STEVE McCLAREN has warned his Middlesbrough players to become familiar with 'the European factor' after narrowly losing out to Everton yesterday.

Boro were unable to continue in the same form that saw them make light work of Czech champions Banik Ostrava on Thursday.

That success over Banik was Middlesbrough's first UEFA Cup tie in the club's history and, having clinched a three-goal advantage from the first leg, progress to the group stage looks inevitable.

Providing that is the case, then Sunday afternoon football will be something the Teessiders will have to get used to if McClaren's hope of a top-six Premiership place this season is to be achieved.

And the Middlesbrough boss said: "There is always a European factor after playing in Europe and when you look at the team that played at Everton they didn't play to their full potential.

"They were bound to be effected by the Banik match. It's been an emotional week. It was not just a typical European game, we were making history on Thursday and it was a very physical and emotional experience.

"But we want many more of those type of occasions when we are playing Thursday and Sunday; and we have got to handle the second game better than we did at Everton.

"Even if you are not playing as well as you can, you have to fight and work to get a result."

Jimmy Floyd Hasselbaink and Mark Viduka's goals - they have nine between them already - have been influential in Middlesbrough's promising start to the campaign.

But neither was able find the breakthrough at Goodison Park, and McClaren wants to see the rest of his players grab their fair share of goals.

"We needed a contribution from somewhere else on the pitch. When the front two aren't scoring we need other players to provide the goals," said McClaren, whose side have dropped to sixth in the league.

"The strikers also need decent service and I didn't think they got that in the first half. It's very easy in hindsight to pick faults. But the way the players had performed in other games we had done very well."

One man to receive praise from his manager was goalkeeper Mark Schwarzer.

Schwarzer made a number of fine saves to keep the score level in the first half. McClaren said: "We had Mark to thank for going in at half-time goalless. We did better in the second half but we got done by a sucker-punch when Marcus Bent ran through to score.

"But credit to my players, we kept going and in the end I thought we were very unlucky not to get a result.

"You need to keep clean sheets and we failed to do that. We finished the game strongly and could have got the result. But the performance was not to our usual standard."

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