WITH Middlesbrough closing in on two cup finals, Jimmy-Floyd Hasselbaink last night admitted he came close to missing one of the biggest months in the club's 129-year history because he feared he had kicked his last ball on Teesside.

Tomorrow's Premiership visit to Charlton kicks off a run of four crucial away games that will go a long way towards shaping Boro's season.

Wednesday's UEFA Cup trip to Roma's Stadio Olimpico precedes a Premiership fixture at Blackburn and an FA Cup return to the Valley and, after scoring seven goals in his last 11 outings, Hasselbaink is sure to play a prominent role in the club's action-packed schedule.

Rewind six weeks, though, and the 33-year-old striker looked certain to be heading out of the Riverside. With Boro refusing to initiate talks over a new contract, Fulham were poised to offer the veteran the security of a two-year-deal at Craven Cottage.

Ultimately, the move failed to materialise but, for the best part of a week, Hasselbaink became convinced his future lay away from Teesside. That it didn't could yet prove to be crucial to the fortunes of both player and club.

"I came very close to leaving in January," said the Dutchman, whose penalty-box tumble enabled Yakubu to earn Boro a first-leg lead ahead of next week's UEFA Cup trip to Rome.

"I don't want to talk about it too much, but there was a time when I thought I might have played my last game for Middlesbrough.

"I suppose I didn't think any of this would be happening just a month down the line, but that's the way football goes sometimes.

"I don't want to go into the ins and outs of everything, but sometimes things happen in football and you have to make choices.

"It isn't always easy, but I am happy with the choice I have made. I am playing football and, ultimately, that has always got to be the most important thing."

Sadly, for Hasselbaink, it has not always been a given this season. While the former Chelsea striker has been a virtual ever-present in the cup competitions, much of his Premiership activity has been restricted to a succession of cameo appearances from the bench.

He started just seven of the first 23 league games this term as Boro boss Steve McClaren preferred to use Yakubu in a lone striker role or paired the impressive Nigerian with Mark Viduka.

Recently, though, the weight of Hasselbaink's goals has made him utterly impossible to ignore. Consequently, his level of involvement has followed the same upward trajectory as the Teessiders' overall form.

"Of course I'm happier when I'm playing in the team," he said. "But I don't think that only applies to me. Every footballer wants to play, and every footballer wants a platform on which they can express themselves.

"You always want to play week in, week out, but that especially applies when you're playing well. I am no different in that respect to any other player.

"It's always enjoyable when you are playing and winning. I'm not saying it's more enjoyable because of everything that happened in January but, at the back of my mind, I am obviously aware that I came close to missing out on this.

"I don't want to talk about what might have been - it's in the past - but things have obviously worked out well because we are playing in Rome next week with a good chance of going through to the quarter-finals of the UEFA Cup."

Before that, though, Hasselbaink's more immediate challenge is to maintain his side's momentum at the Valley. Three successive league wins have all but secured Boro's Premiership status and, just as significantly, established a platform for the club to chase cup success without worrying about the threat of the drop.

"It's all about keeping things going now," said the Dutchman. "We are on a good run at the moment but, as we know only too well, it does not take too long for things to turn around.

"Winning breeds confidence. When you are in a winning mood, it tends to snowball from there. The challenge is to keep it going.

"We have four away games in a row now and they are all important ones. March is going to be a big month for us - we are in a vital stage of the season. There are a lot of games in a small amount of time, but you don't mind that kind of schedule when you are winning."

The speed of Boro's revival has been remarkable, but the bedrock of the club's recovery has been far easier to predict.

After keeping just three Premiership clean sheets in the first five months of the season, McClaren's men have subsequently recorded seven shut-outs in their last ten games.

Gareth Southgate and Chris Riggott have reverted to their usual solid selves in defence, while goalkeeper Mark Schwarzer has weighed in with a succession of timely saves, such as the dramatic late stop that thwarted substitute Edgar Alvarez on Thursday.

The Australian international has admitted his side's defending was "all over the place" earlier this season but, since the nadir of last month's 4-0 home defeat to Aston Villa, Boro's traditional parsimony has returned with a vengeance.

"I don't know if the real Middlesbrough are back yet," said Schwarzer. "But we're certainly on our way. There's still a long way to go, but we are optimistic that we can carry on moving up the table.

"We're defending very well. If you look at any team in the top six of the table, their success is nearly always built on their defence.

"The reason they are up there is because they are very good at the back.

"We're more than capable of scoring goals but, earlier on in the season, we were letting far too many in at the other end. A few months ago, we weren't defending as a team and we paid the price. We were all over the place, but we've tightened things up and the results have been there for everybody to see.

"We're not that far away from the top half of the table and the last 11 games could still enable us to make things very interesting indeed."

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