Scott Minto has urged the Middlesbrough hierarchy to let Jonathan Woodgate finish what he's started as pressure begins to mounts.

Woodgate has had a difficult start to the season having won just two of their opening 15 games - a run which has left them struggling in the Championship relegation zone.

It was always tipped as a season of transition for the Teessiders, but few would have expected to be scrambling around at the bottom of the table.

Minto was keen to reiterate that football is a results-based business, but speaking exclusively to Football League World, the Sky Sports EFL presenter admitted that he it's crucial that young English managers like Jonathan Woodgate are given time to learn on the job.

He said: "I think this season was always going to be difficult.

"It was always going to be a transition and a different mentality from the manager using different players, a different style of football and Jonathan (Woodgate) himself is in his first season in management so anyone who thought Middlesbrough would be in the top six was probably a bit misguided.

“Are we saying that he’ll be happy with where they are? Of course not. He’ll certainly be alarmed that what he’s trying to implement isn’t quite working at the moment, but as I say, it’s a season where he needs time.

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“He needs to develop the plan that he wants, he needs to make mistakes for himself and learn from those mistakes.

“For Boro to be in the bottom three, that needs to change, clearly.

“The problem with management nowadays is that you’re six games away from the sack, and you’re always six games away from someone saying ‘he should be sacked’, whoever that manager is.

“It’s going to take time, and if you are going to ask someone to go completely the other way to what the club’s been used to for the last couple of years, unless they’re completely out of their depth which I don’t see with Jonathan Woodgate, then you have to let them develop and give them time.”