MIDDLESBROUGH striker Folarin Balogun must continue to build on his recent good form in front of goal ahead of a big Championship run in, which is the message from his manager Chris Wilder.

Balogun’s purple patch in front of goal has seen him score six goals in as many starts for club and country. Before he went on international duty with England’s Under-21’s side, he’d scored two in three games for Boro against Sheffield United and Birmingham City before netting for the Three Lions, one against Andorra and two against Albania.

Balogun’s performances earned the plaudits of under-21’s manager Lee Carsley who told Wilder directly how impressed he was with the 20-year-old.

The Arsenal loanee has gone on record in recent weeks declaring how much he is enjoying and learning from his spell at Boro.

While the Boro boss admitted he must now build on his recent form but the club are getting the striker they identified as a target in January.

Wilder said: “I believe we were seeing signs of that before the international break. It’s not easy. The market is not a huge market. We went with two young players [Balogun and Connolly] who have not played a lot of football. But I thought their performances, especially at Millwall and Birmingham, were really good. The partnership was good, and both scoring was really good for them. And then Flo had the opportunity to go off and be involved with the under-21s camp.

“To score goals and play both games when there is big competition there at the top of the pitch for the under-21s is great. But he also understands the challenges ahead of him here. I know he’s done a couple of interviews and talked about how much he’s enjoying it here and how much he’s learning.

“The biggest thing now is how he does on the green bit on a Saturday and a midweek night. I’ve got every confidence in him, and we’ve got five really good players at the top of the pitch. Josh has really pushed his way through which is great for me, Andy Sporar is back and Duncan, we know exactly what we’ll get from Duncan.

“Then obviously Aaron and Flo come in from Premier League clubs and it’s a healthy group of players at the top of the pitch. They know they’re going to have to produce and score important goals for us. We are a creator of big chances, and obviously the most difficult part is scoring but we’re confident we can.”

Wilder has been an admirer of Balogun since his days in charge of Sheffield United and also attempted to sign the youngster on loan. After Balogun recently told the media that he has taken a lot of stock from his time at Teesside, he was full of praise for the striker and his regular partner Aaron Connolly how they have adapted to making the switch to Boro.

Wilder continued: “I’ve known about Flo for a long time and Aaron at Brighton as well. It’s not always the easiest and I think it says a lot about the boys as characters as well. Too many young boys stay in a comfortable position whereas they wanted to get out of the comfort zone and come and play men’s football.

“It’s a long way up the road from Brighton and London and a culture change as well. Managers that were playing under are different to how we go about our business and the players they’re playing with as well.

“It’s everything like that, from facilities to meeting new staff and new players, going into a new changing room and whatever, particularly in January, it’s not the easiest for even experienced players let on alone young players. I think they’ve taken to it fantastically well and hopefully we’ll see that in the last nine games and they’ll be part of a group of five that produce the goods for us.”

While Balogun may be hitting form at the right time for Boro, they do have a full platter of strikers to choose from in Connoly, Duncan Watmore, Andraz Sporar and Josh Coburn. All of them are expected to be used between now and the end of the season and all of them are important to their push for the play-offs.

Wilder, who manages his 26th game in charge of Boro against Fulham this evening, added: “We know we’re going to have to be clinical, we have to be good in both boxes, and we know we have the ability to create big chances. So hopefully they can do that. There is a lot more about it to just the bit that you see.

“There is the other stuff that they have to learn and experience, and I’m sure when they both do go back - hopefully in late May and not early May! - that they’ve really enjoyed their time here and the experience will have benefitted both them and their clubs.”