MIDDLESBROUGH rediscovered their defensive resilience last weekend, and defender Ben Gibson thinks that is the secret to sparking a promotion-winning run between now and the end of the campaign.

Boro, tipped by many to win the league before a ball had even been kicked, have certainly got it all to do after falling 16 points behind leaders Wolves; there is also a 12 point gap to make up to second-placed Cardiff City.

The chances of forcing themselves back into the play-off picture look stronger, given there is a smaller five-point difference to sixth-placed Sheffield United. Despite being part of the chasing pack, though, Gibson is satisfied a return to the Premier League can be secured.

He said: “We think we can go all the way, obviously the table doesn’t lie and we haven’t played as well as we should have up to this point, all be it the games have been won and lost by small margins, and we know we could have done a bit better.

“Whether that’s keeping the ball out of the net more often or taking a few more chances, but we aren’t a long way off where we need to be and things can change very quickly in this league. We believe we can get promoted and that’s what we will aim to do, nothing different.”

Gibson was part of the Middlesbrough team that won promotion in 2016. That year Dimi Konstantopoulos and the defence he had in front of him broke club records with the number of times they prevented the opposition from scoring.

This time around Middlesbrough have conceded more goals at this stage. A ninth clean sheet from 21 matches so far against Ipswich last Saturday has heartened the players - and Gibson has spoken about the targets they have in mind.

In an interview with EA Sports, an official partner of the EFL, said: “I know the big man (Britt Assombalonga) will (have a target in mind) with goals and I’ll set him 25 minimum now. We as a defence obviously do the same for clean sheets, we want to average one in every two games.

“About 23 clean sheets really and that should give you a good chance of being promoted, it was roughly what we achieved last time we got out of the league and we will be looking to match it … if not better it.”

While Middlesbrough have struggled to find consistency under Garry Monk since he took over in the summer, individually there are players who have been unable to hit the heights they are capable of.

Gibson has been up and down himself, after a summer when he attracted bids from West Brom and had to contend with plenty of suggestions he would be targeted by the Champions League clubs who had monitored his performances.

It was nice for him to be linked and he is desperate to get back to the Premier League with Middlesbrough, although his immediate focus is the back-to-back away dates before Christmas at Millwall and Sheffield Wednesday.

The centre-back said: “Yeah it’s massive, I mean I think it’s the best league in the world to play your football. The amount of money that’s being spent to bring in the best players, that’s why, everybody wants to be there …

“You’re playing week in week out against the best players, the best teams and that’s the promised land. We sampled it last year and we didn’t really do ourselves justice, it was a wasted opportunity that we worked so hard to get and we wasted it.

“Obviously, our season fell apart for different reasons and now we’ve got a different squad and a different manger and coaching staff, a different team, and we want to make sure we get back there because it’s where we all dream of playing.”

Having worked so hard to win promotion last time around, suffering relegation at the very first attempt hurt everyone connected with the club – particularly locally produced Gibson who has since seen promoted sides like Brighton and Huddersfield start positively in the top tier.

“They’re doing really well so fair play to them, but it’s a long season and I think at this point last year you would have said the same about us,” said Gibson.

“We were up there and our season turned very quickly so that’s an experience, all be it not a nice one, that we will use for when we do go back there … I say for when we do rather than if because I’m convinced we will get there and now we just need to make sure that it’s this season.”

  • Middlesbrough FC's Ben Gibson spoke exclusively to EA SPORTS, official partner of the EFL