Garry Monk was understandably more than happy to forget about his depressing to his former club Leeds United where Boro went down to a disappointing defeat.

Middlesbrough side bounced back in splendid fashion as they notched an important 3 points on Wednesday night with a comprehensive 2-0 win over Steve Cotterill’s struggling Birmingham City.

Britt Assombalonga’s first-half brace pushed Middlesbrough back into the Championship play-off places and the win means Monk’s men have put together a decent run of form with 4 wins out of 5.

Speaking after the game, the Boro boss said:

“Overall, it was the response we were looking for,”

“There was lots of good play in our game, and there were lots of good chances as well.

“I thought it was a comfortable win really. We had an excellent first half with some really good play, and should probably have come in a few more goals ahead. We didn’t, and then you know there will be a response and they will have a period where they throw caution to the wind.

“They did that at the start of the second half, but I thought once we got to grips with that and came through it again, we created more opportunities.

“Overall, it was exactly the response to Sunday we were looking for. There were some good chances, and ultimately a clean sheet and three points was what we were looking for in terms of our response.”

Monk is famous for not singling out players for praise but he could not ignore the contribution from Assamblonga, who has now become the second-highest goalscorer in the Championship and could well be the man Monk leads on to drive Boro’s promotion push with the goals he can provide.

“It’s for other people to decide how good he is,” said the Middlesbrough boss. “But I’m very pleased with Britt, like I am with all the other players, and he’s working well.

“It’s great that your attacking players and your striker are scoring goals because you know that’s what they like to do. It gives them confidence, but I’m not overly concerned with who scores the goals.

“For me, it’s more about winning games, trying to perform and trying to improve. And then when we suffer a negative result, it’s about trying to show a good response. Ultimately, that was what we came here to do.”

So Boro look to be very much on the up and the future is looking bright.