MIDDLESBROUGH are yet to record their first league win of 2012, but Justin Hoyte insists the squad remain confident they can still push for promotion back to the Premier League.

Having gone through the whole of December unbeaten, Boro have had a disappointing start to the New Year with three straight defeats at the hands of Blackpool, Burnley and bottom club Coventry City on Saturday.

Next up for Tony Mowbray's side is an FA Cup fourth round derby with Sunderland at the Stadium of Light on Sunday, which precedes a tricky trip to Leicester City a week today.

Saturday's defeat at the Ricoh Arena saw the Teessiders drop eight points behind leaders West Ham United, but Hoyte insists the squad is confident they can return to the form that has turned Mowbray's side into genuine promotion hopefuls.

"We're very confident, obviously we've lost our last few games, which is very disappointing," Hoyte said.

"As a team we're not happy with our form of late, but we'll keep plugging away and take the positives from what we have done.

"We've played well, results just haven't gone our way, but we'll keep plugging away on the training ground to try and put the last few weeks right.

"In the Championship everyone goes through defeats and bad runs, and hopefully we can get a result in the cup game and take that into the league and push on from there and push on towards the end of the season.

"The atmosphere has been great, even last season when we weren't doing so well the atmosphere was still good.

"We've got a similar group of players and now we're near the top of the league fighting to get back into the Premier League.

"It's really buzzing around here, yes, we've been disappointed with the last few results, but everyone in training wants to move on quickly and play the next game and we're still confident we can be up there come the end of the season."

The Boro squad is largely the same as it was at the start of last season when a difficult first half of the campaign cost Gordon Strachan his job and saw Boro slip towards the relegation places.

This season things are quite the opposite, but Hoyte believes the fact they have been through a bad spell has improved team spirit and will help them come through the run they are currently on.

He said: "We're a lot closer now because of what we went through last season.

"There's more togetherness in the group and we're fighting for places in training. There's more personalities around the dressing room and everyone just wants to do well and help get the club back into the Premier League."

Hoyte's current deal at the Riverside is due to expire in the summer, but the defender admits he is yet to enter talks about a new contract.

The 27-year-old is in his fourth season at the Riverside, but in that time the right-back has struggled to nail down a regular first-team place due to a number of injuries and niggles.

Now though, he is enjoying his best run in the side and he insists he is happy to focus on playing for the time being.

He said: "I'm not really thinking about contracts to be honest, I just want to play as many games as I can and take it from there.

"I haven't really thought about the fact my contract's up at the end of the season yet, the priority is to carry on doing well and helping the team get promotion."

n Curtis Main scored twice as Boro reserves consolidated their position at the top of the Central League East Division with a 4-1 win over Bradford City.

Andy Halliday gave Boro the lead, before Main grabbed his first before the interval.

City got themselves back into the game shortly after half time, but another strike from Main and a brilliant solo effort from Bruno Pilatos were enough to secure Steve Agnew's side the points.

Boro: Ripley, Pilatos, Weldon (Gibson 46), Park, Hines (Dolan 77), Grounds, Williams L, Franks, Main (Brobbel 77), Halliday, Reach. Unused sub: Coddington (gk).