NEIL WARNOCK was delighted to see his attacking players come to the fore as Middlesbrough climbed to seventh position in the Championship table with their biggest win of the season.

Boro cruised to a 3-0 win over bottom club Derby County at the Riverside, with goals from Britt Assombalonga and Marvin Johnson sandwiching an own goal from Rams defender Matthew Clarke.

Having watched his side fall to their first defeat in 11 matches when they lost to Norwich City at the weekend, Warnock shuffled his pack last night, handing a debut to recent signing Duncan Watmore and also promoting fellow forward Patrick Roberts to the starting side.

The changes paid dividends, with Boro claiming their biggest league victory for more than two years as they scored three goals under Warnock in the Championship for the first time.

“It’s a hard league this league,” said the Boro boss. “And you’ve got to get goals. You’ve got to look at how you can get more goals, and I felt the only way we could get more goals was by being a bit more positive in the wide positions.

“Even when we changed it and had two full-backs again (after the substitutions), they were still more positive.

“It’s not a natural thing for a wing-back to makes runs inside and support a striker, whereas Duncan does it automatically. (Marcus) Browne, who is injured at the minute, is the same. You’ve got to have something like that in games. It allows us to have different options instead of just being rigid.”

Warnock revealed he had been forced to give his players a pre-match dressing down after he felt they were not fully focused, but he was delighted with their response once the game began.

“I had to give them a bit of a bollocking before the game tonight, which is unusual, because they were a bit sloppy in the dressing room, a bit lethargic,” he said. “But I knew how difficult it was going to be.

“I thought we started off well, and then second half I thought we could up it, and I thought we did. I knew they (Derby) would up it as well because they’ve got some good players. When you look at their squad, I’d be surprised if they’re down there at the end of the season. It’s a great win for us, and to score three goals, it doesn’t happen very often does it?”

Warnock was especially pleased with Watmore, with the former Sunderland forward setting up Assombalonga’s opener with a neat header.

“Duncan made the first goal, I don’t think anybody else would have been in that position, it was a great header,” he said. “We can’t keep asking Djed (Spence) and Marv (Johnson) to be attacking wingers when they’re full-backs, even if Marv hasn’t done a bad job, making one and scoring a fantastic goal. We couldn’t get Yannick (Bolasie) over the line, but you need attacking players in those wide positions when you play like we do.”