STEVE McCLAREN last night defended his raging Austrian Emanuel Pogatetz after the hot-tempered defender went ballistic following an elbow in the face by Kevin Davies.

Pogatetz, nicknamed Mad Dog by his team-mates, was furious after being left requiring five stitches to a head wound after the clash with Davies when the pair jumped for a header.

The former Bayer Leverkusen left-back then had to be restrained by his team-mates after confronting the Bolton striker and was booked for his efforts.

And, after Stuart Parnaby had netted the injury-time winner for the home side, Pogatetz ran towards Davies punching the air before joining the celebrations with the rest of his team-mates.

Then, at the final whistle, Boro coach Steve Round had to intervene when the two players clashed again.

It is the confrontational side of his game is something McClaren is urging Pogatetz to eradicate.

"Manu was not too pleased, he was incensed because he was bleeding," said McClaren.

"There was an over-reaction, and anyone who has seen him will know he has a tendency to do that. He has to curb things like that.

"It was sensible refereeing at the time, although I thought the situation could have been handled better because the play seemed to go on too long before it stopped while Manu had blood on his face."

Bolton boss Sam Allardyce claimed there was no deliberate elbow from Davies on the Boro player.

"Pogatetz lost his cool. That's where the problem lay. Kevin did absolutely nothing wrong and has nothing to defend, it was a clear and complete accident," said Allardyce.

Unfortunately the unsavoury incident overshadowed an exceptionally exciting Premiership fixture in which either side could have ended up winning.

In the end, though, Bolton's search for a Premiership win at the Riverside Stadium goes on. They have not won there since 1996 and this defeat did little to improve an away record of just one win in nine on their travels this season.

Despite the win, McClaren, whose side have conceded 52 goals this term, was not too happy with some of his side's play.

"It was one of those games you get that is a manager's nightmare," he said.

"The fans and everyone watching on TV loved it but managers and coaches pull their hair out.

"We conceded too many goals. It was a great win and we showed great character. We went back to 3-3 and looked like we had no energy to go on but won it in the final seconds.

"This was a big game for us and we need to get to 40 points as soon as possible. We also need results to gather momentum and we have got those three points.

"We are now on 37 and there's still work to do before we are successful."

When Jimmy-Floyd Hasselbaink scored his second of the match and Boro's third just after half-time it was the Teesside club's 500th goal since the Premiership's inception.

And, with Aiyegbeni Yakubu in the frame to come back into the starting line-up in Basel on Thursday, McClaren paid tribute to Hasselbaink and strike-partner Mark Viduka after yesterday's win.

"They have performed well together many times," said McClaren.

"They compliment each other well and they were a real handful for Bolton.

"When you look at it Mark has four goals in his last five games. Jimmy has something like ten in ten starts and Yak is our top scorer.

"It's a squad game and it's good to have three strikers like we have."

Captain Gareth Southgate is expected to recover from a back problem in time to face Basel on Thursday, while Chris Riggott is back in training this week after suffering from a calf problem.

Read more about Middlesbrough here.