Other results reprieved Boro - Boateng

Geprge Boateng played over 200 games for Middlesbrough across six seasons

Former Middlesbrough hero George Boateng says other results in the play-off battle reprieved his former club after their disappointing loss at Sheffield Wednesday.

With Bristol City and Coventry City, the two sides above them, both losing as well, the gap remains at three points following the Hillsborough setback.

Boro are away to the Sky Blues on the final day of nthe regular season and know that on Saturday, they must at least match the result of Frank Lampard's sideto take it to that last match.

"Because everybody lost, they all did each other a favour," Boateng told BBC Radio Tees. "Everything is now prolonged for another week."

Michael Carrick's team host managerless Norwich City on Saturday, while Coventry go to relegation-threatened Luton Town.

Netherlands midfielder Boateng, a member of the Boro side that won the League Cup in 2004 and reached the Uefa Cup final two years later, knows that nothing less than three points at The Riverside will suffice.

"I don't know how the game against Coventry away will go," he said.

"They are quite in form and very strong at home, so I can see a victory for them, so Middlesbrough really need to perform and beat Norwich to have a foothold in the play-offs."