GARETH Southgate will savour Middlesbrough's coming of age tomorrow after insisting the club have finally thrown off their reputation for bottling the big occasion.

The 34-year-old centre-half will be wearing the captain's armband as Boro entertain Italian giants Lazio in one of the biggest games of their 128-year history.

While last month's UEFA Cup first round win over Banik Ostrava marked Boro's arrival on the European stage, the visit of former Cup Winners' Cup champions Lazio sees them rubbing shoulders with the continental elite.

Less than 12 months ago, the Teessiders were still being talked of as England's greatest under-achievers, but now Steve McClaren's side could be just 90 minutes away from toppling one of Europe's biggest names.

The transformation is due, in part, to the summer arrival of five established internationals, enticed to the Riverside by the promise of continental competition and the feelgood factor generated by February's success in the Carling Cup.

But the change is also psychological. Previous Middlesbrough sides have wilted when the pressure has been turned up - three cup final defeats in two years provides damning evidence of that.

But Southgate senses a new mental resolve among his team-mates that should ensure Boro's current crop do not let a golden opportunity slip through their hands.

"In the past, I think there's been an expectation that things would go wrong at this club," confessed the skipper, who helped guide Aston Villa to the quarter-finals of the UEFA Cup in 1998. "I think we're starting to shake that off a little bit now.

"It wasn't something that I noticed immediately but, through being here for a period of time, I began to sense a bit of a mentality about the place.

"To be fair, for the first couple of years here we had a couple of results then we did let everybody down.

"It was understandable, but I feel that winning the trophy last year was significant because it showed people we could win.

"It tickles me when I hear the supporters and they almost expect us to let them down, because that's happened so many times.

"We have to change that mentality, but this group of players doesn't expect disappointments to happen.

"Sometimes you have to put pressure on yourself by raising the bar by saying 'This is what we're going to achieve'.

"Too often in modern football, we try to take the pressure off. But that's not something we're going to do here anymore."

So while tomorrow night's game will be a cause for celebration among the Riverside faithful, it will count for nothing to Middlesbrough's players if it ends on a sour note.

The days of Boro being happy to make up the numbers are long gone, with the likes of Ray Parlour, Mark Viduka and Jimmy Floyd Hasselbaink unlikely to settle for a pleasant night out given their European pedigree.

Southgate is determined to adopt a similarly unsentimental approach and, despite providing one of the abiding memories of February's win in the Millennium Stadium, the days of his clenched fist salute to the club's fans are now at an end.

"I've never been particularly comfortable with it - my mum said it was embarrassing - but we have to start thinking that beating teams is the done thing," he said.

"We shouldn't be celebrating our victories too much unless they're significant and we're talking about winning trophies or very important matches.

"I don't want other teams to feel that we're jumping up and down about beating them. We're a big scalp as well.

"I thought it was important to change the mindset of everyone involved in the club, and that was one way of starting to do that.

"There's no doubt it's given me a great rapport with the supporters, but I'm prepared to risk that because we want to be beating teams and raising the expectation levels."

Beating Lazio would all but see Boro reach the UEFA Cup's knock-out stage and, despite the Roman side's impeccable pedigree, the Teessiders will start as favourites for tomorrow's tie.

Lazio are not the force of old - they currently lie 11th in Serie A - and, after losing just three games all season, McClaren's side are in justifiably confident mood.

"I'm sure when the draw was made they might have been saying 'Who are Middlesbrough'," admitted Southgate.

"But when they look at the group of players we've got, there's a fair chance they'll know over half of them.

"They'll know they're in for a tough night, as we do. But it's great that the top European clubs are coming to the Riverside and expecting a tough game."