STEWART DOWNING has urged his Middlesbrough team-mates to forget about what other teams are doing at the foot of the Premier League – and devote all of their attention to ensuring they claim another victory against Fulham on Saturday.

With Sunderland losing against Manchester United last weekend, Boro’s 3-1 win over Hull lifted them to within two points of safety.

A follow-up win over Fulham would take Boro out of the bottom three if Sunderland fail to beat the Tigers, but Downing insists the Teessiders cannot afford to worry about what others are doing.

Instead, he has told his team-mates to concentrate on building on last weekend’s success when the Cottagers visit the Riverside.

“We’re determined to win again, we have to win,” said Downing, who has taken the captain’s armband following Emanuel Pogatetz’s knee injury.

“There’s no point letting all our hard work go to waste.

“I thought we deserved the win, although I’ll admit I thought, ‘Here we go again’ when we conceded another sloppy goal from a cross.

“But we responded well.

We had all the talk beforehand from Hull saying that we were this and we were that.

“We showed that we didn’t need to talk – we did our talking on the pitch.

“We can’t worry about what other teams are doing, we just have to do our bit and I’m confident we’ll get out of it, especially if we play the way we did against Hull.”

Downing watched Matthew Bates break his Premier League scoring duck against the Tigers, something he has been unable to do himself in the first 32 matches.

The winger admits he is disappointed at his lack of goals, but claims the gravity of Boro’s league position makes points far more important than individual landmarks.

“It was great for Batesy to score his first goal, and what a time to do that, but to be honest, we don’t care who scores,” said Downing.

“We just need goals and that win on Saturday has given the lads a visible boost.

We have to do it all over again against Fulham and there’s no reason why we can’t.

■ Boro Pride members can book seats for the forthcoming home game with Manchester United from 9.30am tomorrow, before a general sale from Tuesday, April 21.

The Premier League leaders are set to visit the Riverside for a 4pm kick-off on Sunday, May 3, although the match will be switched to 12.45pm on Saturday, May 2 if United qualify for the Champions League semi-final tonight.