GARETH Southgate admits that tomorrow night’s home game with Derby County will reveal whether his Middlesbrough players possess the mental strength needed to mount a credible promotion push.

Saturday’s 1-0 defeat to Watford was Boro’s third home reverse in succession, and was accompanied by more outpourings of discontent from a crowd that dropped below the 19,000 mark for the second time this season.

With Southgate’s own position certain to be called into question if the losing run is not halted in 24 hours time, tomorrow’s game with the Rams could have repercussions that go far beyond the possibility of a fall from the play-off places.

The current crisis cannot go on forever, and a resolute Southgate accepts his players need to stand up and be counted if events are not to spiral out of control.

“We have a game here on Tuesday, and however difficult the players might find that, or however much they might be lacking in confidence, they have to get on with it,” said the Boro boss.

“We have to make sure that we’re brave enough to take the ball and make the right decisions.

“We have to handle the pressure because, if you want to achieve anything in your career, you have to be able to handle pressure.

“We’re going to find out if they can do that.

“It’s a case of having to step up to the mark now and make sure that whatever they failed to do (on Saturday), they get right on Tuesday.

“(Saturday’s) defeat was on the back of two other poor performances and we’re going to have to start answering the questions that teams are posing us at home.

At the moment, we’re not doing that.”

In particular, Southgate admits his players need to be much stronger in adversity.

Boro have not come from behind in a single home game this season, and if Derby were to take the lead tomorrow evening, the Boro boss would be looking for an immediate response.

“We’ve lost three on the bounce, so when we go a goal behind, we don’t make the right decisions,” he said.

“That lack of confidence in terms of playing at home is a complete contrast to how we’ve been playing away.

“In the away games, we’ve scored in every game and there’s an expectation about them as a group that they’re going to do well.

“In the beginning of the home games they feel that way, but as soon as one or two things start to go wrong, we end up making the wrong decisions at the wrong moments.”

Southgate could opt to start with Marvin Emnes in place of Jeremie Aliadiere tomorrow, but his attacking options are limited following the departure of Tuncay Sanli, Afonso Alves and Marlon King in the summer.

With Caleb Folan likely to be sidelined for at least another month, the Boro boss is considering making an emergency loan signing to furnish his side with a target man, but with a number of his targets struggling for fitness, an arrival is not imminent.

“The striker situation is something we’re monitoring,” said Southgate.

“There are one or two players who might be able to perform that target man role, but they’re not fully fit at the clubs they’re at.

“There’s not that many options in terms of who might be available.

“If we were going to bring someone in, they’d have to be right up to fitness so we could bring them straight into the side.

“Clearly, though, it’s an option that might have had an impact on a game like the Watford one.”