Middlesbrough boss Gordon Strachan insists he will get things right as he has belief in his own ability. The former Celtic chief has won just one game since taking charge of the club at the end of October and has seen them sink to 14th in the Championship.

"I cannot speak about what has gone on before here, but I know what I do works," Strachan said.

"The most overused thing I have heard in my life is the phrase 'proving people wrong'. It is naff. I think you have to prove to yourself you can deal with it first. Everybody else does not matter. People say, 'Prove the critics wrong', but who are the critics?

"If Kenny Dalglish says this and that about you then you sit up and think about it, but if someone who has never kicked a ball says something then so what? It does not count.

"I ask myself every day, am I good enough to deal with it? The results have made things harder but as a manager I have got the answers.

"I have kept to the same principles I had as a footballer.

"I picked up a lot of good habits from Sir Alex Ferguson about how you should live your life and all the rest of it and I carried that on. Through the discipline he gave me I managed to play to a fair age and I am trying my best to make sure the players here carry on to a fair age by making them disciplined in their lifestyle.

"I'm sure the players will tell you they have a lot of good fun and laughs at the same time. It is fitness and intelligence you give them as well, that is all part of the responsibility of management. It might take a wee while but we will get there.

"Does it hurt like hell? I would not like to pass it on, but saying that, there are, by a million miles, people who are far worse off than me, the coaches and the players."