Middlesbrough opened new doors towards establishing a potential top six place by finally showing they can graft their way through a game. The lads produced a high tempo work ethic against Millwall which has been missing in the past against sides which stop them from producing their usual style of football.

The clean sheet was the first in ten games and a rich reward for everybody knuckling down and battling as a team. If Boro are going to win at least a play-off place, they must produce this type of performance on a more regular basis. This particularly applies at home where the policy of trying to smother teams by out-pressing them does not always work.

Boro either run free at the Riverside and score a few goals or get heavy footed when the opposition has a game plan which nullifies Boro’s offensives. This might have been the outcome against Millwall but Emmanuel Latte Lath’s early goal gave Boro something to defend – and they did the job very well.

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The return of Rav van den Berg was most welcome. The Dutchman played as though he had never been away. That’s four top centre-backs which Michael Carrick now has at his disposal. It’s almost an embarrassment of riches but Carrick will believe he deserves to have these options after suffering so many defensive problems over the past two years.

We expected a particularly tense final 15 minutes against Millwall and in this respect it was good to see Carrick bring Dael Fry off the bench to operate as a third centre-back. This helped to make Boro even stronger at the back when we all began to bite our finger nails. It’s a policy which hopefully we will see more of in similar situations when the chips are down.

Carrick does have a habit of replacing like or like in an effort to give everybody pitch time but a change in the formation at times like these does not come amiss. It helped too that Jonny Howson was on the pitch. The evergreen midfielder leads by example in the way he gets stuck in to take the sting out of opposition attacks. This has a positive effect on the rest of the team.

Another bonus was the performance of Delano Burgzorg, who for the most part was the only player capable of making regular inroads through the Millwall back line. Burgzorg could not have done much more to advertise his claim for a starting place at Plymouth. He has signalled his intentions to scrap with Riley McGree for the role on the left.

These two are clearly the main men in contention for this position. We hope that Micah Hamilton eventually steps up to the oche and puts in his own challenge, but maybe we need to be more patient.

Burgzorg’s display on the left outshone that of Ben Doak on the right but then we have to remember that the Scot is still only a teenager. When Doak is on fire he is wonderful to watch. However the lad cannot be expected to pull up trees on a regular basis.

Isaiah Jones needs to provide a higher level of competition, though the Guyanan international was bright when he came on as a sub and went closest in the second half to grabbing a second Boro goal. And when it comes down to battling for places, it’s great to see Sol Brynn keeping his place and celebrating with the much welcome clean sheet.

We probably all expected Seny Dieng to be the regular custodian this season but Brynn has forced his way into the reckoning in a big way. Now Carrick has competition for all 11 places. One would assume that Brynn will keep his place at Plymouth in a match which Boro should approach with the greatest of confidence.