KEITH LAMB refuses to accept that Middlesbrough’s relegation to the Championship will mean a massive drop in attendances at the Riverside Stadium next season.

And the chief executive highlighted the last time Boro went down in 1997 as proof that life outside the top tier of the English game does not guarantee low crowds.

Despite Middlesbrough’s struggles last season, their average home gate was just under 28,500 – that would be second only to Derby in last season’s Championship.

But given the frustration felt on Teesside following relegation, it is widely expected that numbers will drop when the season kicks off in August.

There has been a slight dip in season ticket sales up to this point, although there are hopes that the final figure be nearer to last season’s 18,000 mark by the time the new campaign starts.

And Lamb, drawing on the experience of almost 30,000 fans watching the promotionwinning season in 1998, is hopeful the vast majority of their fans will continue to back Middlesbrough in the Football League.

“The last time we were relegated we sold Juninho, Emerson and Fabrizio Ravanelli, we bought Paul Merson and the average gate was around 30,000,” said Lamb.

“Last season Sheffield Wednesday were sixth in the Championship’s average attendances, with just over 21,000. We would expect to be in the top six for most of the season going on that and therefore I would hope our attendances would be in the mid 20s.

“Derby had the highest with 29,000 or so. If we were competing for promotion I would hope we would be in the band of low 20s through to high 20s.

“Experience tells me if we continue to be there then I would like to think we would be budging towards 30 by the time we face Newcastle in March (smiles).”

Lamb’s comments suggest an acceptance that attendances will drop initially, but he outlined a belief that everyone from the chairman through to the manager’s backroom staff are determined to turn around fortunes.

Much has been made of Steve Gibson’s decision to personally eradicate more than £60m from the club’s debts and Lamb claimed such a move highlighted Gibson’s hunger to keep the club in a sound financial state.

Suggestions Gibson had lost his hunger for the role have been discounted by both men in recent weeks, and there is also a determination on Lamb’s part to help take Middlesbrough back up.

“I now have something to do,” he said. “I have the energy and desire to do it. In the Premier League you can become complacent because each season rolls on and on.

“I wouldn’t want to be remembered as someone who ended up taking the club backwards. Overall since I arrived we have taken the club forwards.

“You only had to be in the boardoom after the Aston Villa game, just me and Steve, to know how disappointed we were.

“That’s why we were hurt to hear allegations that we wanted to be relegated. We knew it would be difficult.

What we had to do is plan for the worst and hope for the best.

“That’s what we did for two months. But we knew deep down we were in an hole that would be difficult to climb out of.”