NICKY Southall has turned up the heat ahead of tonight's Premiership fixture with Middlesbrough by criticising the Riverside club for its big money buys over the years.

The Bolton Wanderers winger - brought up on Teesside - was ignored by Boro as a youngster, and he believes the club he supported as a boy have never gone on to a achieve success because they have missed out on local talent.

"It's crazy when I look at how many local lads never got a chance and the club seemed to look elsewhere," said the 29-year-old, who started his career as a YTS with Darlington before moving on to rivals Hartlepool.

"They have brought in players from outside who don't share the same passion and love for the club like local lads would.

"There are a lot of North-East lads who have gone elsewhere for a chance, like Tommy Miller from Hartlepool who has gone to Ipswich.

"The foreign players may look good but as you've seen with say Ravanelli, Emerson and Karembeu, they don't feel for the club like either me or say Jamie Pollock.

"I would have loved to have given it a go, but they never wanted me as a youngster and I never even got offered a trial."

But Southall is convinced that under new manager Steve McClaren, Boro have every chance of making a go of things, despite Saturday's 4-0 defeat at home to Arsenal.

The former Gillingham star is likely to play tonight at the Reebok Stadium after helping Sam Allardyce's side to the 5-0 mauling of Leicester City over the weekend, and Southall insists that Boro are going in the right direction.

"I hope McClaren does turn it around for them, but tonight my thoughts will be with Bolton and making sure we get the three points," said Southall, who only signed in the summer on a Bosman free transer from the Gills.

"What's good is that the new regime has come in and straight away tried to bring in English players.

"The likes of Jon Greening and Mark Wilson will be good for them and that's the way I believe they should go."

l Bolton manager Sam Allardyce has reiterated his view that his newly-promoted side are capable of rattling the Premiership's finest this season.

''The players are determined to do well, are tactically right and their fitness is good," he said.

'''We've got to maintain our form and do it at the Reebok.

"To do that we will have to play the same way as we did at Leicester."