PATRICK BAMFORD is confident he can repeat his first double in a Middlesbrough shirt if Aitor Karanka wants to use him as a central striker for the remainder of the Championship title race.

Bamford justified his rare inclusion at the top of the Boro system by scoring a brace in Saturday’s 4-1 win over Ipswich Town and he would prefer to play in that role rather than operate out wide.

The vast majority of his goals this season have arrived while he has played on the flank yet he took his tally to 15 courtesy of the two he scored in the second half against the Tractor Boys.

Now Karanka, the Middlesbrough head coach, is likely to turn to him again at Derby County tomorrow in the hope of keeping the heat on the teams battling for the top two spots with them.

Bamford, who took both of his goals against Ipswich in a confident manner, is raring to go and feels he can provide the firepower to keep Middlesbrough in the hunt for the title after a week when Karanka had targeted Blackburn striker Jordan Rhodes.

“Sometimes I've got to play on the wing and I'm happy to do that,” said Bamford. “I prefer to play up front but if it means doing a job for the team I'll go on the wing. There are different parts of my game I still need to improve, like my hold up play.

"But I’m scoring goals and that makes me happy. I leave my dad to work out the goals to minute ratio, but I think it's pretty good so far. All I can do when I get the chance is to try to stick it away.

“I was doing well against Ipswich. I had two chances, scored two goals and I could have had four in the end. Once I got round the keeper with the first I knew what I was going to do.

“With the second one, my first touch wasn't great and it took me a little bit away from goal, so I wasn't as close as I'd have liked, so I had to stick it in the corner. But it's the first time I've scored two in a match all season.

“I will go home and think about those two other chances at the end. I could have had a hat-trick, or four, but I'm happy the team have won.”

Criticism has been hurled Middlesbrough’s way in recent weeks after failing to find the goals which could have led to some much needed breathing space at the top of the Championship.

Karanka left out Kike and Lee Tomlin in a bid to improve things in the final third and the link-up between Jelle Vossen and Bamford, who both played effectively as a front two, showed encouraging signs.

Bamford said: "Everybody knows I want to play up front and I think playing up front with Jelle we complement each other quite well, the first one shows that it was a great pass from him.

"I didn't feel the extra pressure because I played up front, as a player you sometimes have to adapt to a different position. My aim is always just to help the team get promotion.

"I've heard recently that as a team we've been getting stick for not scoring enough goals, or scoring freely in every game. So to get four here is great.

“We can now go into these next few games excited. We'd rather play these teams up there with us than face teams scrapping for relegation. These two games are massive for us when you consider where we are in the league.”

Defeating Ipswich, eight points behind Boro in seventh place with nine matches remaining, also rubbished the suggestion that Middlesbrough’s squad might not be able to handle the pressure of a promotion push.

Bamford said: “You look at the season as a whole and we've not had many downs, apart for the previous five games. It's typical football that fans can get a little panicked and to start to think that we're not scoring the goals that they think we should be.

"The other teams have had similar blips, Bournemouth have had a blip. Consistency is a big thing in the promotion race but no team can be consistent all the way through the season. Chances are every team will have a blip and there will be some twists and turns before the end of the season.”