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TONY Mowbray is tonight aiming to complete a hat-trick of Friday night victories.

Boro have done well so far in front of the live TV cameras this season, beating Blackburn Rovers at Ewood Park and Sheffield Wednesday at the Riverside three weeks ago.

Now Mowbray’s men have to overcome struggling Birmingham City at St Andrew’s, a fixture which begins a sequence of three successive away games.

Boro travel to Peterborough on December 8 and then take on Swansea City in the Capital One Cup, but the immediate priority is to take all three points tonight.

“We’ve got three away games on the bounce,” said Mowbray.

“We shouldn’t be fearful of the away games and yet they’re always difficult. No more difficult than Birmingham. They are a big city club with a good support and we have to go there and show them what a good side we are.

“Birmingham will be highly motivated to put right their problems at home.

“They’ll have an expectant crowd and the game’s live on TV so they’ll have no greater motivation to perform.

“We’re looking for a performance similar to Cardiff but this time when the chances come along we have to put them in the net.”

Tuesday’s 3-0 win against Huddersfield pushed Boro back up to third in the table and the club will go joint top with Cardiff if they overcome Birmingham.

Not that Mowbray is getting carried away.

“At the moment we are trying to tick along accumulating points to put ourselves in a position where we can really compete after the New Year,” he said.

The Boro boss is unlikely to make too many changes from the side that beat Huddersfield.

He admitted that he would probably give Jonathan Woodgate, Faris Haroun and George Friend an extra week to get over their injuries but Grant Leadbitter is expected to return after serving a one-match ban.

The manager is relatively comfortable doing that because of the depth of his squad, which he claims is stronger and has got more spirit than last season.

“We’ve got some really hard-working, honest players,” said Mowbray.

“I think the squad’s a bit deeper this year. I think the camaraderie among the group is stronger this season, the respect for each other is strong and hopefully that allows you to bounce back from negative results.

“The players dig deep to find winning performances because they really care.”