WITH six games gone in the season, it’s important to have a sense of perspective that there is plenty of matches left to be played in the season for Middlesbrough.

But at the moment, there is a growing sense that Boro are falling short of where they should be.

Saturday’s defeat to Coventry City was up there with the Queens Park Rangers loss in terms of performance. In the BBC Radio Tees Sport phone-in after the game, the general sense was that Boro weren’t at the races and there are some big problems to correct over the coming weeks.

Viktor Gyokeres grabbed City’s first goal rounding goalkeeper Joe Lumley and squeezing the ball through a combination of Boro defenders in the 71st minute before Martyn Waghorn put the icing on the cake with a low drive in stoppage time.

It now leaves Boro six points off the Championship play-offs.

The saving grace is that there is plenty of time for Boro to put things right.

Off the field, there can be very little room for complaint. Fans wanted signings over the summer and they got them with twelve being the grand total of new faces through the door. With a bit of luck, there can be one or two more from the free agents market.

Clearly it’s going to take some time for the new signings to be bedded in and for the management staff to figure out what there best eleven is going to be. But in the eyes of the fans, surely the next five games before the next international break will be crucial in doing that.

Onel Hernandez, James Lea-Siliki and Andraz Sporar all made their Boro bows at the weekend. Lea-Siliki and Sporar got their first taste of what English football is like.

Neil Warnock said after the game: “I think they understand that it’s definitely a quick league and they’ve got to get into quickly. James got caught a couple of times in possession which he’s not used to, I thought Andraz did as well as he could in the space and Hernandez could have scored the winner.

“It’s just one of those things. I thought he worked hard but it wasn’t to be.”

Fans will be hopeful it wasn’t anything more than a rude introduction into life in the Championship.

Boro make the trip to the usually cursed City Ground tomorrow evening where they’ve not had much luck in the past. But they come up against a Nottingham Forest side who already look doomed.

Sunday’s 2-1 loss to Cardiff City means it’s just one point from six games for Chris Hughton’s men. It’s their worst start to a season for 108 years.

Hughton said: “I have a group of players which our responsibility, whichever way we do it, is to get results. Whether that’s on Wednesday night where we don’t play well but we get a couple of fortunate goals, whichever way it comes, we have to get results. That means players stepping up to a mark.”

Wednesday evening is a huge opportunity for Boro to build some optimism and put the sword to a team that look down and out. The Championship is an unpredictable league as everyone is well aware but a comprehensive performance and result would provide the fans a lift and give Boro the chance to build some momentum.

It remains to be seen whether Paddy McNair will be fit to play while Marc Bola and Martin Payero should be out.