MIDDLESBROUGH are out of the automatic promotion places with five games of the Championship season remaining, but Aitor Karanka still claims he would have taken the current situation if he had been offered it at the start of the campaign.

Having started yesterday at the top of the table, Boro were leapfrogged by Watford when they suffered a deserved 2-0 defeat at Vicarage Road in the lunch-time kick-off.

The Teessiders were outplayed for the second time in the space of nine days as goals from Troy Deeney and Odion Ighalo condemned them to a fourth defeat in the space of five away matches.

Things then got worse during the afternoon programme as Bournemouth and Norwich recorded victories to move into first and second position respectively.

As a result, Boro find themselves in fourth as they look ahead to a run in that will see them host Rotherham, Wolves and Brighton, and travel to Norwich and Fulham.

On three separate occasions in the last month, they have been unable to hold on to a top-two position, but Karanka insists his players deserve credit for forcing themselves into the heart of the promotion battle in the first place.

“The team have outperformed themselves this season, I don’t have any doubt about that,” said the Boro head coach. “At the beginning of the season, if you had asked people what position they thought Middlesbrough were going to finish, I am sure they would have said sixth, seventh or eighth at most.

“We are higher than that, but playing against teams like Watford, Bournemouth or Norwich is difficult. I am sure everyone would have signed at the beginning of the season to be in this position with five games to go.

“We are going to fight until the end because the people who know me know that is how I am. I am going to fight until the last second. I am very positive.

“We have players from League One, players on loan, and players who are 21 or 22. The job they are doing every single day is amazing. They are always doing their best, and now we need to be together more than ever because we have five games to go and we can do it.”

Having criticised his players after their 3-0 defeat at Bournemouth, it was interesting that Karanka chose to defend their efforts yesterday despite Watford being comfortably the better side throughout.

The decision to introduce both Fernando Amorebieta and Dwight Tiendalli into the back four was hardly a success and the Teessiders barely threatened themselves as an attacking force, yet Karanka refused to be too critical, perhaps mindful of the challenges that still lie ahead.

“Watford are an amazing team, and it is no coincidence that their strikers have scored more than 50 goals,” he said. “But what we are doing a miracle. To be in this position after 41 matches, we have to be proud.

“The players are giving their best, and I am very proud of all of them. When you play against teams like Watford, you cannot do more. We did everything we could. We can play better, but when you have a team in front of you with experience and a lot of other things and you can’t beat them, that’s the way it is.”

Watford’s first goal owed much to a rare defensive error from Jonathan Woodgate, with the Boro centre-half losing the flight of the ball as Adlene Guedioura’s cross travelled to Deeney at the back post.

“You can talk about Woody’s mistake, but you have to remember that Woody was the best player against Ipswich and the best against Derby,” said Karanka. “I said after both of those games that the spirit of the team is Woody’s spirit, and that is still the case.

“Six months ago, he was thinking about retiring, so he is doing amazingly well to play for us. We don’t have Dani (Ayala) because of his broken toe, so Woody is playing and I cannot say anything bad about him.”

Woodgate was quick to admit his error, citing a deflection to Guedioura’s cross as an explanation for his uncharacteristic blunder.

“I just lost the flight of it, to be honest,” he said. “I think it flicked off someone’s studs so it was a mistake on my behalf. Hopefully, I won’t make many more.

“When you make a mistake, you have to dust yourself down, think about it and then learn from it. That’s what I’ll do. We all mistakes, and I’ll get on with it and it’ll make me a better player.”