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HULL CITY v MIDDLESBROUGH - TO HULL AND BACK FOR SOUTHGATE
Middlesbrough boss Gareth Southgate has ordered his troops not to allow an FA Cup giant-killing act to derail their recovery.
The Teessiders head for Coca-Cola Championship strugglers Hull on Saturday on the back of a seven-point haul over Christmas which has helped to drag them away from the Barclays Premiership relegation zone.
However, Southgate has warned any complacency against Phil Brown's men, who have staged a fightback themselves with two successive league victories, could prove disastrous.
He said: "I feel we have still got a tremendous amount of work to do and if we start to think we have turned a corner or that we can take our foot off the gas, then we will have a problem.
"I do not believe we can afford to allow people to relax. We have got to make sure we are fully focused on what we are doing.
"We had an acceptable Christmas programme in terms of the points return, but there are still plenty of big matches ahead of us."
Southgate played in the last Wembley FA Cup final with former club Aston Villa, a 1-0 defeat by Chelsea, and twice reached the semi-finals with Boro only to lose to Arsenal in 2001-02 and West Ham last season.
He knows the romance of the competition and equally the pitfalls for top-flight clubs who do not produce their best against lower league opposition.
Southgate said: "I have had a lot of semi-final defeats and the one defeat in the finals.
"But even so, lots of players do not get to play in a semi. FA Cup semi-finals are good occasions.
"I did not go to as many finals as I would have liked, but it would be great for us to have a good run in the competition now as a club.
"In the cup, you have to understand you have to perform well on the day and when you play a team from lower in the league than you are, they might perform on a one-off occasion to a higher level because they have got players who have played at a higher level and are capable of doing it.
"That does not always work out. Sometimes the lower divisions team do not perform at a higher level.
"But we cannot affect what the other team does, we have just got to make sure our own performance is good."
Southgate will make a late decision on former England team-mate Jonathan Woodgate, who suffered a knee injury in Monday's 3-1 Barclays Premiership victory over Sheffield United and will not be risked if he is not fully fit.
If he does not make it, right-back Abel Xavier could move into the middle alongside Austrian Emanuel Pogatetz, who has been a revelation this season in what he considers to be his best position.
The 23-year-old has managed to shed his "Mad Dog" nickname with a series of excellent displays, and he admits he is happy to have done so.
He said: "Last season was my first over here and I was very excited to play in the Premiership.
"Maybe sometimes I went a little bit over the limit, but this season, I am calmer. I knew what I had to expect and I concentrate more on the game now than on other things.
"That nickname is in the past now. I have improved into a new player, a better player, I think.
"I am the person I am. I am naturally a defender and a defender has to be hard, you cannot be soft.
"But you have to know what your limits are and I am doing that this season so far."
By Bettingzone.co.uk
Used with permission.
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