FRESH from receiving a glowing and timely endorsement from Steve Gibson, under-fire Middlesbrough manager Steve McClaren would love nothing more than to repay his chairman by delivering sustained success on the field this season.

McClaren, who insists signing a new four-year contract at the Riverside Stadium has been delayed, rather than abandoned, admits the words from above highlight just why he wants to stay on Teesside.

Angry supporters are beginning to question whether the Boro boss is still the right man to take the club forward after a string of lacklustre performances, the latest being Sunday's 2-0 defeat to North-East rivals Sunderland.

Gibson, aware of the mounting fury from the stands, openly backed McClaren to turn things around and continue the good work which has seen the club achieve a record finish and a first major honour under his guidance.

The former Manchester United number two is one of the men hotly-tipped to become the next England manager, but McClaren insists he only has immediate thoughts of making Boro an even stronger proposition, domestically and in Europe.

"You get pressure at every club," said McClaren, on the eve of Boro's second leg UEFA Cup tie in Greece against Xanthi, with his side leading 2-0.

"I understand the fans' frustrations. I am as disappointed as they are when we lose. It hurts twice as much. The supporting words have always been welcome from the chairman. That's why I admire the man.

"He has always been understanding of the job for the four years I have been here and probably for the next four years as well. He has reiterated what we are feeling within the football club.

"I have a very ambitious and supportive chairman and he is someone who matches my ambition. He makes it easy for me to want to stay.

"I want more success and together we can achieve that."

McClaren was quizzed about his future after Gibson, respected by Boro fans for the way he has transformed the club into a Premiership force in his decade at the helm, urged supporters to get off his back.

"I can't believe the doom and gloom expressed in some quarters, everything is in place to take this club forward," said Gibson, who has not made the trip to northern Greece for tonight's fixture.

"Some people look for a scapegoat and that is just a disease in football.

"You don't just wipe out all of the hard work that has been put into the club for the past five years because of one bad result.

"We believe we are doing things the right way and in Steve McClaren we believe we have the manager who can deliver. There's nothing sinister because he has not signed his contract yet. It's been sealed."

McClaren has used 24 players already this season and thinks this could have cost his side a better start to the new campaign.

But he insists that injuries have been one of the major reasons why he has been forced to shuffle his pack on so many occasions and now he is looking to stick with the same formula when ever possible.

"It's been frustrating so far. The inconsistency is the main thing that is frustrating.

"We have good players, we know we will get more consistency and we want that to start here," he said.

Only 102 Boro fans have made the long trip to Xanthi, a journey that could have taken up to 16 hours by those choosing to travel of their own accord.

But McClaren is convinced his squad are more than capable of dealing with a vocal, hostile 7,000-plus home crowd.

"This is a big game for us. We worked hard to get into it and we want to go further in this competition than we did last season," he said.

Jimmy Floyd Hasselbaink is likely to start tonight in the absence of the rested Mark Viduka, while Stuart Parnaby, Chris Riggott, Gaizka Mendieta and Danny Graham are all in the squad.

The mind games started well before McClaren had even revealed his plans for the second leg last night, with the Xanthi boss claiming Boro are already in the group stage.

But Ioannis Matzourakis, the Xanthi manager, claims his players are ready for a party night at the small club after only their second home European game in the club's history.

He said: "We will do everything to get into the next round but Middlesbrough will qualify.

"They are two goals up and they will qualify."

But McClaren is in no mood to accept talk that Boro have already booked their place in the next round.

Xanthi are sitting second top in the Greek league and are yet to concede a goal at the Arena this season, statistics which the Boro boss suggests mean progress is not assured.

"Every time you come away in Europe you know you are in for a difficult game," he said.

"It doesn't matter if the crowd is 50,000 or 10,000. There's one thing we know, that it will be a difficult game.

"Nothing is certain in football but we were pleased with the result in the first leg.

"We know we have to be positive and we will go out to score a goal because it will be very difficult for Xanthi to come back from that. We are in the driving seat."

Boro (4-4-2): Jones; Xavier, Southgate, Bates, Pogatetz; Morrison, Doriva, Boateng, Johnson; Maccarone, Hasselbaink.

Xanthi (4-4-1-1): Pizanowski; Torosidis, Paviot, Sikov, Papadimitriou; Maghradze, Antzas, Emreson, Chiqinho; Luciano; Labriakos