Middlesbrough boss Tony Mowbray has defended his decision to leave Scott McDonald out of the squad for the 2-1 Capital One Cup win at Bury, reports BBC Sport. "There's no situation, we brought some new players and I wanted to get them going," Mowbray told BBC Tees.

"Other players are getting opportunities, Scott just has to keep working hard and see what happens."

The Australian international netted nine goals in 36 games for the Teessiders last season.

"I want (Emmanuel) Ledesma to get going, it's a huge step up for him to the expectations of our club," Mowbray added.

"He's managed to score today and he's got a bit to do but he's worked hard and got a lovely nature.

"We talked about Luke (Williams) and he looked exciting late on drifting past people." The game is about opinions. Make yours heard! Join the tribalfootball.com nation on Facebook today: Facebook.com/tribalfootball