ADAM CLAYTON accepts the next two games will ‘make or break’ Middlesbrough’s season, but remains confident his side can haul themselves to safety despite having gone 12 Premier League matches without a victory.

Boro travel to Hull City tomorrow evening before hosting Burnley on Saturday, and a four-point return is surely a minimum requirement if they are to have any chance of clambering out of the bottom three in order to retain their top-flight status.

Sunday’s goalless draw at the Liberty Stadium prevented Swansea from increasing the gap to the Teessiders, but Boro remain five points adrift of safety with nine games to play.

They continue to have a game in hand on both Hull and Swansea, but desperately need to put points on the board in the next five days. A win at Hull’s KCOM Stadium would take them to within a point of the Tigers, while a six-point return from this week’s fixtures could see them close the gap to Sean Dyche’s Burnley side to just three points.

“The stakes can’t get any higher now,” admitted Clayton, who played alongside Marten de Roon at the base of midfield in Sunday’s draw. “They’re as high as they can possibly be at the moment.

“We know what we need to do. We’re one or two results away from getting right back into it – or one of two results away from not having a chance. It’s that clear-cut now and we all know what’s on the line.

“The stakes are very high, but we’ve known that for the last couple of weeks, it’s not a surprise. It’s a big week, but it was always going to be. We’ll keep playing, keep trying to handle the pressure and hopefully we’ll win.”

The situation at the foot of the table would have been slightly rosier had Rudy Gestede converted his stoppage-time header against Swansea, and Clayton could be seen slumped on the turf after the striker failed to find the target from six yards out.

It was a costly error, but only time will tell whether it proves to be the moment when a potential Premier League lifeline slipped through Boro’s hands.

Fail to beat Hull tomorrow, and Gestede’s miss will look even costlier than it does now. Win on Humberside though, and Sunday’s result might start to look like a stepping stone to bigger and better things.

“The margins are fine in this league, but we’ve known that from the very start,” said Clayton. “Obviously, it would have been great if Rudy’s header had gone in, but the main thing is that we’ve started off the week with a point.

“We’ve got another six to play for, and to finish with seven points from the week would be lovely. At least we’ve stopped the rot. We got a point on the board, and a rival wasn’t able to get any further away from us. That was important, but we have to build on it now and kick on. We go to Hull in a positive mood, and if we can win that game, it’ll make the Swansea result a good point.”

Boro might have started playing a 4-2-3-1 formation at the Liberty Stadium, but they spent almost an hour in an orthodox 4-4-2 after Gestede came off the bench to replace an injured Gaston Ramirez in the first half.

Boro’s medical staff were assessing Ramirez’s ankle injury yesterday, and the Uruguayan remains a major doubt for tomorrow’s game.

If Ramirez fails to make it, Agnew will be severely tempted to stick with Gestede and Alvaro Negredo against the Tigers, a ploy that would win the support of a majority of Boro fans.

Clayton accepts the need to be as positive as possible in order to increase the number of chances that are being created, but with Hull unbeaten at home since Boxing Day, the midfielder claims it would be suicidal to completely throw caution to the wind.

“You have to strike a balance,” he said. “You can’t just go gung-ho, because if you go a goal down it’s very hard to win a game in this league. You have to play from a structure, and that’s what we try to do.

“I think we’re playing well enough to get positive results. Away from home, if you’re not conceding goals, then you’re doing something right. Swansea have been scoring a lot of goals. They’ve been conceding goals as well, and we tried to take the game to them at times and played some good stuff.

“When we did that, we created chances. We have to take positives, there’s no point being negative at this stage. We just need that one win to try to change things.”