Southgate fumes at Boro players
by Ben Blackmore, 22 March 2008
Gareth Southgate got about as close to raging as Gareth Southgate can get after watching his side limp past Derby for a 1-0 victory.
Tuncay Sanli added to his growing reputation with the only goal of the game, but The Teessiders can count themselves lucky after Robert Earshaw spurned a fine late chance.
Southgate has overseen a topsy-turvy season at The Riverside that has seen them go from beating Arsenal to losing to Cardiff, and he insists he will not allow complacency to set in now they are eight points clear of the drop zone.
"If we switch off for five minutes at this place we let ourselves down quickly, so we have to drive ourselves on," he warned.
"We've seen it through today, and they weren't able to punish us - but we can't play like that.
"They should have scored, and we would have been sitting here frustrated again.
"We've got to be better than we were in the second half. We've got to be bolder and be willing to attack more. At the moment we tend to go into our shells, because of the importance of the points.
"Guts has got them over the line, but we have got to be mentally tougher and braver in the way.”
Derby boss Paul Jewell also had a complaint for his charges, questioning where the spirit that saw them go within 14 minutes of a draw against Manchester United had gone.
"If we had put in the performance we showed last week against Manchester United I think we might have got something out of the game - but if you perform like that in the first half you don't win matches," he said.
"In the second half we actually looked like we could deal with a football. Hossam Ghaly was a big influence for us. But we just didn't have that killer instinct - and you need that to go with your play.
"It's the story of our season. We did really well against Manchester United and tried to take it into the game today - but we just can't put two performances together.
"We had that golden opportunity right at the end, and that's the difference.”