Middlesbrough boss Gareth Southgate was today carrying on regardless despite mounting speculation over his future.

Had the former England defender glanced at some of yesterday's newspapers, he would have been greeted by headlines suggesting his time in charge at the Riverside could be drawing to a close after a third successive home defeat, this time at the hands of Watford.

However, Southgate, who will send his side into Coca-Cola Championship with Nigel Clough's Derby on Teesside tomorrow night, remains unbowed.
He said: "I am just getting on with my job. Because I am that busy with what's going on here, I don't get the chance to read, thankfully, anything else or listen to anything else.

"All I have done since the weekend is watch tapes of our games back, tapes of Derby's games, spend most of Sunday in here with the players and staff and focus on the next fixture.

"Everything else is irrelevant. I am getting on with doing my job.

"We are talking about pressure, but the reality is it is all relative and we have got to be able to handle that.

"We are sportsmen and coaches who are paid to deal with that. Whatever walk of life you are in, there is pressure to deal with.

"We have to go and start winning some football matches, and we are capable of doing that."

Saturday's reverse, coming as it did on the back of home defeats by West Brom and Leicester, saw Boro slip to fourth place in the table, but they are still only four points adrift of new leaders West Brom.

The Teessiders have won only two of the six league games they have played at the Riverside this season; by contrast, they have collected all three points on the road four times in six attempts.

However, Southgate will not allow the problem to become psychological.

He said: "It can, but that's individual choice because it's only yourself against yourself and what your own inner voice is telling you.

"We have got to be big enough to handle that. If you want to achieve anything at any level, then you have got to be able to cope with pressure, be it home, away, whatever it might be.

"I don't see that as any sort of an excuse.

"But we are not dealing with robots, we are dealing with human beings, and we are not dealing with established top international players at the moment, we are dealing with guys who are on their way up, so we are going to have days where it doesn't happen for them.

"But we have got to make sure they understand the importance of it, they understand the consequences of under-performing and that we put things in place to make sure we perform better than that tomorrow night."