Steve Gibson can’t believe Middlesbrough Football Club are in a relegation fight.

Boro are four points from Premier League safety with just eight games remaining, and this is a position their chairman never expected the club to be in.

"Hindsight is a wonderful thing, but I would think the way we finished last season, everybody would have thought we were heading in the right direction," Gibson told the Evening Gazette.

"We made changes to the squad during the summer and made one or two very good signings, and we were confident that we could move forward.

"I for one did not think we would be in a relegation dog fight. But that is the reality of the situation. As a town, nobody wants this. As a football club, we don't want it.

"But we have to trust these players to give us their best in the last eight games. Until fate has decided what is going to happen, we have to keep fighting, and I am confident that we will."