MIDDLESBROUGH boss Steve McClaren has praised the performances of his young guns during his first year in charge.

The Boro boss handed 17-year-old winger Stewart Downing his first team debut at Ipswich Town on Wednesday night - and the teenager acquitted himself superbly.

Downing's inclusion was another indication that McClaren is more than willing to give youth its chance.

The Riverside chief has already given wing-back David Murphy, 18, and wide-man Luke Wilkshire, 20, a taste of life at the top-level and they too showed they were not afraid to pit their wits against the best in this country.

And McClaren suggested that next season he could be ready to select the highly-rated youngsters more often.

"Putting Stewart in is always something we have wanted to do and we just felt it was time to give him his opportunity," said McClaren, who knows Liverpool, Manchester United and Tottenham have all taken an interest in the player.

"The young lads have shown what they can do and then there are the likes of Stockdale and Queudrue, who are both still only young, and it bodes well for the future.

"It's good to see that we have got youngsters coming through and if they can put in performances like that then we can only be positive about things.

"Stewart's performance was as good a debut as I've seen and that is what Murphy and Wilkshire have done already."

After Boro's 1-0 defeat at Ipswich McClaren received another blow to his already crippling injury list.

Influential centre-back Gareth Southgate looks doubtful for this Saturday's clash with Chelsea after he suffered a broken nose.

And he could be joined on the sidelines by Robbie Stockdale and Paul Ince who both took knocks against the relegation-threatened Tractor Boys.

"We don't know whether Gareth will be fit but that would be a blow for us," said McClaren, who had Gianluca Festa, Ugo Ehiogu, Jonathan Greening, Alen Boksic, Mark Wilson, Dean Windass, Noel Whelan, Robbie Mustoe and Phil Stamp missing on Wednesday.

"Gareth had an accidental clash across his face late on and that's what we need every player to be able to take. You talk about sweat and blood and there are a lot of players in there who have worked damn hard for us and have got nothing to show for it.

"We hope there will be two or three players coming back for Saturday. I don't know about Dean but we are hoping Ugo and Greening could return.

"Robbie and Incey took knocks so we'll assess those. And I might have to start taking the players out of the Under 11s because they are getting younger and younger."

Boro still lie in ninth place after the midweek loss but McClaren admits he is more than relieved to be in the top half.

Ipswich's three points means they lie just two points behind Sunderland with two games to play, but they still face a tough task to preserve their Premiership status.

George Burley's men take on Manchester United this weekend and then Liverpool on the last day of the season and McClaren can look on as a neutral knowing his side are already safe.

"It's far better being on 45 points than being down there that's for sure," said McClaren. "We're not satisfied with that and we've worked hard to get into that position.

"We've got two games to go and we will be working just as hard to make sure we try to pick up points.

"I thought we should have got something from the Ipswich game. The players were a bit unfortunate.

"I don't like losing any football matches and we lost to a scrappy goal which annoyed me.

"But it was a great performance from some of the fringe players and I was pleased we performed so well. I felt that we really should have got something because the amount of crosses we got in surprised them. But that's been our problem all season and it's continuing to be so."

Read more about Middlesbrough here.