Defiant Middlesbrough FC boss Chris Wilder ‘swinging and fighting’ ahead of Rotherham United fixture

Touted as being among the promotion favourites, Boro find themselves in a poor league position with two wins from their opening nine league games.

Matters came to a head in Tuesday's home loss to Cardiff, with Boro booed off after an awful first-half which saw them trail 3-0 with their campaign in danger of lurching towards an early-season crisis point.

Wilder himself has come in for censure following a run of four wins in Boro's last 19 games in all competitions.

The 54-year-old says he will take the stick firmly on the chin as he endeavours to produce a fightback. In many ways, he is relishing it.

Wilder, whose side welcome Rotherham United on Saturday, said: "We have to accept that responsibility that Tuesday was not good enough and deal with it internally and do what we need to do and go through the process, of what we always do, of reflection on games and even maybe a bit of a reflection on a wider period in what we need to do as a coaching staff and me as a manager and my messages towards the players.

"There's part of me that quite enjoys this when you do get questioned and wrote off a little bit as a team and a club.

"It is important that what I can control is myself and my coaching staff and the players. There's some stuff I cannot control, but the nature of this part of the world - and maybe the area I have been brought up in - is that when it gets a little bit tough, you dig a little bit deeper and come out swinging and fighting and find those answers.

"I am sure we will. I have been in worse situations than this. It is not enjoyable and the start we wanted, but I think there are certain factors you can add in why which are facts. But overall, the points total is not good enough and we should have picked up more points and the league position is not enjoyable for everybody and we are the only ones who can affect that."