ANYONE who thinks today’s game will be made easier because of Middlesbrough’s relegation may well be mistaken.

The season is rapidly fading away for Southampton and others, in that mid-table group of clubs which cannot be relegated or reach the top seven.

With eighth place still achievable, it would be easy to think Middlesbrough will be a fairly easy game after their relegation was confirmed with a 3-0 defeat at Chelsea this week.

But there are two reasons why it will be harder than some may think.

At 3-0 down with five minutes to go, the Middlesbrough supporters - who bear in mind had travelled a long way from the north-east to Stamford Bridge - started to chant as one.

You would not blame them if it was of a critical nature, but they were shouting out the name of the Middlesbrough chairman, Steve Gibson, who I have mentioned as being one of those local, successful businessmen who has ploughed a lot of money, time and effort into his club.

The supporters were letting him know they respect his efforts. I would presume they were trying to show how sorry they were, not just for themselves, but for him.

At today’s game at home to Saints, the Middlesbrough players should be reminded of that gesture and give maximum effort as a way of respecting those supporters and their chairman. That’s if they need reminding.

Middlesbrough have taken four points from their last two home games, against Sunderland and Manchester City, under caretaker-manager Steve Agnew and his assistant Joe Jordan, who Saints fans will remember well.

Not only as a Scottish international centre-forward, but as someone who was a legend in Italy, where I signed him from, and a total gentleman off the field.

He’s a good family man and, once he took out two or three front teeth, turned into one of the most difficult and hard-hitting centre-forwards in the game.

I’m sure he will be trying to get the very best out of the Middlesbrough players even though they have already gone down.