Gary O'Neil admits Middlesbrough must start grinding out results.

"We can't afford to think that we're too good to be in this position," O'Neil said. "We're in a scrap and we've got to accept it. I think we need to win games as ugly as we can.

"In the second half, we really got at Spurs and played forward a bit more. Maybe we didn't play as good a brand of football as we have done. We were a little bit more direct and caused them more problems. Possibly that's the answer, certainly in the short term. No one could deny that we've played some nice stuff, but we haven't got the results. We have to make ourselves harder to beat - more nasty, in their faces, win ugly, that kind of thing.

"We are still confident of having a decent season. It's never easy playing football when you're down at the bottom. It's a tough position to be in. We have a lot of young players and it's important everyone steps up, accepts responsibility, accepts the ball and still tries to play."