Tuesday 18 April 2017 23:22, UK
Adam Clayton insists Middlesbrough are not one of the three worst teams in the Premier League, despite sitting 19th in the table.
After Monday's 2-1 home defeat by Arsenal, Boro sit six points adrift of 17th-placed Hull with only six games remaining to change their fortunes.
However, as the midfielder turns his attention to the latest in a series of must-win games at Bournemouth on Saturday, the 28-year-old is refusing to accept relegation despite the club being without a league victory since December 17.
Clayton said: "If you asked the other teams 'Are Middlesbrough one of the three worst teams in the league?', I don't suppose many would say we are.
"We've played against teams and we have been in most games and have been pipped by that extra bit of quality that we need to have.
"There are more points to play for and nobody in the bottom three is pulling up trees and running clear. Three points in this league is like six in the Championship. You have to keep believing.
"You have to keep going and it is hard to keep coming out when we have been pipped. We have to keep believing and keep the chin up. This is the toughest league there is, but we will keep grafting.
"The gap hasn't been getting any bigger, but now we are getting to the stage where we need to win. If we don't, it will be goodnight. We need to get a win as soon as possible and change the face of it."
Hopes of earning survival could have risen had Boro beaten Arsenal on Monday Night Football.
With the game level at 1-1, defender Daniel Ayala saw goalkeeper Petr Cech turn away his 61st-minute header from point-blank range, before Mesut Ozil clinched victory for the visitors.
After Middlesbrough's trip to Bournemouth at the weekend, they face bottom-club Sunderland, before matches against Manchester City and Chelsea.
He said: "It is difficult to come out of games like that. We have to come out on the right side in the next few games. One win will change it all.
"There were a few chances that could have gone in. But we will not go down because we have been unlucky, we will go down because we haven't been good enough - if we do. That's the story.
"We have to make our own luck."
