RAY PARLOUR, a former member of Arsene Wenger's team of unbeatables at Arsenal, believes Middlesbrough are starting to develop the winning habit themselves.

Boro, whose only defeat in four games was at Highbury, may not be about to go 44 games without losing but Parlour is happy to see his new club start the season well.

And, after Saturday's home win over Crystal Palace, the experienced 31-year-old admitted that the three points were vital after such a comfortable and convincing victory at Fulham last Wednesday.

"I have been fortunate to play at one of the best club's around and I have always been at the top. I have come here for the challenge and hopefully I can keep doing well and winning games," said Parlour.

"There's a good attitude in this team. We don't give up and we have shown that in recent games. That was not here last year, apparently. We know we are capable of scoring and sooner or later a team is going to get a good thrashing.

"It's very important to win, especially after playing three games in six days. After the result at Fulham it was important we followed that up against Crystal Palace. It didn't really matter how we did it we just knew we needed them."

Due to the international break, Boro must wait until a week on Saturday before they can aim to continue in the promising early-season form.

And Parlour is already relishing the prospect of Steve Bruce's well-fancied Birmingham City arriving at the Riverside.

The midfielder seems to have already developed an understanding with George Boateng in the middle of Steve McClaren's side and they were worked hard by a determined Palace outfit on Saturday.

"Now we have Birmingham and we can go into that happy," said Parlour. "To beat Fulham was a good result and sometimes that can take it out of you.

"Games with Palace, West Brom and Norwich are all going to be hard because they are all going to work incredibly hard against you. Sometimes people forget how hard they work.

"But we sit fourth in the league and we have started well. We only had one point last season and now we want that to continue and hopefully we can challenge for the top six."

And Parlour rated Jimmy Floyd Hasselbaink's free-kick as up there with similar strikes he has seen from Thierry Henry and David Beckham.

"Who is the best at free-kicks? Beckham has always been good. Henry is good at them. In fact a lot of players I have played with can deliver a free-kick at good times. But Jimmy's was fantastic and we needed something like that to get the points," said Parlour.