TONY Mowbray admits he is enduring his toughest spell in management as he attempts to halt the spectacular slide that has ruined Middlesbrough's season.

After starting the year in third position, a run of two wins from 16 matches has sent Boro tumbling to seven points outside the play-off places with five games to play.

No other Championship side has fared as badly since the turn of the year, indeed no club in the entire Football League has picked up fewer points than Middlesbrough in 2013.

The decline in their form has been dramatic, and in the ten years he has spent alongside his long-term number two, Mark Venus, Mowbray has never experienced such a chronic and prolonged slump.

"We haven't had a spell like this in all the years we've been involved in management," said the Boro boss. "It's tough. We've had losing spells in the past, where we've had to bounce back, but we've invariably done that pretty quickly. We've won games, got back on a roll and been back up and running again.

"This has been different. The run has been difficult because, while we've beaten Leeds and Cardiff, there have been way too many defeats against teams we should have beaten.

"There have been games where I felt we did enough to win, but it just didn't happen. It's not as though we've been hopeless in every game, but the statistics are there and you can't hide away from them."

Instead of shying away from harsh reality, Mowbray has left no stone unturned in an attempt to identify the causes of Boro's capitulation.

Injuries have played their part, along with key players failing to recapture the form they displayed in the first half of the season, and there is an acceptance that Boro's scouting procedures will have to be modified in an attempt to guarantee better value for money in the future.

However, Mowbray denies that too many tactical and personnel alterations have contributed to his side's decline.

"With runs like this, you analyse everything, and that's what we've been doing," he said. "We've had meetings with all different departments - the medical department, because we've had way too many injuries, the sports science department, because there are issues around fitness, and the scouting department because we have to look at where we're going to go next year."You look at the tactics and how you're playing, but if you compare that side of things to the first half of the season, I don't think too much has changed.

"I manage the way I manage. I've done it for ten years and had relative success. When you don't win games, people will criticise. But I've been managing this way for a long time now and won a lot of football matches."

In truth, the personal criticism levelled at Mowbray has been surprisingly muted given that promotion is now extremely unlikely.

There have been mutterings of discontent, and even an odd shout of 'You don't know what you're doing' at Hull last weekend, but few supporters have openly called for Mowbray's head, something the boss attributes to a general understanding of Boro's financial position.

"For a lot of years, Middlesbrough fans had the riches of the Premier League and were able to watch top, top players," he said. "I'd like to think there's an understanding that we haven't had that luxury."What I inherited was what we had to deal with. The chairman had a real go with the last manager, and spent some real money to try to get out of this league, but from the day I walked in the building, I think there's an understanding that circumstances have changed.

"There's an understanding of what we're working with, yet we're all frustrated at the way things have gone and the run we're on."

Jonathan Woodgate is unavailable for tomorrow's home game with Brighton, while George Friend will not play again this season unless Boro make the play-offs.

Kieron Dyer, Marvin Emnes and Lukas Jutkiewicz are also rated as extremely doubtful for the visit of a Brighton side three places above Boro in the table.