AS with Wednesday's game against Liverpool, all eyes are likely to be on the strikers tomorrow as Rovers go head-to-head with Boro at the Riverside.

So managers Graeme Souness and Steve McClaren will call for cool heads at the back.

And in Premiership terms, they don't come much cooler than Craig Short, pictured below, and Gareth Southgate.

Short has been in imperious form during the opening three games of the new season.

England hit-man Michael Owen was the latest big name striker to get little change out of the veteran centre-back.

And Short's recent form would appear to bear out Souness's belief that players don't reach their peak until their early 30s

Southgate, meanwhile, is another who is also enjoying a new lease of life following his £6.5 million move to the Riverside last summer.

His partnership with Ugo Ehiogu at the back was the rock on which McClaren masterminded Boro's march to survival.

And with Sven Goran Eriksson set to name his squad for next month's friendly with Portugal soon, he has every incentive to show his class by snuffing out the threat of Andy Cole and Dwight Yorke tomorrow.