STEVE McCLAREN last night admitted he made a move for former Newcastle United striker Les Ferdinand but was rebuffed by Tottenham.

Reports this week have suggested the out of favour Spurs star was in talks with Boro over a move to Teesside.

However, McClaren has revealed Ferdinand will not become his latest recruit despite being on the look out for a new forward.

The Boro chief said: "He was a name that was mentioned a few weeks ago and yes I did inquire about his availability.

"But Tottenham don't want to let him go."

Ferdinand, 36, is just one of a number of front men McClaren has considered moving for.

And the Boro boss, whose side travel to Fulham tomorrow searching for their first League away goal since September 28, is still waiting to hear whether his loan bid for Derby's Malcolm Christie has been successful.

McClaren approached the Rams last week with a view to taking Christie and teammate Chris Riggott on three-month loan deals, ahead of permanent transfers.

But the Derby board are continuing to stall on giving Boro a decision - choosing to bide their time in the hope of securing money up front for the pair.

It is thought the Riverside outfit, though, will not have sufficient finances to fund deals until the summer.

And McClaren admits that he understands why cash-strapped Derby are keen to receive money up front.

"Everybody wants the best for their football club and I suppose that's why we are still talking," said McClaren.

"They want a better deal and we want a good deal as well."

Massimo Maccarone and Szilard Nemeth are Boro's top-scorers this season with five goals each.

And McClaren is desperate to boost his attacking options in a bid to try to strengthen competition for places.

But he is confident his front-men will be able to go on an impressive form - similar to that which has seen Southampton's James Beattie top the Premiership scoring charts with 15 goals.

"We have not had one person scoring our goals, they have been spread about more," said McClaren.

"And if you look at last season our top-scorer was Alen (Boksic) who scored eight and Noel had seven to his name. They can score we know that, it's just they only seem to score at home.

"James Beattie scored five goals in 53 games after joining Southampton originally and he failed to score in the opening ten of this season, now look at him.

"And I think my strikers are more than capable of going on a run like that."

Boro travel to Loftus Road tomorrow looking to end a miserable away run - they have not won in the top-flight since defeating Tottenham 3-0 over three months ago.

And McClaren admitted he could be ready to hand Noel Whelan only his second start of the season after his terrific goal against Southampton seven days ago.

"Noel is certainly doing everything in his powers to try to convince me that he deserve that chance," said the former Manchester United number two.

"It wasn't just his goal. It was his all-round play and his attitude. That's the kind of thing we need at this football club. Noel epitomised that in the second half last week.

"He has had to be very patient. He would have played earlier had he not got injured against Chelsea a few weeks earlier."

But McClaren was playing down his side's dreadful away form - pointing to many other top sides with disappointing records outside their own stamping ground.

"People keep going on about our away form but there's not many teams with cracking away form," he said.

"That's why the League is so tight, last year there were eight or nine teams at the bottom. This season there are about eight or nine teams in the middle.

"Everybody is improving every year.

"And if you look at it everybody is improving their home form and not their away form."

McClaren includes John Eustace, on a one month loan from Coventry City, in tomorrow's squad and Mark Wilson is back in contention for a place.

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