AITOR KARANKA thinks his Middlesbrough players will head in to Saturday’s FA Cup trip to Manchester City in the perfect shape after climbing in to the Championship’s top two last night.

Boro climbed up to second, and to within a point of leaders Bournemouth, courtesy of two second half goals from Patrick Bamford and Lee Tomlin to defeat Cardiff City at the Riverside.

Former Sunderland striker Kenwyne Jones became the first player to score against Middlesbrough in 581 minutes to leave the defence slightly disappointed, but Karanka was satisfied with his team’s return.

Back-to-back home dates with Huddersfield and Cardiff heralded a maximum six point haul, even though his side did not hit top gear in either game.

Karanka, who had put talk of Saturday’s FA Cup tie with the Premier League champions on hold before last night, is now looking ahead to the exciting trip to the Etihad.

He said: "It was a good win but we didn't play the way we liked to play. That's six points from two home games and it makes a big difference at the top of the table. We have Manchester City on Saturday now, so we can focus our attention on it on the back of two good wins.

“It's a big challenge and a big game for us to be involved in against a very impressive side. We showed with our display against Liverpool in the Capital One Cup earlier in the season that we can do well against the big sides. We'll have a lot of fans there behind us and we'll look to put on a good show for our supporters.

“We are going to go in to that game in the best shape. We have had six points from our last two games, so it will be a very big challenge. All the players will want to play well and they will want to do play like they did against Liverpool.

“Man City are a very impressive team. They have amazing players. But football is football. It will be interesting and we will go to enjoy. In my dictionary, there is always something to lose, we don’t want to lose. They have one of the best squad’s in the league. Sometimes surprises happen.”

Middlesbrough could not find full flow last night and struggled to seriously test Cardiff goalkeeper Simon Moore in the first half.

There were a couple of half chances, but when both teams went in goalless at the break Karanka had demanded greater urgency and threat to the Bluebirds’ goal.

He said: “I told the players at half-time that we needed to improve and show more confidence especially up front, we needed more from them and in the second half they were much better. Strikers need goals so for Patrick to score was very important for him and for the team.

“I am pleased with the players because it is difficult to win every single game in the Championship. Sometimes it is difficult when you have been playing really well. It is important that we have taken six points from these two games even though we didn’t play as well as we like to play. That’s the main thing.”

By the time Middlesbrough return to league action they will hope to be still in the Championship’s top two. The reality is that a victory for Ipswich at Brighton tonight will see them drop back down to third.

But when Boro head for Brentford a week on Saturday, Karanka thinks his players are buzzing again after remembering how to win matches after a slight stutter either side of Christmas.

“We have two weeks now for the next league game, so we can focus on the cup game,” said Karanka. “Most of the games in this division are like today or on Saturday, tight.

“One year ago we used to concede a lot of goals, now the team is very consistent and the team is defending really well, organised. We had the ball, we didn’t create a lot of chances, but we scored two goals and have to keep our confidence up for the rest of the games.”