Andrew Taylor admits Middlesbrough aim to finish the Northeast's top dogs this season.

"The pressure's off in terms of relegation but it's the pressure of finishing as high up the league as we can, the pressure we put on ourselves, especially with the two local sides around us, Newcastle and Sunderland," he said.

"It'd be brilliant for us to finish above them, that's what we're going to be aiming for.

"We're not mathematically safe yet, which is always in the back of your mind, but I don't think we're really thinking about that. We just want to finish as high as we can.

"That's got to be our aim now. We can't get in to the top half, I think realistically the highest we can finish is 12th, so our aim has got to be to finish the highest in that group. That would mean we finish above Newcastle and Sunderland, which is always nice."