Aitor Karanka believes the Championship promotion race will go right to the wire.
Boro are joint top of the Championship table despite their 2-1 defeat at Nottingham Forest.
No less than four teams are tied on 66 points with Derby leading the pack ahead of Bournemouth, Watford and Middlesbrough.
Karanka has long maintained that there is little to chose between the top teams in the division.
He said: “I think it is going to the last game because all of the teams are in the same position, all of the teams I think have the same number of games to play and everybody has to play everybody else.
“We have to be intelligent, we have to learn what we have done bad and done poorly and we have one and a half months to find out if we can get promotion automatically or through the play-offs.”
The Boro boss was disappointed with his side's display at the City Ground.
The visitors took the lead in the 27 minute when Michael Mancienne directed the ball into his own net after Grant Leadbitter's cross had bounced out off the post.
Forest hit back in the 34 minute through Gary Gardner, who curled a long-range shot into the net.
And the hosts took the lead 20 minutes into the second half when Dexter Blackstock fired in what turned out to be the winner.
Karanka was disappointed that his players defended too deep after taking the lead.
He said: “We scored the first goal and everyone knows how difficult it is to score the first goal and I don't know why we started to defend more deeply in our box because we don't know how to defend in that way.
“We didn't play well, we didn't do the things we had to do and we lost.
“It was the kind of game where you go home with mixed feelings,” he added.
“It's difficult to understand when you have been planning for a game for I don't know how many hours and you explain to the players everything that could happen and everything that I said would happen did happen.
“They scored two goals in a way that I knew they were capable of.”
Boro now have one week to prepare for the televised clash with Ipswich on Saturday. They then face two extremely tough away assignments at Derby and Bournemouth before pausing for the international break.
Karanka insists pressure is simply a by-product of chasing success so his players have to cope with the demands of the final 10 fixtures.
“To take the pressure off is impossible,” he said.
“When you want to win something it never happens without pressure.
“We have to manage the pressure and keep working in the same way we have been working in the last seven months.
“But for now we have to rest this week, to work and to prepare for Ipswich.”
Boro suffered an injury setback at Forest with Ryan Fredericks limping off in the first half with a suspected pulled muscle.
“I hope it is not a serious injury but it is not a problem because we have other players,” said Karanka.
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