Mowbray realistic over financial implications

Manager Tony Mowbray has warned there will be further cost-cutting if Middlesbrough do not make it out of the npower Championship this season.

Mowbray has had to slash his wage bill by half since taking over from Gordon Strachan and despite having to sell the likes of David Wheater, Gary O'Neil, Kris Boyd, Leroy Lita and Didier Digard, he heads into the trip to Derby just two points adrift of the play-off places. But he told the Northern Echo: "If we don't get out of the league this year, I think the squad will get weaker, not stronger, because of the financial implications. That's why we are doing everything we can to give it our best shot this year. "Moving forward that will reduce even more if we don't go up. I don't want that to be a negative, they are just the facts. "What's the expectation? Let's hope we can keep improving despite de-sizing. In reality that is what we have done so far, so let's make it continue."