MIDDLESBROUGH have been urged to forget about their nightmare start to the Premiership campaign by frustrated skipper Gareth Southgate. After five matches, Steve McClaren's men are still searching for their first win of the new season.

Boro are level on points with basement club Wolverhampton Wanderers after recording just one draw - 0-0 at Leicester City - since the opening day defeat at Fulham.

McClaren has worked hard in the transfer market during the summer to try to strengthen his ranks in midfield.

He finally achieved some success in his search in late August when secured the services of Spanish star Gaizka Mendieta and unwanted Chelsea winger Boudewijn Zenden.

Leeds and England full-back Danny Mills also came through the Riverside door in a season-long loan deal, but all three failed to stop Boro slipping to their fourth defeat in five games at Bolton on Saturday.

McClaren insists he can steer Boro back in the right direction and Southgate has echoed his manager's sentiments.

But the experienced England defender, who is determined to work his way back into his country's plans ahead of Euro 2004 next summer, has called for results to improve quickly.

"We have got the quality in the squad but we know we have got a big fight ahead of us," said Southgate.

"We need to sort it out now rather than later on in the season. As long as we put it right in the dressing room, which we intend to do, we will do it."

Boro welcome back left-back Franck Queudrue when Everton make the trip to Teesside on Sunday. The Frenchman has missed Boro's depressing early season failings after being ruled out through suspension.

Queudrue was banned for five games for his poor disciplinary record, but he is expected to come in for Colin Cooper against the Toffees.

And McClaren insits struggling Boro will benefit greatly by having the 25-year-old back in the side. "When we've got him back we will look complete. We've missed Franck," he said.

"I never thought I would say that, I have thrown numerous water bottles around because of him.

"But we have missed him. We had a game against Bradford behind closed doors and it was very, very exciting to see him back in action.

"He can add a different dimension to our play."

The former Lens man has been one of a number of stars missing for one reason or another. Ugo Ehiogu, Massimo Maccarone, Stuart Parnaby and David Murphy are all long term casualties; while Michael Ricketts, Chris Riggott and Malcolm Christie have struggled with less serious problems.

Southgate admits selection problems for the manager have not helped, but the skipper insists the squad is strong enough to handle the pressures of the Premiership.

"It is going to be hard work but we can do it. It's easy to look for excuses and we have had a lot of players missing this season," said the 33-year-old.

"The cost of having them missing can not be underestimated. But we will not hide behind that and we must do better."

l UEFA's leaders are expected to rule that there will be no seedings for the Euro 2004 play-offs when they meet in Bratislava, Slovakia, today, writes MARTYN ZIEGLER

Ten teams will play off for five places in next summer's finals in Portugal and although UEFA's executive committee can decide to seed the teams in the draw they are expected to maintain the status quo. A decision is expected today or tomorrow.

There was no seeding when England and Scotland were drawn against each other to qualify for the Euro 2000 finals and that policy is set to be kept. Depending on results, England, Scotland, Wales and the Republic of Ireland could all be involved in the play-offs.

The executive committee, which includes Football Association chairman Geoff Thompson, will also decide on the draw procedure for the finals tournament itself.

Meanwhile, UEFA have confirmed that the disciplinary hearing against Macedonia stemming from incidents during the England game are to be heard in Nyon, Switzerland, next week.

UEFA announced last week they were taking action against the Macedonia FA as a result of racist abuse directed at England players by the crowd and also some disturbances among fans in the stadium in Skopje.

l Liverpool manager Gerard Houllier has slammed claims from Blackburn counterpart Graeme Souness that he does not understand tough tackling because he has not played at the highest level.

Souness reacted to Houllier's condemnation of the tackle by Lucas Neill which broke Jamie Carragher's leg on Saturday by saying: ''It was a reckless challenge but he did not go out to injury Jamie. If you played the game at this level, then you have to understand these will happen.''

But the Anfield chief responded saying: ''The comments about not playing at the top were obviously directed at me. Maybe I have not played at the highest level but I have managed at the top longer than Graeme Souness."