Town striker Brett Pitman has praised counterparts Andre Gray, Ross McCormack and Jordan Rhodes as three of the best around at Championship level.
He said: "Andre Gray’s done brilliant for Brentford and now Burnley. Obviously McCormack’s been bought for, what, £12 million? Rhodes has been bought for £11 million [an initial £9 million plus £2 million on promotion] and I think if you’re getting bought for that sort of money you should be scoring a lot of goals.
"That’s why they are probably getting paid £50,000 a week. It comes with the territory for them. They’ve been bought for big fees and especially from looking at Rhodes on Saturday he’s starting to deliver for them, which I fully expected because he’s scored goals wherever he’s been.”
Ex-Town youngster Rhodes netted twice to earn Middlesbrough all three points at already-relegated Bolton last weekend, his second goal coming deep into stoppage time and taking his recent tally to four in his last five games.
Asked how highly he rated Rhodes, who left Portman Road for Huddersfield almost seven years ago and subsequently joined Blackburn in 2012 before switching to the North East in the January transfer window, Pitman replied: "He’s very good and it’s not just his goals. I think people would be quick to say he’s just a goalscorer but I think his all-round game is very good.
"He holds the ball up and he occupies the defence, and if he gets a chance more than likely he scores. He’s one of the top forwards in this division.”
But even if Rhodes, whose record since leaving Ipswich is six goals against them in the same number of games, is not on song Boro can also call on Town nemesis David Nugent when the teams meet tomorrow at the Riverside, the player having netted 15 times in his last 14 games against Town for previous clubs Preston, Portsmouth and Leicester, and for Boro in their 2-0 win at Portman Road in December.
Asked if he had a ‘favourite’ team against whom he regularly nets, Pitman responded: "I don’t think about it too much as a player, that you always seem to score against a certain team.
"Each game’s different and you just try to go out and score in every one of them. I’m sure they [Rhodes and Nugent] will be the same and we’ll be looking to stop them both.”