WHEN Britt Assombalonga returned to the City Ground just two months after leaving Nottingham Forest for Middlesbrough, the first thing he wanted was for a hatful of chances to come his way.

The second was to take them. Sadly, for the striker, only one of those wishes came true.

Assombalonga was presented with a host of opportunities as Boro took on Forest last month, but each and every one went begging. Two one-on-one chances came to nothing, while another inviting opening resulted in a simple save for Forest goalkeeper Jordan Smith. To make matters worse, his profligacy came at a cost as Boro crashed to a 2-1 defeat.

In the face of such intense disappointment, it would have been easy for Boro’s record signing to have retreated into his shell, especially when his next outing, against Preston, saw him draw another blank.

Instead, Assombalonga has returned after the international break with a haul of three goals in three outings to help Boro climb into the top seven ahead of this afternoon’s game with Fulham. His return to his former employers might have been a disappointment, but his response to the setback underlines why he is regarded as one of the most sought-after players in the Football League.

“Going back to your former club, you want to score,” said Assombalonga, who spent three seasons with Forest after moving from Peterborough United. “It was just one of those days. You’re down for a bit, but then you think, ‘On to the next game’.

“My attitude is, ‘You miss some, you score some’. Like any striker, if you count up all the ones you miss, you’d end up with 300 goals or so. You don’t take the negatives out of games – you take the positives.

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“You turn those negatives into positives. You know that on another day, the shots that go just past the post will go in. Every time you miss increases the chances of you scoring next time. You never let misses play on your mind. You concentrate on all the times you have scored, and what you did right. If a game doesn’t go well, you don’t let that one game affect you.”

Had Assombalonga been playing in last season’s Middlesbrough side, he might have been waiting all game for a single opportunity to come his way.

Aitor Karanka’s conservatism was like a straitjacket around Middlesbrough’s squad, constraining creativity and supressing individualism in an attempt to keep risk-taking to a minimum.

Garry Monk is much keener to encourage attacking play, and whoever is playing behind him, Assombalonga can rely on a steady stream of chances. Whether it is Marvin Johnson or the suspended Adama Traore threatening from the wide positions, or Lewis Baker or Patrick Bamford prompting from a withdrawn attacking role, Boro boast a host of attacking options, something that Assombalonga is understandably keen to support.

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“With this team, I’m getting a lot of chances this season,” he said. “We’ve been set up as a proper attacking team. You can see that in the players here, and the manager lets us be free in the final third of the pitch. In terms of creating chances, everything is set up for it here.

“The manager has told us the way he wants us to play, and he’s got us playing with that style. In that final third, he gives us the licence to do what we want, and you can’t ask for more than that. He knows that scoring goals wins you games.

“He lets us go and express ourselves. It’s no good having, ‘Do this, do that’ in your head, and having your mind full of instructions. He doesn’t do that. Of course, you’ve got your jobs to do, like defending corners and closing down as well. That’s different. But when it comes to general forward play, it’s all about instinct. He always tells us, ‘Be ready for a cross or chance – they can come at any time’.”

Throughout their Premier League existence, Boro have always been willing to pay top dollar for a star centre-forward. Some signings, such as Fabrizio Ravanelli, Alen Boksic, Mark Viduka and Jimmy-Floyd Hasselbaink, have worked. Others, such as Afonso Alves, Mido and Dong Gook-Lee, have been rather less successful.

Last season, Alvaro Negredo struggled to live up to his billing as chances were few and far between, but Assombalonga insists he is not interested in the past.

Similarly, he pays no attention to his £15m price tag, even though it makes him Middlesbrough’s record signing at a time when the club is supposed to be cutting its cloth in the wake of relegation.

“I don’t really look at what’s happened here in the past,” said Assombalonga. “I just look at myself and what I can do in the future for Middlesbrough.

“Other strikers have had success here, now it is my turn. You just have to focus on yourself and what is in front of you.

“The transfer fee is not a problem at all. I was the record signing at Peterborough and then at Forest, so I’m used to it. I just get on with it. I’m fully aware of how much I cost, but as a player, you can’t do anything about that. It was the two clubs, I was just the middle man in the deal.”