COLIN COOPER described as “bloody hard” the challenge facing Middlesbrough’s confidence- drained players ahead of their crucial home game with Hull City on Saturday.

The Tigers will be backed by about 3,500 supporters, with Boro fans also expected to turn up in numbers, but Cooper warned that even the most experienced player can crumble in such a daunting atmosphere.

After enduring the bitter taste of relegation both as a Middlesbrough and Nottingham Forest player, the former defender was speaking from experience as he described how the fear factor can play a huge part as the season draws to a conclusion.

“I’m not a mug because I’ve played in sides where confidence is low,” revealed the first-team coach. “I know, having been in teams that have struggled, that when you’re not playing with 100 per cent confidence and you’ve got to cross that white line, it’s the hardest thing to do in the world.

“Unless you’ve done it, you can’t tell anybody how hard it is. And believe me it is bloody hard.

“But that’s what your job is, that’s what you’re a professional footballer for – you want to play in big occasions.

Well, this is a big occasion, at the wrong end of the league, but it’s still a big occasion.

“For a team that’s low on confidence, coming home can sometimes be a scary thought. But I know for a fact our fans are totally behind the lads.”

With Emanuel Pogatetz and Gary O’Neil ruled out through injury and suspension respectively, Cooper insisted that the rest of the squad prepare themselves to face Phil Brown’s fellow-strugglers head-on.

Cooper said: “We’ll need all of the characters in our side to turn up on Saturday, people who are prepared to go onto that pitch and say ‘here I am – I’m ready for it’.”

Following the heavy defeat at Bolton, that further dented morale on Teesside, it came as no surprise to hear Cooper confirm that a sombre mood pervaded the training ground this week.

But after some tough-talking during Monday’s training session, he now believes the coaching staff must help boost the player’s confidence ahead of their must-win clash.

He added: “We try to lift the mood. Our job, as much as it probably hurts the players, is to tell them to forget last week and focus on this week.

Now, I know certain players who just go with an absolutely open attitude – people like Tuncay, Adam Johnson who just get out on the pitch and play. But there are others who think differently, who think about themselves, the game and the surroundings.

“Let’s not pretend that Saturday isn’t anything other than a massively important game of football – a game that means so much to the players and the fans. If we as a coaching staff say to them ‘it’s just another game of football so get on with it’ then I think you’re being very naïve.”

After getting off to the worst possible start at the Reebok, Cooper admits that Boro must get the Riverside crowd on their side by dominating the early stages against Hull.

“Apart from at Bolton, we’ve started well in every game – going back a long time. The first goal is very important.

Even the top four or five teams in this League struggle to come back and win after going behind. It’s a fact. In games when we’ve gone behind we’ve only gone on to take a total of three points. So we need to start the game well and hopefully get in front.

“And from my experience we must make sure we don’t concede any more sloppy goals. That is just as important in the course of a match as playing ‘all-singing alldancing’ football at the other end of the pitch.”

Boro denial

REPORTS last night linking Juninho with a scouting and ambassadorial role at Middlesbrough have been emphatically denied by the club.

The diminutive Brazilian, who remains one of the most popular players in Boro’s history, was claimed to be in talks ahead of him becoming his former club’s South American representative next season.

But The Northern Echo understands there is no truth in the claims that had originally been reported by the Brazilian press.