MIDDLESBROUGH manager Chris Wilder is after a response to the 1-0 defeat to Fulham from his players when they return to the Riverside Stadium tomorrow to face Hull City.

Boro went toe-to-toe with the Championship league leaders who are destined for the Premier League but fell short on a night where good chances weren’t taken. They have an eleven point lead at the top of the table with seven games to go.

After putting four past Peterborough United at the weekend, the hope from the manager was that a result against the Cottagers would have alleviated the pressure heading into this weekend’s game against the Tigers.

Wilder explained: “Saturday is going to be key, but I don’t want it to be. We have to react to disappointment but I believed we were good enough to go from Saturday into tonight and get something.

“When everyone puts their heads on their pillows tonight, our players and our fans, they’ll know we’ve not won for a reason and it’s that we haven’t taken our chances. We have to quickly move on to Saturday though.”

Boro are now fighting to regain their place in the play-offs after dropping down to seventh in the table as Nottingham Forest’s 2-0 win over Coventry City saw them climb into the top six.

There is a shred of comfort for the manager who is looking to guide Boro into the play-off spots with seven games to go.

54-year-old Wilder continued: “The comforting thing from my point of view though is that we are in good knick. The shape of the team, if it was going to be exposed it would have been exposed by a team like Fulham and it wasn’t. So that gives us a belief in terms of how we’re going about our business.

“Now we just have to make sure we keep our performance levels high. They were, especially second half, and they will need to be again going into the game on Saturday.”

Boro will assess the fitness of Isaiah Jones who missed the game at the Riverside Stadium in midweek through illness. It was confirmed after the game that the coaching staff acted upon medical advice not to play him against Marco Silva’s side.