MIDDLESBROUGH manager Chris Wilder was pleased to banish the demons of Tuesday night’s defeat at Cardiff City but admitted his side played out an edgy goalless draw against Rotherham United.

After conceding three goals in the first half of a 3-2 defeat to the Bluebirds, Boro kept out the Millers but were unable to break the deadlock themselves as they head into the international sitting in the relegation zone of the Championship.

“I’m alright. It’s an arm wrestle at the moment” said the Boro boss. “It’s not free flowing, it’s a bit tough at the moment but we’ve just got to dig in.

“I thought the players attitude was good and I didn’t think it was a negative performance, I thought it was an edgy performance. It wasn’t free flowing.

“We’ll look at it and maybe we will have created the clearer of the chances in the game but we didn’t take them so we have to look at ourselves on that.

Speaking about the loss to Cardiff in midweek, he continued: “After 40 minutes on Tuesday scratching your head at where you are going to get a clean sheet, we managed to do that and that is a positive.

“This is how the game. The sun is not always shining and it is not always an easy game. You take that split second longer, you don’t play that first time pass and have an extra touch which slows the game down.

“We’ve watched them (Rotherham) and they not in a false position. They are a hard working side and possibly one of the last teams you’d want to play tonight. Playing a team without any character tonight might have been a bit easier for us but it was a tough evening. We knew it would be.”

With two weeks away from domestic action, Wilder vowed that his side can turned their fortunes around as he added: “We are ten games, we haven’t got the points total that we want but we just have to keep going and come through this little sticky period that we are at.”

Meanwhile, Rotherham United manager Paul Warne walked away from the Riverside the happier out of the two managers on an uneventful game on Teesside. He said: “I thought we limited them to very few full chances and it was a tiring match. I thought both sets of players looked exhausted by the end.

“First half, there was a real pace to the game and the ball hardly went out of play but in the second half, as a spectacle and as a game, I thought it fizzed out. That’s what felt like on the side of the pitch.

“In games like that, sometimes you are lucky and you can nick a set piece and take all three points. However, you can concede one and all of that effort is worth nothing so overall I am the happier of the managers because they definitely created more good play in the final third than we did.”