Middlesbrough boss Gareth Southgate is confident Afonso Alves will start scoring again.

Southgate said: "We believe that Afonso will score goals for us. His record says that he will.

"We know what Afonso is capable of doing, and that's why we will continue to support him.

"He has scored a brilliant goal for us already this season, and he's gone close on several occasions.

"He's been on target. It's only goalkeepers' saves and goal-line clearances which have prevented him from adding to that.

"His shot against West Brom which hit the bar was the sign of a goalscorer. He was very unlucky not to score from that effort."

However, while Southgate remains confident his star frontman will get goals, he is adamant that the responsibility cannot be left entirely to he and his attacking colleagues.

The former England defender told the Evening Gazette: "He's [Alves] got a striker's instinct because he gets into positions to get in his efforts at goal.

"But then I don't want to give the impression that we have to rely on Afonso to score all of our goals.

"We are a team, and we play as a team, and we have players throughout our team who are capable of scoring goals.

"We had so many chances against West Brom right throughout the team, but it wouldn't go in.

"We know have to start taking these chances, but we are capable of doing that and it's something that we will continue to work on."