders Sol Bamba, 37, and Lee Peltier, 35, have struggled for minutes, but Wilder has been impressed by their influence off the pitch.
Boro are two points outside the play-offs and have games in hand on all of their rivals heading into the business end of the campaign, but boss Wilder is urging caution.
“We can talk about the history of the club, especially in the past 15 or 20 years with Steve Gibson and being in the Premier League, but we’re taking this on a gameby-game basis,” said Wilder.
“We don’t want to get too far ahead of ourselves, there’s a lot of big teams in the division. “Football can be really unforgiving, and you don’t get rewarded because historically you’re a big club and you’ve got a big fan base. You’ve got to earn the right to do that and that’s going to be key to our success.” Wilder added: “We’ve got some really talented footballers at the club, a real good balance.
“We’ve got some fabulous senior pros and some exciting young players that have come through.
“Obviously, Jones has taken a lot of acclaim recently, but also off the back of that Howson has been incredible and even some of the boys that have not been playing recently like Peltier and Bamba have been outstanding.
“It just makes it easier for myself and my coaching staff to go in and implement our ideas.”