TONY PULIS insists he is happy to be branded a “managerial dinosaur” if it helps ensure Middlesbrough remain in the automatic promotion places at the top of the Championship.

Having conceded just one goal from open play since the opening weekend of the season, Boro head into this afternoon’s home game with Nottingham Forest boasting the best defensive record in England’s top five divisions.

Yet rather than be lauded for his side’s organisation, work rate and resilience, Pulis finds himself having to rebuff suggestions that his teams are boring, defensive and unattractive to watch.

The Boro boss takes exception to all of those comments, but has grown accustomed to being pigeon-holed as a certain type of manager. His success at Stoke City was decried for being built on a negative approach, and even when he kept Crystal Palace in the Premier League from a seemingly impossible position at the end of the 2013-14 campaign, he was portrayed as a manager who only knows how to set a side up to defend.

With the likes of Pep Guardiola and Jurgen Klopp earning plaudits at the top of the Premier League for their flamboyant attacking philosophy, prioritising the defensive side of the game is increasingly regarded as an archaic approach.

But as he looks to guide his side to a ninth clean sheet of the season this afternoon, Pulis is more than happy to be viewed as an unfashionable boss.

“I don’t really care what people think or say about me,” said the Boro boss, who boasts more than two-and-a-half decades of managerial experience after starting his career in the dug-out at Bournemouth in the early 1990s. “I couldn’t care less, it makes no difference to me at all.

“People talk about dinosaurs - years and years ago there was respect, discipline and all those great attributes that everybody was taught in this country. If that’s what people are talking about, then I’m quite happy to be a dinosaur.

“Do people look at my teams with preconceptions? I think that happens right across society now. There’s a lot of people who think the king is wearing clothes, when actually the king is wearing no clothes at all.”

Pulis’ Boro team know how to defend, as evidenced by their exemplary display at Ipswich on Tuesday night. With Daniel Ayala and Aden Flint providing towering presences at the heart of the back four, and both George Friend and Ryan Shotton proving equally secure in the full-back berths, Boro’s third clean sheet from the last four league games never looked like being threatened.

Adam Clayton could return today to provide further defensive protection – the midfielder has completed the suspension that kept him out at Portman Road – but it would be unfair to portray Pulis’ team as a line-up devoid of attacking flair.

Boro counter-attacked effectively on Tuesday, and have racked up 14 goals from their 11 league outings, a more than acceptable return given their sensational record at the other end.

Pulis has restored the exciting Martin Braithwaite to the starting line-up, and encouraged Mo Besic to play on the front foot following his return from Everton, and while the 60-year-old will never adopt a policy of throwing caution to the wind, it would be unfair to brand him as an unduly negative manager.

“We scored a great goal at Preston (in the Carabao Cup), and if you look at the first goal at Ipswich, there were six or seven passes through the pitch before Mo got the rebound and smashed it in.

“Listen, it doesn’t really worry me. If it’s a goal, it’s a goal. I don’t mind if it’s booted from one end of the pitch to the other.

“But I think there’s a stat out there that sums it all up. In terms of making long passes, we are the second lowest long-passing team in the Championship. So if they want to open their eyes, they can. But if they don't, do give a damn? No.”

Ironically, today’s game pits Pulis against another manager who has been saddled with a reputation for negativity and dour football.

Aitor Karanka also built his Boro team around a strong defence, and while the approach came undone in the Premier League, his two promotion campaigns in the Championship are remembered with extreme fondness.

Karanka will make his second managerial return to the Riverside this afternoon, and as was the case last season, the Spaniard will be afforded a warm reception from supporters that rarely found his football boring while they were competing in the Championship’s promotion places.

Karanka bequeathed a Boro side that was in need of major surgery, and Steve Gibson handed his successor, Garry Monk, a mountain of cash last summer. A large amount of that money was not spent wisely, so while Pulis has overseen an overhaul of his own since moving to Teesside last December, he has been forced to do so while balancing the books.

“We knew we had to do that, and I think it started at Christmas,” he said. “We got rid of (Adam) Forshaw, (Cyrus) Christie and a few others went out on loan. I knew where I wanted to go in that respect, and I looked at the enormous amounts of money Steve had spent on players.

“With Patrick (Bamford) and Adama (Traore) going, and then Ben (Gibson) as well, there was a hell of a lot of money we brought back in. But I still felt confident we could be strong enough.”

Middlesbrough (probable, 4-3-3): Randolph; Shotton, Ayala, Flint, Friend; Besic, Clayton, Howson; Braithwaite, Hugill, Downing.