MIDDLESBROUGH goalkeeper Darren Randolph will be missing when they face Huddersfield Town for a match when Jonathan Woodgate’s men will look to stay out of the bottom three.

Randolph is understood to have picked up an injury in training and that means 21-year-old Aynsley Pears will make his first league appearance for Boro.

It is a big step up for Pears, who enjoyed a successful loan in the National League with Gateshead last season when he was named player of the year, and his first opportunity to show he can handle life at the higher level.

Middlesbrough boss Woodgate has also dropped striker Britt Assombalonga. Ashley Fletcher has been preferred to the £15m man who has finished the last two seasons as top scorer.

Otherwise it looks the same system that ran Championship leaders West Brom close on Saturday.

But a defeat at the John Smith’s Stadium tonight in front of the Sky cameras will see Middlesbrough drop into the relegation zone for the first time since 2010.

Huddersfield have improved under new boss Danny Cowley and head into this game four matches undefeated, winning two of those.

HUDDERSFIELD: Schofield; Elphick, Hogg, Chalobah, Kachunga, Diakhaby, Grant, Simpson, Schindler, Brown, O’Brien. Subs: Coleman, Bacuna, Mbenza, Campbell, Mounnie, Stankovic, Hadergjonaj.

MIDDLESBROUGH (5-1-3-1): Pears; Howson, Fry, Ayala, Shotton, Johnson; Wing; McNair, Tavernier, Saville; Fletcher. Subs: Dijksteel, Clayton, Coulson, Liddle, Mejias(gk), Assombalonga, Browne.