IT IS very easy to get carried away at the start of the season.

Early victories are hailed, a large emphasis is placed on the league table and seasons appear to be made or broken by the time a player’s summer holiday suntan has began to disappear.

For Middlesbrough, two league games have passed, 44 remain. The Championship is won and lost in May, not August.

Put all that to one side, and there were positives aplenty in Boro’s 3-0 win over Bolton Wanderers. It, and to a lesser extent their 3-1 win at Oldham in the Capital One Cup in midweek, showed that if there was a hangover from the play-off final at Wembley, it has cleared; that the fears Boro would not score goals after an opening day stalemate were perhaps misguided; and that in Diego Fabbrini, Stuart Downing, Kike and Albert Adomah, Aitor Karanka’s side have an exciting frontline with strength in depth.

While it will not be critical come the end of the season, Saturday’s routine victory over a hapless Trotters side was a blueprint for how Boro should be applying themselves in every game.

The success of last season in getting to Wembley has resulted in increased pressure and expectation for the new season, and Karanka knows that if his side are to be competing in May, the standard for success was set against Bolton.

“It was an amazing first half,” said the Boro head coach after Fabbrini scored one and set up two for Kike in a first-half display of the highest order. “We played in the way we’d like to play at all times. We played with intensity, and we need to play like that all the time.

“When we play like that, we cause problems. We have a very good squad and we will try to play like that always.

“It’s very important for us. I told them before the game that when we play thinking everything is won, we have problems. But when we go on to the pitch thinking it’s going to be a difficult game, with our attitude, style, quality, we work well.

“We went on the pitch with the same attitude at Oldham. We have to focus on this season and know that it is going to be more difficult.

David Nugent came on for the last ten minutes after signing in a £4m deal from Leicester City on Friday, and Karanka is pleased that there is competition for places in his squad.

“It’s good for everybody but especially for the team,” said Karanka. “When Kike is scoring now, you look at the bench you have [Cristhian] Stuani, Nugent, the players on the pitch know that they have one or two who can put pressure on him.

“We wanted that at the beginning of the season, to have two players in every position, and I’m very pleased.”

Boro started brightly and maintained such intensity in a ferocious opening 45 minutes against a sluggish Bolton side.

Downing, making his second home debut and playing his first game at the Riverside Stadium in a Boro shirt since 2009, forced a save out of Ben Amos with two minutes on the clock, while George Friend rifled one wide from 20 yards moments later.

But Boro took a deserved lead on seven minutes when Fabbrini collected the ball from Grant Leadbitter and unleashed an unstoppable shot into the top corner.

It was two ten minutes later when Fabbrini pirouetted past Dorian Dervite and played a perfectly-weighted ball into Kike, who slotted home.

There was a bizarre incident involving Adomah, who had lost a boot while marauding forward, and referee James Adcock made the winger leave the pitch, allowing him to rejoin when the game stopped.

Rather than criticising Adcock – who was booed by the Riverside crowd - Karanka expects his players to understand the rules.

He said: “I wasn’t unhappy with the referee. We have to know the rules. The rules say when you lose a piece of kit you have to wait until the ball goes out of play. The players go to the meetings yet they don’t know the rules.”

Two became three on 31 minutes when Kike bundled in after Fabbrini’s effort was palmed against the crossbar by Amos.

And it was almost four when Leadbitter fired one just over the crossbar moments before the interval.

The pace dipped considerably after the restart, with Boro facing Derby County on Tuesday evening, but Downing almost opened his Boro account for the season when he drilled a Fabbrini backheel wide of the post.

Kike brought another smart save out of Amos on 57 minutes when he curled towards goal from an acute angle, but the former Manchester United keeper turned the Spaniard’s shot over the bar.

Emile Heskey came closest to breaking Bolton’s duck when he stabbed wide from a Trotters’ cross, but it was a rare foray forward for a Bolton side lacking in quality, cohesion and confidence.

Nugent spurned a late opportunity at the death when he stabbed over from close range, but the points were well and truly in the bag long before then.

Karanka was satisfied with his side’s exertions, and with Kike back in the goals, and chances being created, he is confident that Boro’s total of 68 goals can be exceeded this term.

“This was the problem last season,” said Karanka, who was aware that Bournemouth scored . “The statistics are there. We scored 68 goals, we were close to promotion so we can fix that problem with the goals – add that to our intensity and defence and we are a good team.”

Karanka hinted that he may not be finished in the transfer window, with another two weeks of trading to be done.

He said: “Jordan Rhodes isn’t going to happen. I’m really happy with what we have done so far but I am head coach and I’m not going to stop until the 31st.”