O'Neill backs Southgate to recover at Middlesbrough

Nov 18 2007 By Bill Howell, Birmingham Mail

MARTIN O'Neill believes former Villa skipper Gareth Southgate will come through his current rocky patch at Middlesbrough and become a top manager.

Six defeats and three draws since beating Blues at the beginning of September have sent Boro tumbling to one place above the drop zone, with just two wins and ten points from their opening 13 matches.

Southgate has this week denied newspaper reports that he may become the fifth Premier League manager to lose his job.

But Southgate's predicament could become even more precarious next Saturday.

O'Neill will send his buoyant side out next week at a venue they have relished in the Premier League having won four of their last five visits and rattled in 14 goals.

Moreover, they have won seven and drawn two of their 12 trips to The Riverside, losing just three, and arrive next weekend with an injury-free squad and having just beaten Blues.

Southgate is often perceived to be too gentle in a cut-throat busines, but O'Neill dismisses such notions.

"I wouldn't go along with that. Because someone speaks coherently, and reasonably intelligently, suddenly, they are too nice!

"He definitely has the attributes and the ability to be a really good manager. Time will tell."