STEVE McCLAREN last night issued a warning to Premiership managers hoping to diminish the creative flair of Juninho by insisting: 'You can't track him all game'.

Charlton boss Alan Curbishley handed Radostin Kishishev the difficult task of man-marking the tricky Brazilian. And Kishishev succeeded in keeping tabs on Juninho for the majority of the match.

But Boro chief McClaren believes his skilful South American midfielder is too good to be silenced for a full top-flight fixture.

"Juninho was man marked and Kishishev did a good job on him," said McClaren, who paid a bargain £3.8m for the player last summer. "But he can't be man marked for the full 90 minutes. He always pops up and finds little holes.

"It shows the respect that teams are going to give him. It's a decision teams are going to have to come up with - do they man mark him or do they leave him alone?

"It was not until the second half when he started to have an influence on the game. He was always going to wriggle free at some point, it's impossible to keep him quiet. He can adapt to different situations."

McClaren chose to hand young full-back David Murphy his second League start in succession against Charlton. But, with Boro trailing, Franck Queudrue replaced the England Under-19 international at half-time.

The Boro manager insisted it was not a mistake to name Queudrue, who missed last week's win at Leeds with a virus, on the bench.

"Franck was missing last week and David Murphy came in and did a good job so we kept him in," he said.

"We just thought that Franck was a great asset to have on the bench and so it proved. Franck gave us more of an attacking option and it was great cross for the goal."

And McClaren was pleased to see Malcolm Christie score his first goal at the Riverside to earn his side a point.

Christie was a £3m capture from Derby County in January and McClaren indicated it was too good an opportunity to miss for a front-man rated at £10m just last summer.

"I was delighted to get him in January," said the Riverside boss. "It was a great price to get him at and that's why we jumped in when the deal came up.

"His attitude is first class and he deserved his goal."

"We knew it was going to be a difficult game but we are unbeaten now in six games."

l There was no place among Charlton's 16 for former Boro midfielder Robbie Mustoe, who won't have his contract renewed at the Valley in the summer.

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