Bristol City v Middlesbrough - ‘Relentless’ welcome to management for Jonathan Woodgate

The 39-year-old, appointed as Tony Pulis’s replacement in June, will finally be able to pause for breath briefly after today’s early kick-off at Bristol City after a demanding programme of seven games in the opening four weeks of the campaign.

The fact that Woodgate, in his first senior role as head coach, is trying to instigate a style makeover at Boro and also endeavour to get some positive results, has added to his degree of difficulty at a club in clear transition.

But Woodgate insists that the crash-course in management will reap dividends farther down the line and stand him in good stead.

Speaking ahead of the trip to Ashton Gate, where Boro secured an eye-catching 2-0 victory just over 12 months ago early on in the 2018-19 season, Woodgate said: “It is just relentless, the league is just relentless.

“It is just constant, day to day, the work is relentless. You are in here until seven, you are not getting home until late, but it eats your world up and you do need to try and find time to step back a bit, like you do with your family and kids.

“We have not had the greatest of starts but we’re plugging away.

“You need to take a step back and that’s what you try to do when you go home. I always say never get too high, or get too low, it’s important to stay in the middle and I really am conscious of that.

“So you have got to remain level. Like I have said before, even if we’d won all these games on the spin, my head would not have been like that (big) – I would remain level because I know things can turn in an instant.”

Boro face a Robins side in impressive form with Lee Johnson’s side having won their past three league matches.