MIDDLESBROUGH boss Tony Mowbray has backed off-form striker Scott McDonald to rediscover his shooting boots and hit the goal trail.
The Australian hitman was left out of Boro’s 2-0 defeat at Nottingham Forest after a poor start to his own campaign, which has only yielded a solitary strike in the 3-1 win at Barnsley back in August.
Given Boro have been heavily reliant on Marvin Emnes to provide the goals this season, Mowbray had been looking to McDonald to back the Dutchman up – only for the ex-Celtic and Motherwell man to come up short.
However, Mowbray hopes being dropped will rattle the Australian’s cage and will be the trigger for him to smash the back of the net – starting with today’s home fixture against Derby County.
Mowbray said: “My thought process around Scott was to break up the pattern of starting and playing.
“In short, to make him angry with me and come off the bench to lash one in.
“Competition is very healthy in all areas of the pitch at times, particularly for forwards who can be selfish and temperamental at times because they need to be scoring goals.
“Across the whole world of football, strikers are the ones at times when they are left out who can have the petulance about them.
“For me, while Scott never showed that the other night, I am hoping leaving him out has stirred something within him which will make him want to prove he can score goals.
“I would never question his work-rate.
“His work ethic with the team has been exceptionally high and played its part with the clean sheets we have had. What he needs to find is the net.
“I am sure we will see McDonald score on a regular basis once he gets that first goal out of the way.”
Boro lost their proud unbeaten record earlier this week at Nottingham but, despite that, it has been a good start to the season.
However, Mowbray is not panicking over the Forest loss and is keen for the players to pick themselves up and continue to accumulate the points to ensure they are in the mix for promotion come the end of the season.
He added: “Any club before a ball has been kicked would take being third in the league after twelve games because you never know how your season will unfold.
“Every team will just see it as a platform because you have to accumulate points.
“When the business end of the season comes around you have to be in touch and string your unbeaten runs and winning sequences together. If you are languishing in the bottom half and you can string four or five wins together it might take you to the fringes of the play-offs.
“If you are already there, though, those wins could propel you right into the top two. Ultimately, the league will unravel itself and I don’t think the top twelve will be tightly packed together as they are now over the next ten games.
“There are a lot of hard-working, well-organised teams in this league and fine margins make a difference.”
