ON the first anniversary of his appointment as Middlesbrough manager, Tony Mowbray has shattered a common misconception about his team.

Eyebrows raised and ears pricked up, he was responding to an assumption during a press conference yesterday that Boro’s recruits from the Scottish Premier League have all flopped.

Mowbray has only been responsible for signing one player from north of the border – Merouane Zemmama from Hibernian – as the rest were brought in by his predecessor Gordon Strachan.

Kris Boyd and Lee Miller certainly disappointed, Willo Flood and Kevin Thomson were hampered with injuries, Zemmama is being kept out by midfielders who are on-form while Barry Robson, Scott McDonald and Stephen McManus have done well.

The latter three were examples Mowbray was quick to cite.

He said: “Who has struggled?. “Let’s talk about it. Has Barry Robson struggled? Iam not sure if they have struggled. I think they are very hard-working players.

“I’m not sure the Scottish players have not done well. Here we are sitting third in the league. Scott McDonald works his socks off for the team every week.

“Part of the reason for all our clean sheets is the fact we defend from the front and Scott is a big part of that.

“While he has not scored ten goals already, he has played his part in helping the team.

“Also, anybody who says Barry Robson has not been a success at this club is wrong. Just look at his desire, his commitment and his energy.

“Steve McManus has just got himself back into the Scotland squad having played in our team.

“I think the Championship is hugely more attritional.

“There are more teams as good as, on any given day, as you are.

“In the SPL, the gulf of quality between the Old Firm and the rest is a huge gap.

“On a given day, some can beat them but they rarely do. In the Championship, there is more chance of that happening.”

Mowbray also scotched the idea he had any problem working with players he had sold to Boro while he was Celtic manager.

He added: “The decisions to let some of them leave Celtic were financial. The bottom line was that we (Middlesbrough) had a lot of money to spend at the time.

“When Gordon Strachan came knocking on our (Celtic’s) door with lots of money for players we thought we could allow to go both in terms of the fee offered and where there contract situations were.

“That is just football – if somebody offered you more money than you think is the player’s value is at the time.

£In relation to where his contract situation is, business is business.

“So some of them left knowing they were good players but we got really good money for them at the time. There was no rift.

“If I thought it would be a major issue, why would I drop myself in a position where I would be fighting from day one?

“It was never a question with any of those players of me saying to them ‘no I don’t want you and I’m going to sell you’.

“Some of those players would have wanted to leave because they would have known what their new salary was going to be.”

Mowbray was quick to dispel rumours of a border raid for Partick Thistle hot prospect Aaron Sinclair.

Of the defender, he said: “With total respect to the young man, I have never heard of him.

“What I will say is I am sure the boy has great talent and let’s hope the kid has a great career. We hvae just put our scouting network together and it has not yet stretched its tentacles to Partick Thistle.”