Luke Ayling hits back at Middlesbrough 'pressure' claim - "Us boys know that"

Luke Ayling has brushed off the notion that Middlesbrough are feeling the pressure of the promotion race, despite their poor recent form.

Boro are winless in their last five, in a dip that has come at the worst possible time. The Teessiders still sit third in the table and level on points with Ipswich Town, but the Tractor Boys now have two games in hand and superior goal difference.

What’s more, Millwall make up a trio of sides on 72 points, while the likes of Hull City and Southampton cannot be discounted from the automatic promotion race just yet - especially after the latter’s thumping 5-1 win at playoff rivals Wrexham on Tuesday.

Luke Ayling insists Boro aren’t feeling the heat in the promotion race

The heat is well and truly on in the race for the Premier League, and Boro have a vital away trip to Ipswich to come on 19th April.

First, however, they must navigate Saturday’s home tie against relegation-threatened Portsmouth, who are winless in eight, but have drawn their last two with late equalisers, proving they won’t go down without a fight.

With all of that in mind, you could probably forgive Kim Hellberg and his players for feeling the pinch a little, especially given they spent so long occupying that second and final automatic promotion spot before this recent slump. But veteran defender Ayling insists that’s not the case.

"I really don't think so because we're playing good football and we're playing the football we want to play," Ayling told BBC Tees.

"If you see pressure, some teams might change the way they play and might not play the way they want to play, and they're not creating the chances we're making.

"Since Kim has come in I think we've played really good football apart from maybe two games. We're still playing the way we want, we're pressing like we want to, we're just not finding that end product at the moment.

"You can't make that many chances and not put them away. Us boys know that, we're not blaming any one person for that because I got in that position [at Swansea] and put one across the face of the goal when I should have done better, then one came to me on the edge of the box that I put over.

"Us boys as a group know that it's not just the strikers who have to score. Once we get in that position, we have to be a bit calmer and take our chances."

To many, the gravity of that Ipswich tie would be undeniable, especially with Boro in such poor form right now. However, Ayling is confident the entire Boro squad has their focus solely on getting past Portsmouth this weekend.

He added: "I don't think there's one person in that dressing room with their eye on the Ipswich game.

"We know we have to get back home, get rested up and try and come back in and put things right and try to get back to winning ways.

"If we do get back to winning ways there's a chance. We've shown this season we can go five games unbeaten or win five in a row. We've done it before, it's time to stand up and do it again."

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