Middlesbrough boss Gareth Southgate is happy to have secured Premiership safety after victory over Portsmouth.

Southgate said: "I am pleased because we can plan and get on because there is so much that has to change.

"I have found myself in the two years in the job compromising principles a lot of the time, and this summer will be a good cut-off point in terms of coming back and really feeling it should be my team and a club run in the way I believe it should be run.

"I am going to learn all the time about that and how far you can push things and how far you can push people.

"The two most important things this season have been that the players have rallied through very difficult times and huge setbacks and dealt with it, and the fact that I have been able to repay the chairman's faith for keeping his nerve in October-November time when lots of other clubs decided they would change manager.

"He has given me an opportunity here. He knows my inexperience, but he knows I am determined to repay his faith and work every hour that's sent to make this club successful."