Return ticket to Europe spurs on Boro

Middlesbrough manager Steve McClaren insists the lure of returning to the European stage next season is dragging his depleted squad through to the end of the current campaign.

McClaren attracted big names like Mark Viduka, Jimmy Floyd Hasselbaink, Michael Reiziger and Ray Parlour to the Riverside last summer, all enticed by the prospect of the club’s debut continental venture following their Carling Cup triumph.