NOTHING structurally needs to change is the message from the Middlesbrough camp even if defender Ben Gibson believes there has been a wake-up call ahead of this Saturday’s visit of Brentford.

Boro have fallen behind in each of their last three matches, only the latest of those saw them fail to recover and Norwich City left the Riverside with three points on Tuesday night.

Garry Monk spoke immediately after the game of the growing frustration he is feeling at the costly errors in conceding first, and a desire to find a solution to end that quickly.

Monk insisted the problem is not down to tactical or system issues, more down to defensive mistakes or lapses in concentration and he could make changes for the visit of the Bees.

Middlesbrough, though, still wasted enough chances against Norwich to have at least pulled things level and extended the unbeaten run to eight matches. Instead they are looking to start again at the Riverside this weekend.

Gibson said: “We have to put our fingers on why we have done that. We have a good group of lads, we will start games faster and we have to make sure we are ruthless from minute one. For whatever reason we haven’t done that yet. I’m sure it will click.

“Defensively we had nothing to do against Norwich, testament to what we are doing because we have penned them in. It was the toughest 90 they will have this season, you could see the relief on their faces at the end.

"But we didn’t quite create enough. We have to pick ourselves up and make sure we get three points. We will score on Saturday and we will win the game because we can’t go into another game and play like we did without scoring."

Regardless of the attacking talent Middlesbrough have, Gibson is also part of a defence which has looked strong for the majority of matches this season.

The worrying thing is that they have conceded first in recent matches against Norwich, Fulham and Queens Park Rangers; they have collected four points from that possible nine-point stretch.

Cutting out the mistakes is what the challenge will be ahead of facing Brentford, with Monk knowing that he has options available to mix things up at the back if he wants to.

Ryan Shotton, yet to start since moving from Birmingham, George Friend, Daniel Ayala and Connor Roberts are all hoping for a chance.

Gibson said: “It was a disappointing result on Tuesday, but it wasn’t through a lack of trying or lack of effort. We didn’t play well enough, simple as.

“We had lots of possession, waves of attacks, but we weren’t clinical enough with it. We gave them the initiative early on and we can’t afford to keep doing that.

“Everyone knows we dominated the football game, we didn’t start well. They had 30 yards, an unbelievable strike. It didn't quite happen for us on the night.

"Maybe it was what we needed, a wake-up call because you can’t hand teams the initiative like we did in the previous two games as well and then come back. You can’t do that every week and maybe it was a lesson we needed at this stage.”