Source: SKY_Sports
Southgate defiant despite draw
Gareth Southgate is refusing to throw in the towel after Fulham denied Middlesbrough a crucial victory on Saturday.
The Boro manager praised his players for their work ethic in Saturday's 0-0 draw at the Riverside, but the Teessiders are still in the bottom-three with just five games left. Their next two games are against formidable duo Arsenal and Manchester United.
But Southgate remains defiant despite facing UEFA Champions League and FA Cup semi-finalists in their next two fixtures.
"Everybody will look at our fixtures, as we have said for a few weeks, and feel that we are gone, but we are still just managing to hang in there," he said.
"You just don't know what can happen in football, you really don't.
"All the teams we play have got something to play for, so they have got their own pressures.
Fighting talk
"The one thing we know is that we are going to fight right through and see where it takes us.
"We would have loved the three points today, but I have always felt we would probably need to go to Newcastle and win, and that looks like it is still going to be the case.
"But who knows what might happen between now and then because we are not just going to sacrifice the next two fixtures.
"We have got to go and try to get something from them, and we have done that in the past couple of years."
It might have been so different had Fulham goalkeeper Mark Schwarzer not returned to haunt the club he served with such distinction over more than 11 years.
The Australian, who rejected the chance to extend his stay at the Riverside to join Fulham, pulled off a superb 47th-minute save to keep out Tuncay Sanli's header and with it, repel the Teessiders' best chance to break the deadlock.
Southgate added: "It was a fantastic cross from Jeremie [Aliadiere], it was a great late run from Tuncay and a great header, and it was an outstanding save."
