Main's emergence reduces the need for Middlesbrough to enter the loan market (From The Northern Echo)

Main's emergence reduces the need for Middlesbrough to enter the loan market

8:00am Tuesday 14th February 2012 in Middlesbrough FC News By Scott Wilson

TONY Mowbray claims the emergence of teenage striker Curtis Main has lessened the need for Middlesbrough to spend big money on the loan purchase of an experienced forward.

In the continued absence of Scott McDonald, who could miss the remainder of the season with a knee ligament injury, Main is set to make his third senior appearance when Boro entertain relegation-threatened Nottingham Forest tonight.

The 19-year-old, who was released from non-league Darlington last summer, made an immediate impression in last week's FA Cup defeat to Sunderland, with his power and energy troubling seasoned top-flight duo Michael Turner and John O'Shea.

Mowbray has inquired about a number of strikers following the opening of the window for Football League loans last week, but has been asked to pay wages that would blow a considerable hole in his budget.

And while he is not ruling out the temporary acquisition of a more experienced front man, the quality of Main's recent displays has enabled him to keep his powder dry.

"There's really only Scott who is a long-term absentee now," said Mowbray, who is hoping to welcome Barry Robson and Matthew Bates back into his side for tonight's game. "He might miss the rest of the season or he might get back for the last few games, but Curtis has stepped into that gap really well."So the question for me now is, 'Do we go and get a much more experienced, ready-made player in or do we give one of our younger, talented players an opportunity?'

"If financially it's right for us to go and get a ready-made footballer, and there's a deal to be done that isn't way too rich for us, we will look at that. But at this moment, potential deals on the table do not seem to be good business for us."

As a result there will be no new faces when Steve Cotterill brings his Forest side to the Riverside looking to record a rare double after a 2-0 win at the City Ground in October.

Tonight's game starts a hectic run of ten matches in the space of 43 days, a sequence that became even more intense when the Ipswich away game was rescheduled for Tuesday, March 27 yesterday.

Boro tumbled to ninth position after their trip to Portman Road proved in vain, their lowest placing since the opening weekend of the season, and with the Championship due to finish in April in order to allow the play-offs to take place ahead of the European Championships, the next two or three weeks are likely to be crucial.

"There are a lot of games in a short period and the table has become very congested, so this is a clearly an important spell," said Mowbray. "We can't control what everybody else does, but we're hoping some of our key players will be available for selection again and that will help us get some more positive results.

"If we start winning games again, we'll be fine. If we lose games in this spell and drop too many points, there's a fair chance we could slip to mid-table mediocrity, which would obviously be very disappointing. Let's hope that's not the case and that we push on instead to set ourselves up for the last few weeks of the season."

Momentum will be vital with so many games in such a short space of time, and Mowbray admits Middlesbrough's has been checked because of the weather, the intervention of the FA Cup and a handful of disappointing results.

"There are reasons - the two FA Cup games, the abandonment at Ipswich - but some of the results obviously haven't helped as well," he said. "It would be great to have continued in the same vein and still be sitting here having lost three games with another ten points on the board.

"The reality is that some of the momentum has been lost a bit and we have to put that right. I think initially, the injury to Nicky Bailey had a big effect. It disrupted the balance of the team and forced us to throw in Kevin Thomson probably a week or two before he was ready."

Bailey returned to training yesterday, although he only worked with the youth-team squad and will not be considered for tonight's game.

Robson and Faris Haroun did join in full training, and both could be involved this evening along with skipper Matthew Bates, who has recovered from the illness that prevented him from travelling to Ipswich.

"I'm not going to rush in and make four changes, although there might be one or two players coming back in," he said. "Then by the next game, there might be another one or two available.

"There might be a number of changes between what started at Ipswich and the team that starts at Millwall in another week's time, but I'm not envisaging changing half the team in one shot."

* Former Middlesbrough defender Chris Riggott has signed for League Two side Burton Albion until the end of the season.