STEVE AGNEW has defended Rudy Gestede, and backed the Middlesbrough striker to atone for his stoppage-time miss against Swansea if he gets another chance to lead the line in Wednesday’s relegation showdown at Hull.

Gestede failed to find the target in the second minute of stoppage-time at the Liberty Stadium, with his close-range header from Alvaro Negredo’s cross flying wide of the upright.

The miss means Boro remain five points adrift of Swansea, who occupy 17th position, and are now four points behind Hull, who beat West Ham on Saturday.

They have not won in their last 12 matches, and have failed to score in five of their last six outings, but Agnew refused to be too critical of Gestede, who was a first-half substitute for the injured Gaston Ramirez and is likely to retain his place in the side at Hull’s KCOM Stadium.

“Rudy’s a terrific lad,” said Agnew, who was picking up his first point since replacing Aitor Karanka as head coach last month. “You have to remember he had a hamstring injury (earlier in the season) and had to go off.

“He then had a recurrence of that hamstring injury, came off, and worked hard with the medical team to get himself ready. Then, obviously, he went on when Gaston got injured.

“He was up to the speed of the game, his movement was terrific, and on another day, which I’m sure is close and could be Wednesday, he scores.”

Gestede’s miss came at the end of a difficult weekend for Boro that saw Hull, Crystal Palace and Leicester all claim victories.

As a result, their position close to the foot of the table has worsened, piling even more importance on Wednesday’s trip to Hull and Saturday’s home game with Burnley.

It is surely imperative that Boro win at least one of those games, if not both, but Agnew was not wanting to put too much pressure on his squad.

“I think it (the trip to Hull) was always going to be a massive game, as was today,” he said. “We’ll prepare, we’ll dust ourselves down, and we’ll go to Hull and put up a performances that gets us the three points we want.

“I think the players were initially a little bit flat when they went into the dressing room, but they’ll gain confidence and belief from the performance and we’ll take that into Wednesday night. I think it’s better that the games come around quickly when the players are feeling like they are.”

Gestede’s header represented the best opportunity created by either side all game, but having spent the build-up promising to increase his side’s attacking threat, Agnew was relatively pleased with his players’ response.

He was forced into a couple of tactical reshuffles when Ramirez and Fabio da Silva departed with injuries, but remains confident the goals will start to flow despite his side being the lowest scorers in the Premier League.

“We have introduced lots of different things in terms of scoring a goal and attacking, and in the first half I thought we had a spell where Alvaro had a shot that got blocked, (Stewart) Downing had a shot that got blocked and (Adama) Traore posed a threat when he broke away.

“But then we lose Gaston and he’s one of our more offensive players, and as the game goes on, we lose Fabio and Stewart Downing, who is another top offensive player, has to go to left-back. So we lost two of our most creative players during the game.

“It’s about getting the balance between staying in the game and trying to win it, and if the goal goes in at the end, we’re all pleased. We have to find the balance between playing football and using Alvaro and Rudy more direct to put pressure on our opponents.”

Ramirez injured his ankle, while Fabio appeared to suffer concussion as he fell awkwardly, and both players will be assessed tomorrow.

“It’s difficult to say with Gaston,” said Agnew. “He has ice on his ankle, so we’ll see him in the morning. Fabio is the same. He got a whack on the head, so we’ll wait and see.”