Middlesbrough FC boss Chris Wilder reflects on an 'edgy' display from Boro, who have dropped into the relegation zone

A low-key affair ended goalless with Boro – tipped to be among the promotion contenders at the start of the season – now finding themselves in the relegation zone instead going into the first international break.

The Teessiders have won just twice in their opening ten league matches of the campaign.

On how he is feeling following a game which saw some Boro fans boo off his side at the end, Wilder said: “I’m alright. It’s an arm wrestle at the moment.

“It’s not free flowing, it’s a bit tough at the moment but we’ve just got to dig in.

“I thought the players attitude was good and I didn’t think it was a negative performance, I thought it was an edgy performance. It wasn’t free flowing.

“We’ll look at it and maybe we will have created the clearer of the chances in the game but we didn’t take them so we have to look at ourselves on that.

“After 40 minutes on Tuesday scratching your head at where you are going to get a clean sheet, we managed to do that and that is a positive.

“This is how the game. The sun is not always shining and it is not always an easy game. You take that split second longer, you don’t play that first time pass and have an extra touch which slows the game down.

“We’ve watched them and they not in a false position. They are a hard working side and possibly one of the last teams you’d want to play tonight. Playing a team without any character tonight might have been a bit easier for us but it was a tough evening. We knew it would be.

“We are ten games, we haven’t got the points total that we want but we just have to keep going and come through this little sticky period that we are at.”