GARY O'NEIL insists the togetherness in the Middlesbrough dressing room will count for nothing this season if it fails to deliver sufficient points to push them clear of relegation trouble.

Despite sitting just a point above third-bottom after nine matches, O'Neil feels now is not the time to accept they will be battling to preserve their Premier League status.

The £5m signing from Portsmouth prefers to stay positive and is looking at climbing the table rather than worrying about the teams below them.

A fourth defeat from five matches - including the Carling Cup exit at Tottenham - has left Middlesbrough struggling at the wrong end of the table.

And at one stage at the City of Manchester Stadium on Sunday they had fallen into the bottom three for the first time this season.

But Ben Hutchinson's first senior goal, Liverpool's late equaliser against Tottenham and Fulham's defeat to Portsmouth all prevented that scenario.

However, with former champions Chelsea next up on October 20, Middlesbrough can ill-afford to rely on other clubs' misfortune continuing.

"We have got to pick up points pretty quickly," said O'Neil.

"I won't be looking at the table this week or next week because it's far too early to be looking at the table and thinking negatively. Eight points from nine games is not enough and we know that.

"Whether we had dropped into the relegation zone or not doesn't matter now - we need to pick up points quickly and if we do that we will not even consider relegation."

Despite the frustrations of suffering at the hands of City, who were largely indebted to the accuracy of Brazilian Elano's shooting on Sunday, O'Neil maintains the spirit remains as strong as it did when he first signed.

Since moving from Portsmouth on August deadline day, Middlesbrough have won only one of six matches - the victory over Birmingham when O'Neil wasn't included in the squad.

However, reflecting on a run of conceding 12 goals in five matches, the 24-year-old said: "The goals we are conceding are disappointing. In both boxes we are struggling.

"There is no falling out among us. We are together and desperate to turn it around. There's no bickering in the squad whatsoever. It showed in the final stages of the City game that we are all together because we kept going. It's just not quite to be at the moment. We are trying.

"There are tiny errors that are changing games. Things are going against us. We have to stop leaking as many goals. To concede a goal a game isn't going to keep you in the top six or seven in the league. Conceding more than that, like we have, and you are going to be struggling."

One of manager Gareth Southgate's biggest problems was that injuries prevented him from fielding any of his first choice strikers from the start at City.

It meant Darlington-born youngster Tom Craddock was handed the unenviable task of playing on his own up front in the first half, while reserves team-mate Hutchinson emerged from the bench to score his first for the club.

As a 16-year-old seven years ago, O'Neil first stepped on to the first team picture at Portsmouth and in his first full season he worked under three separate managers during a disastrous campaign.

So the former England Under-21 international is well placed to pass judgement on how Craddock and Hutchinson will feel having suffered defeat on their full debuts.

"Having to play one up front against Richard Dunne and Micah Richards is no easy task if you have been playing for ten or 15 years. So to come in and have to do that like Tom did was a tough task," said O'Neil.

"I thought Tom did well. He worked his socks off for us and then Ben came on and did the same and got his goal."