A FRUSTRATED Joseph Job has no idea what the future holds for him on Teesside after realising goals don't guarantee a place in Middlesbrough's starting line-up.

The Cameroon international scored one and had a hand in another to help Boro secure top spot in Group E of the UEFA Cup on Wednesday with a comfortable victory over Partizan Belgrade. The third round draw will be made this morning in Nyon.

However, Steve McClaren is expected to recall summer signings Jimmy Floyd Hasselbaink and Mark Viduka at home to Aston Villa tomorrow.

Job has accepted that his chances in the Premiership are going to be extremely limited.

He has made two league starts since the arrival of the club's star strikers and the last of those was at Arsenal in the second game of the season - a match he scored in.

The 27-year-old wants to know what else he can do to force his way into McClaren's thinking more frequently and he fears he may have to move to find regular football.

"It's too early to say what will happen," said Job, who has one and a half years remaining on his contract. "All I know is I need to play and I want to play. I don't see my situation improving - that's the problem.

"I don't want to spend the second half of the season like I did the first - mainly on the bench. I will have to see how I can improve my situation.

"It's a long time since I have scored. I scored at Arsenal and then the game after I was on the bench. I have hardly started since that day. As a striker you always want to score goals.

"It is annoying. If there was competition between me, Mark and Jimmy then no problem. But so far this season I have felt that there hasn't been any competition. That's very frustrating.

"I will only keep scoring goals if I'm playing. That's the problem and it's not up to me, it's up to the manager. If he plays me I will try to do my best all the time to score."

When McClaren took over from Bryan Robson in the summer of 2001, Job's future looked as if it was going to be away from the Riverside Stadium.

But, after returning from a relatively successful loan spell with Metz in early 2002, he grabbed eight goals last season, despite missing over three months of the campaign through injury.

One of those strikes came in the Carling Cup final at the Millennium Stadium - a victory that handed Boro the opportunity to play in Europe for the first time.

With UEFA Cup duty, Premiership and an FA Cup run about to start, Job accepts that modern football requires a squad system.

But the £3m signing from RC Lens four years ago would still love to be playing a bigger part at Boro, where he is still loved by the fans.

"The team that wins the title this season will have the strongest squad, not just the strongest team. We have lots of games and we can't win something with 11 players," said Job, a player with 44 caps and six goals for his country.

"When the manager first came here he didn't want me to go. He hadn't seen me play and he wanted me to stay and that is why I'm still here today. I'm grateful for that. He has shown he likes me in past years because I have played regularly. But as a footballer when you don't play you are not happy - particularly when you think you deserve to play.

"I am responsible for scoring in the final and helping us get into Europe and I will never forget that. The fans like me and they have a song for me and that is very nice. I would like to think that every time I go on I try to play my best for them."

Job's strike partner on Wednesday, Szilard Nemeth, was also delighted to make his mark against Partizan when he grabbed the opening goal after ten minutes.

The Slovakian's opportunities have also been limited but he said: "I am still happy here and I have one more year of my contract left. so I hope this goal will help me."

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