ADAM FORSHAW will slot in to the Middlesbrough midfield today with Aitor Karanka confident his £2m buy is capable of keeping Championship title thoughts alive and kicking on Teesside.

Boro can’t afford any more slip-ups with five matches remaining if they want to finish in the automatic promotion places following last Monday’s 2-0 defeat at Watford.

And Middlesbrough will have to head in to back-to-back home dates with Rotherham and Wolves knowing that key midfielder Grant Leadbitter, who has 13 goals this season, is ruled out through suspension.

Leadbitter’s absence creates an opportunity for Forshaw to prove his worth in the title run-in, having been limited to just three starts since moving from the Wigan in mid-January. The last of those was in February when Middlesbrough lost at Sheffield Wednesday.

But Karanka is certain the 23-year-old has the ingredients and temperament to have a positive influence on Middlesbrough’s displays by suggesting he can make up for the loss of Leadbitter.

“When we signed Adam we knew that something like that could happen so that's why we signed him,” said the Spanish head coach.

“A lot of times he has played for 20, 25 minutes and every time he went to the pitch he made an impact.

“He did the things that I demanded. I am very confident in him but we also have Dean Whitehead, so we have players enough to play.

“It's a big chance for Adam, he's training really well, always when he plays, he plays really well. I was frustrated in the way Grant was suspended because only two or three minutes before I told him that he had to be intelligent.

“But Grant is a player who has character. He wants to be in the changing room with us now. I asked him if he needed to recover because he has played a lot of games and maybe needed a rest and to forget everything for a few days, but he told me he wanted to be here with the team because the team needs everyone here.”

Given how Middlesbrough are five points short of the Championship’s leaders, Bournemouth, who have played a game more, with five matches remaining, Karanka thinks there should be greater appreciation of where they are.

He suggests that everyone connected with the club would have been satisfied with a play-off placing at the start of the season, so wants an atmosphere he described as negative to improve ahead of the final few weeks.

Karanka was made aware of criticism of his young winger Adam Reach following Monday’s defeat to Watford. The 22-year-old has figured in 43 of Middlesbrough’s games this season, having previously struggled to make his mark under his current boss or Tony Mowbray despite being rated highly.

The Middlesbrough boss said: “I think it can affect a player because he's young, but I think it's completely unfair that someone can say something bad about Adam Reach because he is a player from the Academy, he's a player who has been playing, I don't know how many games, but all of them, not perfect but almost perfect.

“He gives 150 per cent on the pitch, so if someone has said something about Reachy I don't think they are doing the team any favours. After a losing a game, if someone has to be blamed, then blame me because I am the manager and I am responsible and I prefer that everybody supports the players and I am the one who made the mistake.”

This time last year Reach was on loan at Bradford in League One and had spent the first half chunk of the season at Shrewsbury. Karanka said: “I think the most important thing is he is a player from the Academy. He's a Boro player, not a young player who came from another club on loan like Patrick Bamford.

“Patrick is a young player who is on loan and he has made an impact here and has done a really good job but he is a Chelsea player. Reachy is our player, he is a local lad from the Academy, he's doing a very good job so I can't understand why some people are saying things about him.”

It remains to be seen if Reach retains his place against Rotherham, who will include the winger’s former academy team-mate Richie Smallwood in the team. The Millers sit just a place above the relegation zone.

Karanka, who has Daniel Ayala and Ryan Fredericks available again, said: “My first concern is their position, they are fighting to stay in the Championship. They are a team who like to play long balls, they are a good team, they are organised and it will be difficult.

“We know Richie Smallwood, we know their style. We beat them 3-0 earlier in the season but they were playing with ten men for I think 60 or 70 minutes. When we were winning 2-0 they had a chance to score. It was a difficult game until the last moment.”