GARETH SOUTHGATE has urged his players to emulate West Ham’s great escape trick of 2007 and secure victory in their next two games – against Arsenal and Manchester United.

After failing to take back to back victories at the Riverside, the Middlesbrough manager admitted they now had to pull off some “strange” results to keep alive their Premier League survival challenge.

And he took heart from the Hammers’ against-all-odds run during their relegation dogfight two years ago that saw them emerge with three points at both Old Trafford and the Emirates.

Ahead of Saturday’s trip to Arsenal, a side who’ve not beaten Boro in their last five meetings, Southgate refused to be daunted.

“I’m not sure there’s ever a good time to be going to Champions League semi-finalists,’’ he insisted.

“We know the size of the task but there’s no game in football that’s a lost cause.

We’ll set up sensibly but we know we need to pick up some points over the next couple of weeks.

“We do take encouragement from what Fulham did last year and the fact that West Ham won at Arsenal and Manchester United in their run-in the year before.

“The team that gets out of it ends up picking up strange and unexpected results and we know we’ll have to do that.”

Irrespective of their final league position, Boro will conduct a major inquest over the summer to identify the reasons why a season that began with hopes of Europa League qualification became a battle for survival.

Southgate admitted that he’s started to reflect on the issues that derailed the current campaign.

“There will be some frustration but it’s from weeks and months back,’’ he said.

“There were things that you’d do differently and there were things that were totally out of our control. December and January was very unsettling and that was outside our control.

“The time for the real inquest into that is later. I’m not sure our finances are where Fulham’s were last summer or West Ham were the year before that but we’re in there, we’ve got to keep fighting to stay in the division.

That’s the carrot and that’s what we’ll continue to do.”

Southgate admitted he’s been weighing up which of Boro’s rivals are still threatened by relegation.

“I think Stoke have moved out of it and they’ve possibly got enough now and one result would be enough for Portsmouth but I think the others are still in there, certainly Hull, Blackburn, ourselves and Sunderland,” he said.

Newcastle United, who now sit one point below Southgate’s side following Sunday’s defeat at Tottenham, can also be added to that list.

■ Tickets for Boro’s trip to Newcastle on Monday, May 11 are on sale to season card holders.

Depending on demand, Boro will receive up to 2,800 tickets for the game which is being screened live on Setanta Sports.

Tickets are priced £29 (adults), £23 (over-65s) and £16 (under-16s).

Any remaining tickets will go on sale to Boro Pride members on Monday April 27.

General sale of any remaining tickets will be from 9.30am on Thursday, April 30.

Boro will receive up to 2,950 tickets for the final game of the season, at West Ham on Sunday, May 24 (4pm).

Tickets, priced £45 (adults) and £22.50 (over-65s, under-16s), will go on sale to Season Card holders at 9.30am on Tuesday May 5 before remaining tickets are made available to Boro Pride members from May 11 and general sale May 14.

Boro have joined forces with National Express to make a football special available with tickets priced £45 (adults) and £23 (under-16s).

A limited number of first class tickets will also be available at £80 (adults) and £40 (under-16s). Football special tickets can only be booked once fans are in possession of a valid matchday ticket, train times to be confirmed.