GARETH Southgate has admitted Middlesbrough’s current plight has taken over his whole life and turned him into a footballing bore.

Boro have been out of the bottom three just once since the end of January, and have just five games left to avoid relegation.

Southgate spends every waking hour trying to plot a way out of trouble and when he leaves Middlesbrough’s Hurworth training complex he takes his problems with him.

“You become quite sad because you wake up thinking about it and you go to bed thinking about it,” said the manager, whose side climbed to third-bottom following the 0-0 draw with Fulham at the weekend.

“There should be more to life than this but at this moment in time, there isn’t a lot more because you’re driven to try to turn it around.

“That’s always been the way. If you want to be successful in anything, you dedicate your life to it and that’s what we’re doing as a group at the moment.

“You do switch off sometimes and I’ve got a young family and when I’m with them I try to give them my undivided attention but once you’ve tucked them up in bed your mind wanders back to what you might do in training over the next few days and how you prepare for matches.

“When the players are giving what they have in the last couple of weeks it’s a lot easier to prepare for matches.”

Boro’s return of four points from a possible six maybe two short of what was required, but an air of positivity has engulfed the players.

According to Stewart Downing they now have an attribute lacking at the bottom of the Premier League – confidence.

“There was a strange atmosphere after the game – we came in and were a bit quiet,” said Downing. “Then there was a bit of a buzz after we realised we played pretty well and were the better team.

“We’ve got to keep playing like that in the last five games.

I’m looking forward to the next few weeks because we’re a confident team at the minute and a lot of teams aren’t.

“There’s no throwing the towel in. The fans are with us all the way – four points from two games isn’t bad.”

With Arsenal and Manchester United next up the game on May 11 against second-bottom Newcastle at St James’ Park could decide Boro’s fate.

“Newcastle is going to be massive but we have two games before then,” said Downing.

“We could go to Arsenal and win and all of a sudden people open their eyes. We should have won there last year and we should have beaten Man. United here last year.

“We’ve already played well against Arsenal this year but they will know it’ll be tough down there.”