IN-FORM goalkeeper Mark Schwarzer believes Middlesbrough have suffered the reality-check the squad needed.

Defeat to Charlton on Sunday was the club's first in five games and praise was being lavished on Steve McClaren's men from all quarters.

However, Aussie stopper Schwarzer admits the reverse at The Valley should act as a reminder that Boro will not be a team pushing for the title come May.

But he insists the Teessiders will soon bounce back and hopefully stake a claim for place in Europe.

"We've played extremely well up to this point, but Sunday was by far our worst performance of the season," said Schwarzer, who celebrated his 30th birthday earlier this month.

"Hopefully we can rectify it. I'm confident we can regain the form before that result.

"But we're not going to be a team up there vying for the championship - we're not an Arsenal or a Man United, who are going to win basically every week.

"We're a team striving to be up there and we are going to have hiccups along the way."

McClaren pointed to the international break as a factor in Boro's poor display in south east London.

But Schwarzer does not believe it was just down to the gap in Premiership fixtures, and he suggested footballers should always be ready for their domestic games.

"I suppose we would have preferred there were no international breaks when we were on such a good run," Schwarzer told the official Boro website.

"But in a way it's no real excuse. It's a Premier League game, we had time together to get things sorted out but we are all disappointed with the way we played.

Boro play Leeds United - now managed by former Boro head coach Terry Venables - at the Riverside on Saturday and McClaren has a couple of injury headaches.

Alen Boksic should have shrugged off the foot injury which kept him out of the Charlton clash, while wing-back Robbie Stockdale and reserve keeper Mark Crossley have both picked up niggles.

And now influential midfielder George Boateng has revealed he is undergoing treatment after an early heavy challenge from Addicks' striker Shaun Bartlett.

"My ankle bone is bruised and it's quite painful," said the Dutchman, who moved to Boro in the summer from Aston Villa. "I'll have treatment all this week and see how it reacts. If we're lucky it will ease off by the weekend.

"I was on the end of a horrendous tackle inside two minutes - by Bartlett, I think - and I couldn't walk after that."

Meanwhile, Boro are understood to have signed talented Dutch youngster Sergio van Kanten. The 18-year-old midfielder has been on trial from

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