Bristol City v Middlesbrough: McGree is a big fan of Wilder’s approach

Wilder has warmed to the on-loan Brighton and Hove Albion striker because he asks as much of himself as his manager does. It is essential, midfielder McGree said before the trip to Bristol City.

“He’s very demanding,” reflected McGree. “As players, we want to be demanding on ourselves but having a head coach who is the same and is making sure we do every little thing right in training and in games really does bring the best out of us.”

Do that and you will be looked after by Wilder.

After scoring his first Boro goal at the fifth attempt in the 4-1 win over Derby County, Connolly revealed he had texted Wilder to acknowledge his slow start.

“Do you know what I loved about that? It shows he cares,” said Wilder. “He wants to hit the ground running, as they all do.

“Everybody wants to get off to a flyer. I did. Duncan Watmore goes through in the first 30 seconds against Millwall and I want him to score. I wanted to win that first game.

“I thought even if he’d not scored, the overall performance was very good and the performance of Flo (Balogun) was very good as well. Those two contributed to a really good day for us.

“You always want your centre-forwards to score and I love that part of him. But the boy’s not played a lot of football, which is understandable because of the level they (Brighton) play at and the competition for places.

“So he had to get up to speed, but we knew he wasn’t just here for one or two games, he’s here for 22 games. Hopefully he can grow off the back of a really good performance, as Flo did.”