Middlesbrough always believed in themselves at Man City says Lee Tomlin

Attacking ace Lee Tomlin explained there was never a feeling they were going to the home of the Premier League champions just to “make the numbers up”.

Boro needed to survive some first-half pressure, with Tomas Mejias making some good saves, while the post kept out sub Frank Lampard in the second period.

But the promotion hopefuls deserved to come out on top at the Etihad.

“Wherever we go we think we can win,” said the 26-year-old.

“I don’t think we have the mentality of ‘let’s just go there and make the numbers up’.

“You have to be on your game to beat a team like them.

“We knew they’d always get chances but it was about keeping them out, which we did, and then the longer the game went on we knew we’d make chances.

“Luckily enough, we did it.

“Everyone was jumping all over each other after Patrick’s goal, we’d just scored against Man City!

“But we knew with our defensive record, we knew we could keep a clean sheet.”