Middlesbrough are unbeaten in eight and sitting second in the Championship

Middlesbrough may have failed to reach the top flight last season – but they’ve put their Premier League hat on anyway.

Chairman Steve Gibson and his top officials have clearly responded big-time to try to meet the requirements of a club which has everything in place to gain promotion.

Kim Hellberg’s obvious demands for a much bigger squad have been met. Not just partially, but full on. Boro have a squad of potential first team players the size of which many of the smaller Premier League clubs would be delighted with.

Obviously the sale of Hayden Hackney made it all possible. We all loved Hayden to bits, mostly because he was the best player in the team, and also because he is one of our own.

However, Boro have not only used the Hackney transfer fee wisely, but Gibson has ensured that funding was available to strengthen every part of the squad two and three times over.

There have been some hiccups already. The fact that several potential key players have not been fully fit has caused occasional problems particularly in defence.

Yet, when everybody is fighting fit, and competing for places, then Boro have the potential to start to motor.

They showed his against Wolves when, with an arguable full-strength side on duty, they were worthy winners of one of the key showdowns of the campaign. They then followed that up a couple of days later with the Stoke City win.

The Championship can be an unforgiving place of course. It’s not just about fitting in the straight pieces of the jigsaw, it’s by filling in the middle section by winning games.

Boro must continue to believe that they’ve got a job to do and make sure that they produce the results. They cannot afford to run out believing that they are the best team and that the result will take care of itself, as perhaps they did on a few occasions last season.

They must treat every game as a cup final, just as Coventry City seemed to do last season. All-out commitment, week in and week out.

A great deal will depend on Boro’s ability to continue scoring goals. Maybe there is already pressure on the shoulders of Will Lankshear following his dramatic start to the campaign.

Once again Lankshear came up with the goals against Wolves and Stoke. The best way to ensure that this pressure does not become overbearing is for the other potential goalscorers in the squad to do their bit.

Fortunately, things appear to be heading in the right direction. Lankshear has scored just two of the team’s last nine goals, with Seb Berhalter and Amario Cozier-Duberry also scoring two goals piece.

It’s great to see that the fans have responded to what the club is trying to achieve. The sell-out against Wolves was not only due to the 150 th Anniversary celebrations, but the fact that this was a huge, huge game.

The general feelings around the club are so strong at the moment that it’s quite likely there will be many future sell-outs at the Riverside this season, especially if Boro stay in the potential promotion race.

So now it’s down to Hellberg and his players. It’s one thing thinking on Premier League lines, it’s another thing getting there.