JONATHAN WOODGATE insists he will continue to believe his players will end their scoring problems to fire Middlesbrough up and clear of trouble after another night when missed chances cost them.

Despite recording a third clean sheet of the season with 21-year-old Aynsley Pears making his league debut between the posts in the absence of No 1 Darren Randolph, Boro were unable to end a run that now stands at six games without a win at Huddersfield.

The goalless draw leaves Middlesbrough sitting a point above the relegation zone, with the Terriers below them, ahead of this Saturday’s visit of seventh-placed Fulham to the Riverside Stadium.

But Woodgate’s side could have put greater distance between themselves and the bottom three had they taken their chances. Daniel Ayala had three excellent openings from set-piece deliveries, while Ashley Fletcher somehow missed one gilt-edge chance from inside six yards too.

Woodgate said: “I thought we deserved to win the game. We are having the best chances. We controlled the game, how we pressed. We deserved the victory and we would all say the same thing. It’s getting the goal. The last two games have been the same. I thought the performance very good.

“I said that if we played like we did against West Brom, we would have every chance of winning the game here. It’s true. All we need to do is put our chances away. Ayala had two blinding chances, he has had nine goals before, it will turn, I truly believe that. I am really pleased with the performance.”

Middlesbrough are still winless in six and have not won away from home this season despite the improvements Woodgate feels his side have made in the last two games against West Brom and Huddersfield.

There must have been fears when regular goalkeeper Randolph – widely regarded as the best in the Championship – was ruled out before the game with a thigh injury. He will be examined again over the next 48 hours, but he is likely to be missing against Fulham too.

Woodgate was full of praise for Pears, knowing how the Durham-born academy graduate and son of former Boro goalkeeper Stephen celebrated an early clean sheet to his senior career.

“Aynsley Pears didn’t have much to do on the night, but his goalkeeping decisions were terrific,” said Woodgate. “He has a father in Stephen who will give him exceptional advice.

“I believe in him, he has been second choice all season. I slept really well last night knowing he would play. There hasn’t been many clean sheets, but we defended a lot better as well.

“Darren was sore after the international duty, he played West Brom and was sore. We will have to go through the scans in more detail and see how he is.”

The other big change on the night at the John Smith’s Stadium was Woodgate’s decision to start with Fletcher ahead of Britt Assombalonga. Both had opportunities to win it for Middlesbrough and both are going through difficult spells in front of goal.

“Britt has played every single minute before tonight, I thought I’d take him out the firing line and put him on after 70 minutes. That was the plan. We could have got goals,” he said.

“I will be staying with the pair of them, they are my players. I will back them when they don’t play well, or when they do play well. I will stick with my players through thick and thin.

“My players are giving performances, the last two have been terrific. We haven’t put the ball in the back of the net and that wins matches. We will keep working and I will keep believing.

“Huddersfield had Premier League players. Danny Cowley has done well with them. They are playing good football and he has them working hard. It was always going to be tough but we were the better team.”

Cowley, whose side are unbeaten in five and sit below Middlesbrough, is convinced Huddersfield are on the up even though he conceded that his team didn’t play like he wants them to.

He said: “I didn’t think we played well, Middlesbrough set up, pressed aggressively, kept their five at the back and we couldn’t get our counter attacks off.

“We went long to the three centre-halves, which is not how we wanted to play. We were too slow with our positional attacks, we couldn’t affect them as we would have liked.

“We didn’t carry the threat we would have liked. You always want the will and the skill, you can’t always have both. I didn’t think we played with any rhythm or fluency, we lacked that in our offensive play, but we fought hard and we are making progress.”

Middlesbrough’s Championship home date with Stoke City originally scheduled for Saturday, December 21, will now take place on Friday, December 20 with a 7.45pm kick-off.