Boro’s loan swoop for Jordan Rhodes may have come to nothing - but George Friend has every faith in the club’s current attacking quartet.
The passing of Thursday’s Football League loan deadline means Boro will assess the Blackburn striker’s situation again in the summer.
Aitor Karanka’s side looked set to land the prolific Championship forward earlier this month, with cash-strapped Rovers considering a loan bid with the view to a permanent summer switch.
However, with an FA Cup quarter-final replay against Liverpool looming, Rovers’ Indian-based owners decided against sending Rhodes out on loan.
That means Patrick Bamford, Jelle Vossen, Kike Garcia and Lee Tomlin will be tasked with providing the ammunition to fire Boro back to the Premier League
And that’s no problem for fans’ favourite Friend, who has backed his striking pals can finish the job.
“They’ve all coped brilliantly with the pressure this year because at times people have been on them,” Friend said.
“I suppose that’s why strikers get paid the big bucks.
“But our lads are all fantastic finishers and good creators of goals.
“Hopefully they’ll keep putting the ball in the back of the net for us between now and the end of the season.”
Despite drawing a blank at Bournemouth, Boro’s striking woes have been swept away in recent weeks.
Chelsea loanee Bamford, now Boro’s top scorer with 16 goals, hit a brace against Ipswich before netting the winner against his former club Derby.
Tomlin’s defence-splitting pass led to Bamford’s winner at the iPro Stadium, while Vossen and Kike both found the net against Millwall this month.
Assistant head coach Steve Agnew says the quality of Boro’s recent goals are testament to the hard work being undertaken at Rockliffe Park.
“Although we were frustrated a few weeks ago not to be scoring as many goals as we’d like, we still continued to create chances,” Agnew said in his latest column for Boro’s principal sponsor Ramsdens.
“We kept practicing every day and the quality of goals we’ve seen recently is partly as a result of all that hard work.
“But the humility and unselfishness we have in the team has also helped create the type of team goals we’ve been scoring.
“To be winning games, playing good football and scoring some very good goals gives us confidence going into the final (seven) games.”
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