AFTER finally winning his place back in the Middlesbrough starting line-up, Patrick Bamford has been urged to relish the greater challenge of staying in the team.

Bamford embraced his opportunity to ease some of the growing pressure on Garry Monk’s shoulders by impressing and scoring in the No 10 role against Ipswich Town last Saturday.

Despite a clamour for his return from sections of the supporters, the former Chelsea man had to bide his time for a recall, but when it arrived he delivered.

It was Bamford’s first start in the Championship since mid-September and his first league goal of the season was also his first in the second tier of English football since April 2015 – when he was the main goalscorer in Boro's charge to the play-offs.

Bamford was also the division’s player of the year that season, but since scoring 19 goals to help Middlesbrough to the play-off final he has hardly played during loan stints with Crystal Palace and Burnley in the Premier League.

His lack of playing time was a major factor in his absence of confidence when he moved from Chelsea last January, and Monk admits he would love to see the Bamford of a couple of years ago hit the levels of last Saturday on a regular basis.

The Middlesbrough boss said: “As a manager you try to look at what players have done, where they have been. I wasn’t with Patrick for the previous two years so I don’t know the reasons why he wasn’t playing.

“People will always remember your best and expect you to just pick it up to that level whenever you play. It doesn’t work like that.

“As a manager I would say ‘this is you at your best, why haven’t you been at that best?’ You have those discussions because I care.

“It’s not that they just do it for one day, they have to do it for a week, they have to live like this. If you want to truly get to your best level and be in the team every week and kick on, then it needs to be like this.

“There are always ups and downs. This is what I expect. If I don’t see this then you won’t be in the team. That’s what I expect from all my players. That’s the best way to work with them.

“Patrick’s response was exactly what we are looking for. The hardest part for him maybe is now because he needs to stay at that level and prove he can do it.”

Despite a career than has taken in plenty of clubs since breaking through at Nottingham Forest as a teenager in 2011, Bamford is still only 24 and has bags of potential. That was highlighted against Ipswich when much of Boro's good work went through him.

He is expected to keep his place at Millwall tomorrow. Monk said: “If you are not in the 11 you expect disappointment but there has to be a consistent reaction, you have to be smart. That’s part of a career.

“There are periods of being in and out of the squad, life as a footballer is to look at the bigger picture and if you are out of the team then you have to think what I need to do to get back in the team.

“There is a good level of understanding of what is required to be in the team. I want them, to be involved but they also have to give themselves the best opportunity to get back in.

“If you are given an opportunity you have to take it. The whole points of being a footballer is to earn the shirt and once you have earned it then make sure you keep it. We try to help the players understand it.”

That message was to all of the players rather than just to Bamford, but the forward is clearly high in Monk’s thoughts again.

He said: “I thought Patrick was excellent against Ipswich. It typified the performance, we all know what the players are capable of. We haven’t reached the heights we would have liked. We have done it in periods but that hasn’t been enough.

“The players are well aware of that. When you get the opportunities you have to take it. I thought Patrick was excellent. We have to select a side that can build on that.

“I know how I want the team to look and how the players need to be, after a period you can see what they are good at. We all know the ability of the players but that’s not enough, you need to fine tune it to get the best out of it.

“It’s going to be a long road to get it how I want it to be. It’s the same for all the players. Your opportunities will be limited unless I see that.”

Forgotten midfielder Adlene Guedioura, meanwhile, is back on Teesside after spending some time in Qatar working on his fitness after a hamstring injury.

The 32-year-old has not started a game since moving from Watford for a reputed £3.5m at the start of the year. Monk has only used him in the Under-23s team so far.