Massimo Luongo on how Sheffield Wednesday experience has prepared him for Middlesbrough and running out of time to decide on a new Hillsborough contract

Luongo's spell at Hillsborough came to an abrupt end, with the Owls withdrawing a new contract offer he still wanted to think about, but he looks back fondly on his time in South Yorkshire and believes it will serve him well on Teesside.

Tuesday’s 3-2 defeat at home to Cardiff City ramped up the pressure.

"I lived in Sheffield so you're right amongst it," explained the 29-year-old, whose new team is 12 places below Saturday's visitors Rotherham United in the Championship despite having played a game more.

"I haven't been into Middlesbrough apart from for games but it's the same feelings. On matchdays the crowd can turn really quickly – negatively or positively – so I'm used to it. I'm used to playing in front of big crowds, especially in home games.

"The toughest thing for me, no matter what league I was in, was leaving Sheffield Wednesday, the size of the club. I almost spoilt myself with Wednesday and I thought Middlesbrough was a good fit.

"I've joined a good group, everyone's positive, no one gets too low, there's no cliques, no negative energy in the dressing room. Everything feels normal.

"We've had a few meetings to address stuff and try to get the problems out of the way and go again. That's all you can do."

That Wednesday were having a tough time when Sheffield United were doing well under current Boro manager Chris Wilder actually helped in Luongo's view.

"The other team always affects the way people view you, so when they were in the Premier League there was a lot of stress off my time at Sheffield Wednesday because they were in a different league, and when we were in League One, they were in the Championship," he said.

On how it ended at Wednesday, Luongo said: "I don't want to dwell too much into that because the club's a great club and they looked after me.

"I wanted to give myself as much time as possible to make a decision and they didn't really want to wait – which was fair enough. They sort of jumped the gun a little bit before I could even make my decision."My priority was to get back into the Championship. Whether I would have changed my decision or not, I don't know, but all parties had their own agenda and they wanted to rush a little bit and I didn't."

Having been in the same division as Rotherham for the past two seasons, Luongo knows full well they will not make Boro’s life any easier.

"I guess we're probably expected to win but Rotherham are doing very well – they're a tough team, a fit team, a nasty team!” he said. “The goals come from everywhere.

"If we get the win I think people will underestimate how big a win that will be because of how good a team they actually are."But every game's important. The important thing is to bounce back, have a reaction and the performance will come from the reaction and the result hopefully will come from the performance.”