Middlesbrough midfielder George Saville has claimed there is no need to panic despite the club's precarious position in the Championship standings, because "nobody is going to be relegated in October".

It has been a challenging start to the campaign for Boro under new manager Jonathan Woodgate, with the club winning just two of their opening 12 league games, and their 1-0 defeat at home to league leaders West Brom on Saturday leaving them just one point and one place above the relegation zone.

Even so, Saville believes that right now, his side should be focusing on issues other than their position in the Championship standings, and speaking after the defeat to West Brom, the midfielder told The Teesside Gazette: “We are in October.

“No one is going to win the league in October and nobody is going to be relegated in October. We know what the result means in terms of the table but we don’t need to be looking at that just yet.

“The Championship is a long season and right now we need to be looking at the performances not the table."

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It seems that Saville believes that those recent performances should help reduce any concerns about their current position, particularly after their efforts against Slaven Bilic's table-toppers, as he continued: “And against West Brom I think the performance was there. The chances were there. We just need to be a bit more clinical.

“We created the better chances in the game and the lads all think we should have got the result."

Next up for Middlesbrough is a trip to face Huddersfield - who sit directly below them in the table - on Wednesday night.

Danny Cowley's side are currently on a four-game unbeaten run, although Saville appears confident 'Boro can be the ones to end that resurgence, as he claimed: “We know it’s a big game at Huddersfield and both football clubs need the points.

“But if we can go there and repeat the way we played against West Brom then we have a great chance.

“If we can repeat that performance we will start to win games sooner rather than later.”

The Verdict

I do agree with Saville to an extent here.

There is still plenty of time left in the campaign, and we have seen plenty of teams come back from situations worse than the one Middlesbrough currently find themselves in before.

However, judging by the response of a number of the club's fans to that defeat to West Brom, it seems they do not exactly share Saville's optimism here.

That tension is something that will only continue to rise the longer the club are in this situation, meaning it is essential that Boro start to pick up points quickly, before those nerves start to impact on performances even more.