Manchester United expected title-chasing to not show any mercy to relegation strugglers Middlesborough when they visited Old Trafford later that week. Irwin recognized that United was not scoring as many goals they had in the past and the fact that Boro manager Lennie Lawrence was the right man to take them out of the relegation trouble.
Denis Irwin said “We were scoring four and five goals at home every week around Christmas and you can’t keep that up. But we have still won 10 games at home on the trot, and hopefully, we can make it 11. We have many match-winners in the team. Boro can always derive comfort, however, from Lenniew Lawrences’ incredible knack of dicing with the jaws of relegation and coming out of the top will be crucial for them”