Gareth Southgate said England's friendly visit to the Riverside had been “brilliant”.
The former Boro manager's team came through a tough under-21 test against Germany, coming from behind twice to win 3-2 in front of a bumper 30,178 crowd.
Southgate, making his first return to the Riverside in a managerial capacity since leaving the club in October 2009, was delighted with how his side performed against such tough opposition and the reception they received on what was an awful night, weather-wise.
“It's been brilliant, the club have really promoted the game well,” he said after the match.
“The ticket pricing has been sensible and it's been great to see so many young kids in the stadium, especially as we can't take the senior team on the road these days. It's great that they can form an attachment with England.
“Also, I think they appreciated the way we've played and the manner we've gone about our business,” added Southgate.
“I think people are seeing a group of lads for whom it means a lot to play for England, you'd go a long way to find a group who are tighter knit and have that pride to play for their country so I think think the public will respond to that.”
Hometown hero Ben Gibson started the match and got a useful 77 minutes under his belt before being replaced by Michael Keane.
Southgate knows what it's like to play for the national team on home soil because he represented England at the Riverside in a European Championship qualifier in 2003.
“It's not easy, actually, I remember doing it at senior level against Slovakia and you almost put yourself under a bit more pressure,” he explained.
“Ben hasn't trained much, he had a slight injury last week so his preparation hasn't been ideal, so we felt that after 70-odd minutes he had had long enough out there.”
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