STEWART DOWNING insists there is still the belief Middlesbrough can climb out of trouble – even if the odds are stacked against the men from Teesside.

Boro reduced the gap to safety to a point on Saturday by claiming a point against Burnley at the Riverside Stadium.

It means there is now a six point deficit to fourth from bottom Hull City with seven matches remaining, and Middlesbrough do have a game in hand on the Tigers.

But Middlesbrough have been written off by most because of the difficulty of the matches they have remaining. They have to play four of the top five, starting with Arsenal on Easter Monday.

Downing said: “100 per cent there’s belief, 100 per cent. Other teams are still losing, we get a point – I know we're a point closer and we could have done with three, but there's a long way to go yet, a lot of twists and turns.

“We have got big teams to come here, but do they fancy coming here? Well, we'll soon find out. We generally play well against the top teams, so I'm looking forward to it.

“It's a big challenge, we know that, we know what we need to do, so we just carry on and the positives from today we take into the Arsenal game.”

Middlesbrough could easily have beaten Burnley after creating a number of chances in the second half. Stewart Downing saw a free-kick cleared off the line by Clarets defender Matt Lowton.

There was also controversy in the closing stages when Michael Keane was the last man when he appeared to bring down Patrick Bamford as he closed in on goal. Keane was only issued a caution by referee Martin Atkinson.

Downing said: “I seem to think he's last man, so the rules are he goes, doesn't he? He's booked him, so... I don't want to have a go at the referee – I'm 60 yards away from the play, I don't really know what's going on.

“But we nearly score from the free-kick. If we score, then no-one's bothered, are they? We're talking about it because we didn't score.”