Big decisions hurt us, but we were not good enough; SAYS GARETH SOUTHGATE.

Byline: JOHN CROSS

GARETH Southgate last night angrily claimed Arsenal's opening goal should have been disallowed as Middlesbrough sank to a record 10th straight away defeat.

The Riverside boss said Nicklas Bendtner was in an offside position when Cesc Fabregas fired home.

But Southgate, who also said Boro should have had a penalty, admitted his struggling side were not good enough as they set the worst sequence of away results in the club's 133-year history.

"There's no question it was offside and no question, that he was interfering with play," said Southgate.

"It knocked the wind out of our sails. It also looked like a penalty to me. But even with the referee's decisions, I'm not sure they would have changed the result, to be honest.

"It hasn't gone for us but we've got to look at the 90 minutes and we didn't do enough to get a result from the game.

"I thought we did OK, but OK isn't enough when you come to somewhere like this. You've got to be outstanding because they are a top quality team.

"It was always going to be difficult. There's 30 oddpoints between the two teams, it's obviously a huge gulf. But I can't fault the players commitment, there was no disgrace in how we performed."

Southgate admitted Boro are now facing a huge uphill task to stay in the Premier League but he refused to give up.

Southgate added: "We've got an equally difficult game next week, at home to Manchester United.

"But at least it's on our patch and with our supporters behind us.

"Hopefully it will make a significant difference. There'll be some atmosphere because I think our stadium is sold out already.

"All we have to do is beat the world champions to try to stay in the division.

"But we are still in there fighting."

CAPTION(S):

DROP FEARS Gareth Southgate's Boro are in big trouble