Aitor Karanka praises strikers after 3-1 success over Charlton Athletic

Middlesbrough manager Aitor Karanka has said that it is vitally important that his strikers remain in top form if they are going to earn promotion to the Premier League.

Patrick Bamford, Jelle Vossen and Lee Tomlin all scored as the Teesside beat Charlton Athletic 3-1 this afternoon, and Karanka has admitted that the trio can dig Boro out of holes.

He told reporters: "Football's about goals and when you have strikers like ours it's important they're all scoring, and that's what's happening at the moment. We're going to need all of them.

"It's a very important win, especially when we've not played our best performance, especially in the first half. We didn't really push on from the first goal. It seemed like it was the worst thing for us to have happened to score so early."

Middlesbrough currently sit third in the Championship table, one point adrift of the automatic promotion places.