Jones delighted with hard fought victory

Last updated : 13 December 2009 By Michael Morris

The gaffer came away from The Riverside after seeing his side beat Middlesbrough by the only goal of the game from Chris Burke. 

"I'm delighted with any win," said Jones.

"It was a hard-fought contest. We played when we could and at times we had to dig deep so it's nice to come here and come away with a victory.

"We've had to work hard because we've lost that little bit of grit and little bit of grind in November but I think that coincided with suspensions and injuries and we just took our eye off the ball a little bit.

"I'm quite happy with the players that we have. We have to strengthen, we know that.

"The only problem is the chairman will think everything is fine and we haven't got to bring anybody else in and I want to bring people in because I want a lot of competition in the place."

Gordon Strachen is still waiting for a firth home win at Middlesbrough manager.

"I don't think in the overall play we deserved to get beat," Strachan insisted.

"I thought my two central midfielders were excellent, Mark Yeates got voted man of the match and Adam Johnson was always a threat while we were lively up front.

"I think they can walk out of here with their heads held high, I don't think we could do that on Tuesday night against Blackpool.

"If you can do that then it's not so bad. Slink out of the ground when you can't look at anybody in the eye, then you have a problem.

"I thought they gave it a right good shot. I thought the confidence was fine.

"The goal... you expect to defend that kind of situation. It was a good delivery but there were still enough people to deal with it."

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