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New club. New ground. New start?

Boro need to kick-start their promotion push quickly. A wobble of four points and just two goal from four games has seen their lead eroded and the pack close in while some sections of supporters have got the jitters.

These stumbles happen in every promotion campaign to every team.

At this stage last season Bournemouth went six without a win. Under Bryan Robson in 1995 ‘nailed on’ Boro got battered twice in a week and leaked nine goals in a sustained slump before Uwe arrived as a catalyst. It happens.

It is not necessarily terminal and we should be wary of projecting our own dark fears onto the situation and the team and predicting doom. Now is the time to get behind them.

It is in these moments the team need unconditional support to give them a shove.

And Boro are well placed to reboot the season. They are not trailing and looking to play catch-up. They are joint top and with games in hand.

Victory at MK Dons would transform the dynamics and put them clear with a healthy cushion and a game in hand over third and if they can get clear again then they must not let it slip again.

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Boro have also had a healthy injection of fresh blood during the transfer window. They have signed the Championship proven prolific striker they have courted for a year and a creative midfielder with a great pedigree (though he may be ring rusty) as well as adding bodies in every other department.

Just a few weeks ago everyone was talking about Boro being the best balanced squad and best organised team in the division working to a coherent tactical framework that was being applied clinically.

They had the best bench in the league too packed with talents that would walk into the first team of almost any other team . The pundits were gushing. Opposition managers were in awe. The national press sat up and took notice.

None of that has changed. Boro remain well equipped and placed to push on. And it starts here.

Boro go to franchise outfit MK Dons - cynically spirited into the league at the expense of the real Wimbledon - looking to get back into gear.

The last 20 minutes against Blackburn suggested that if they up the tempo and apply some pressure then they can be creative and potent and have the punch to beat a struggling side who have plateaued after a big step up.

With ‘Jason’ Rhodes and possibly Gaston Ramirez added to the mix too, Boro should have the firepower and if they can match the focus and work-rate they had before the clean sheet magic aura was broken, then they should have too much for MK Dons.

Ben Gibson is back now - his absence shouldn’t be ignored when looking for the cause of the creaking - but Dani Ayala is out now as well as George Friend so the defence still looks a bit makeshift, however although Tomas Kalas and Ritchie De Laet look to be more than competent deputies.

But they will have to be sharp. And the midfield anchor pair will have to up their performance and resume their roles as human shields to protect them.

The whole team must perform to the high standards set before the stutter.

But it is up front where Boro need to perform. The quality on call is amazing. The options are staggering. The price-tags are eye-watering.

Now results have to match that.