A PASSIONATE George Friend has urged everyone connected with Middlesbrough to stay united after a frustrating performance that has edged Aitor Karanka’s team closer to the relegation zone.

Only goal difference is keeping Boro out of the bottom three after they lost 1-0 to Watford at the Riverside Stadium on Sunday, an afternoon when the home side struggled to create chances and pose a threat to the Hornets’ goal.

Middlesbrough’s only victory from nine matches in league and cup competitions arrived at bottom club Sunderland on August 21. They have taken just a point from the last 15 available.

Life back in the Premier League was always going to be harder than trying to stay in the Championship’s promotion mix, but Karanka is being widely criticised for not making his team more adventurous and dangerous in the final third.

And while the atmosphere inside the Riverside remained largely positive against Watford, there is growing pressure on the head coach to find a way for Middlesbrough to create more chances in his attempts to keep the club in the top-flight.

Friend is desperate for the supporters, the players and the coaching staff to maintain a close bond after the recent slump, though, and he thinks that will lead to brighter times.

The left-back said: “It’s the Premier League, and we all know it’s hard. We shouldn’t have lost the game to Watford. I don’t think we deserved to win it, but we shouldn’t have lost it.

“We started off very well, but we’ve got to stay positive, and I know we will. That’s as a collective, and by collective I mean the fans, the staff, the team, everyone. That spirit of Teesside that got us up is going to keep us up as well.

“I’d say to the fans don’t get nervous and don’t get negative. It’s about staying positive, and that includes everyone. Us as players, the staff, and everyone around Teesside because it’s a great area. It’s about Boro, and when Boro do well, the area does well, so let’s all stay positive and enjoy it.”

Karanka suggested immediately after Sunday’s defeat that he will not be changing his team’s playing style, believing keeping things tight and one up front has served him well and will continue to do so.

The victory at Sunderland was the only occasion when Middlesbrough have scored twice in a game this season and it will be hard to improve on that at Arsenal this Saturday.

Friend said: “In the Premier League, players have the quality to score all different types of goals. We have to create more chances, but at the moment we have to stay positive because we need points. We have a very good group here.

“The manager is all about team ethic, team morale, team spirit, and I have no doubt that we’ll be able to keep that together because we’ve got a good group of lads.

“All the new lads have bought into it as well.

“I understand the fans want more chances at home and we will start to get going and get those points that we need.

“The manager sets up a team to play in his way, and he’s very sure of the fact that if we don’t play in our way, we won’t get success.

“The players understand that so if we’re 1-0 down or 2-0 down or whatever, we’ll still try to play in our way.

“We’ve got good enough attacking players to break teams down.

“It didn’t quite happen on Sunday, but I’m confident we’ll go on and do that.”

While Friend, knowing Adam Forshaw’s tame effort was the only shot on target against Watford, admitted creating chances was a problem on Sunday, he also thought the amount of stoppages in the game didn’t help.

He said: “I think we had a game plan and we stuck to that.

“I thought we were excellent in the first half-hour – the manager was pleased with that at half-time.

“They might have had a slight game plan of breaking us down.

“You can talk about tetchy fouls, and they have a few players in there who are good at doing that. That made the game slightly disjointed and we couldn’t find our flow, and then the goal came and we were chasing the game from then.

“We were trying, but it didn’t come to fruition in the end. The manager prepares us for everything, he’s very thorough and he gives us a lot of analysis to prepare for the game.”