Mo Besic insists he will soon be up to speed and able to energise Middlesbrough’s Championship promotion push.

The Bosnian international made his Boro debut in the 1-0 defeat at Cardiff City on Saturday, his first match since December 7.

Besic, on loan from Everton, lasted 62 minutes before he was replaced by Britt Assombalonga. But the 25-year-old, who made just two Premier League appearances before his switch to the Riverside, promised he would adjust to his new team-mates and Championship football without much difficulty.

“I hadn’t started a game for a few months, but I will get used to this straight away – it’s no problem,” said Besic.

“It wasn’t a difficult thing to play, it was just that they played a lot of long balls, so I had to run forwards and backwards, but I will get used to this.

“It was nice for me to start the match, but unfortunately we lost the game – we got done by a set-piece and so I’m not happy because we didn’t win. But I am happy because I played.”

Boro manager Tony Pulis could now give Besic a home debut against Hull City tomorrow night.

The loanee said: “That’s the good thing with the Championship – we still have 14 games left and the next game is Tuesday so we have to forget about this and concentrate on the next game.

“We’re disappointed, but not frustrated. We have to keep going and the manager will make sure we’re all okay for it.”

Defeat at Cardiff means Boro have won just once in their last four games and remain in ninth position in the Championship, four points off the play-off places.

Boro’s next six matches are all against teams beneath them in the table, before they host runaway leaders Wolves on March 30.

Cardiff manager Neil Warnock – an old adversary of Pulis’s – believes Boro can still finish among the top six and pinpointed Spaniard Adama Traore as the man who might help them get there.

Traore was Boro’s only genuine threat to Cardiff’s six-match unbeaten run, but the striker was unable to add to the two goals he had scored in the previous victory over Reading.

“Traore has been on fire and I’ve always liked him,” said Warnock. “He’s been really impressive recently and he’s just so unpredictable. In the Championship, he’s just what you want.

“But we did well to limit him to some efforts that were few and far between.

“Middlesbrough were my No.1 choice for promotion before the season began. I still think they’re in with a shout and they have certainly got the best chairman in Steve Gibson.

“He is so passionate and he spends an absolute fortune. You have to admire that – a chairman who keeps putting his money where his mouth is.

“He has done a fantastic job and Boro just have to hope he stays there for a long time. It’s one of my disappointments that I’ve never worked for him.

“I keep telling him about the mistakes he’s made over the last few years.”