JORDAN HUGILL insists he is happy to go toe-to-toe with the Championship’s most imposing centre-halves – because the experience will not be as scary as having Northern League defenders threatening to ‘bite his nose off’.

Hugill has spent the last six league games leading the Middlesbrough attack, and his lone target-man role can often be a thankless one as he finds himself taking on at least two physically aggressive central defenders.

He left the field after Saturday’s draw with Blackburn Rovers battered and bruised, but is adamant he is ready for more of the same when Boro return to Championship action at QPR this weekend.

In his teenage Northern League days, playing for the likes of Seaham Red Star, Consett, Whitby Town and Marske United, Hugill would regularly find himself embroiled in a physical battle, often with defenders more than twice his age.

“They’re not small defenders I’m going up against are they,” said Hugill, who was born and raised as a Boro fan before leaving the North-East to sign his first professional contract with Port Vale. “I don’t get fazed by it, but I think that’s the upbringing I’ve had, coming through the Northern League.

“I was a 16-year-old, playing up against 30-odd-year-old men, and they’d be telling me they were going to bite my nose off.

“It’s one of those things, you can’t get involved in it, but I would never back down from a challenge either. That’s me being brought up the way I am. I never back down from a challenge, and I enjoy someone trying to get the better of me because it brings the best out of me.”

Tony Pulis clearly values Hugill’s efforts, with the Boro boss having handed the West Ham United loanee a regular starting spot ahead of record signing Britt Assombalonga.

Assombalonga’s equaliser against Blackburn was his sixth Championship goal of the season, three more than Hugill has managed, but while Assombalonga’s game might begin and end in and around the 18-yard box, Hugill spends much more of his time battling with his back to goal, trying to bring his team-mates into play.

His all-round game is a much better fit with Pulis’ preferred tactical approach, and while Hugill accepts some people will always judge him purely on his goals, he is more interested in the quality of his all-round performance.

“The main thing for me is not the goals, it’s the performances,” said Hugill. “Because I know if I play well, the goals will come. I don’t really think of myself as an out-and-out striker, I think of myself more as a target man who can bring other people into the game and help create goals as well as score them. Once I get myself right in that sort of sense, then the team benefits from it.

“Holding the ball and linking play is one of the roles of a target man. I play mainly with my back to goal, bringing other people into play. I feel as though, personally, I’ve done very well at that since I’ve been brought into the team. Goals are one part of my game, but the major part of my game is bringing other players into play and creating stuff.”

Hugill was speaking at Middlesbrough’s James Cook Hospital as the club’s players embarked on their traditional visit to the children’s wards.

The Boro squad visited four different medical centres yesterday, and as a native Teessider, Hugill was delighted to have been assigned to a hospital he knows only too well.

“I’ve been here on many occasions,” he joked. “I wasn’t born here – I think it was North Tees – but I’ve been in loads. I’ve had many an operation here – broken arms, broken ankles, everything.

“That was when I was playing football when I was young. It’s amazing what the staff do here, and obviously the parents as well. It’s just nice to come and try to put a smile on people’s faces.”