MIDDLESBROUGH manager Chris Wilder believes that Aaron Connolly and Folarin Balogun’s contributions to their 4-1 over Derby County will prove to be valuable to the team and to themselves.

Connolly got his first goal in a Boro shirt scoring the second goal of the game to put them back in front with a deflected effort in the first half.

Balogun didn’t get on the scoresheet but produced a great display and laid on Duncan Watmore for the fourth goal with a wonderful bit of skill.

They both came off in the latter stages of the game to rapturous applause from the Boro crowd.

The pair started together for the first time as the side put four past the Rams.

Andraz Sporar and Watmore dropped out of the 2-2 draw against Queens Prak Rangers and Wilder thought it was a necessary change.

He said: “Changes that I thought were the right changes so however you want to see it, you can see it how you want.

“At the top of the pitch, you have to start the press and you want them to run forward. Both were really bright and they were a constant threat all afternoon for the centre-halves.

“It was good, they got hold of the ball. Work rate was fabulous and I wanted to bring them off at the end and I know what sort of reception they would have got.”

A lot of talk surrounding the players was whether they will be able to deliver in their loan spells until the end of the season. The Boro boss is hopeful that their performances will alleviate some pressure off the pair and allow them to flourish.

Wilder added: “Hopefully that settles them down a little bit because when you go to a new club in January, it’s not always easy. A lot of pressure on Flo because a lot has been talked about him, a lot of pressure on Azza. We’ve talked about the instant assessments and opinions but they are here until the end of the season.

“A huge thing for me was that they want to come here. The had other options in clubs. We had to work hard to get them here but they had that decision to make and I was delighted that they made the decision to come to us.

“I believe they deserved every bit of that reception at the end. That’s more like what we know. It’s up to them to keep that standard and we know there is a group of five (strikers) and three other boys that would like a little bit of that going forward.”