A FRUSTRATED Tony Pulis admits Middlesbrough’s lack of consistency is hampering their attempts to haul themselves back into the Championship play-off picture.

Boro host struggling Hull City this evening as they look to close the five-point gap that currently separates them from the top six, and with relegation-threatened Sunderland providing the opposition at the weekend, the next two games could go a long way towards determining whether the Teessiders head into the final two months of the season with a realistic hope of finishing in a play-off place.

It is surely imperative they claim six points from six, with both Hull and Sunderland having won just two of their last 11 league games. However, Boro are yet to claim back-to-back league wins under Pulis, with their last consecutive Championship successes having come in the final game of Garry Monk’s reign and the one-match spell under the caretaker control of Craig Liddle.

Since then, they have picked up seven points from eight games, with last weekend’s 1-0 defeat at Cardiff City having represented the latest disappointment of the Pulis era.

Boro travelled to South Wales on the back of a home win over Reading, but were unable to withstand their opponents’ physical pressure. That is alarming, although there also appears to be a mental issue about maintaining standards over a lengthy run of games.

Garry Monk bemoaned a lack of consistency prior to his dismissal, and criticised his players for repeatedly shooting themselves in the foot. Pulis is still learning about his squad’s collective strengths and weaknesses, but it has not taken long for the former Stoke and West Brom boss to identify some of the same issues.

“We have to put a run of games together now,” said Pulis. “But at the moment, we’re taking one step forward and one step back. We still have 14 games to go, but we have to start putting a run together.

“Our next (two) games are against teams who were in the Premier League last year, so no game is going to be easy in this league. We’ve got to play to our maximum to get results. The players all have to be at their maximum and we have to start doing that more regularly.”

Boro’s lack of attacking threat was a major concern at the weekend, with the Teessiders barely creating a chance as they slipped to their 12th league defeat of the season.

Pulis named Rudy Gestede in his starting line-up, even though the former Blackburn striker has not scored a Championship goal since the middle of August, with leading scorer Britt Assombalonga once again consigned to the bench.

It will be interesting to see if he adopts the same tactics this evening, although Assombalonga has been in poor form himself in recent weeks, with his Boxing Day strike against Bolton representing his only success in front of goal since mid-November.

“Out of all the games we’ve played, that (the Cardiff game) was the least number of chances we’ve created,” admitted Pulis. “It was the only game where we’ve come off and you’ve thought there weren’t too many chances to score.”

As well as deciding whether to stick with Gestede as a lone striker, Pulis has also spent the last 24 hours pondering whether to hand Mo Besic a second start in the space of four days.

Besic was one of Boro’s better performers at the Cardiff City Stadium, but having failed to make a senior appearance for Everton in the first half of the season, the midfielder arrived on Teesside lacking match fitness.

He tired at the start of the second half at the weekend, and was replaced shortly after the hour mark, and Pulis is reluctant to push him too hard as he attempts to guarantee his availability for the remainder of the season.

“I thought Mo did well,” said the Boro boss. “He tired a little bit round about the hour, but I thought he did really well for us. He’s a good footballer, he gets around the pitch, and he passes the ball well.

“There were two or three occasions just before we took him off where he just looked as though it was catching up with him. It was his first game for a long time, and the last thing we want is for him to pick up any muscular injuries.”

Hull boss Nigel Adkins has injury problems of his own ahead of tonight’s game, with top scorer Jarrod Bowen and winger Harry Wilson both rated as major doubts.

Bowen missed Friday’s FA Cup defeat at Chelsea with a hamstring injury that is still causing him problems, while Wilson was forced off in the second half at Stamford Bridge after falling awkwardly on his shoulder.

“(Bowen) is a big worry,” said Adkins. “He didn’t train through the week, and he pulled out of training on Wednesday. He had a scan, and he’s got some damage to his hamstring. We’ll have to see how it goes. Hopefully, we haven’t stressed the injury too much, but as it stands, he’s not playing.

“Harry will get assessed. We don’t suspect there’s a dislocation there, but there’s damage of some description. It’s another worry.”

Middlesbrough (probable, 4-3-3): Randolph; Shotton, Ayala, Gibson, Friend; Leadbitter, Clayton, Howson; Traore, Assombalonga, Downing.