Chris Wilder gets exactly what he wants from Middlesbrough's pre-season opener

You don't want to get too carried away so early in pre-season. Middlesbrough beat Bishop Auckland 5-0 on Saturday afternoon, meeting expectations through the dominance of their victory against their non-league friendly neighbours.

Nevertheless, while not getting carried away, it must be said that it was a really positive start to the summer for Boro. It was one in which Chris Wilder got exactly from it what he would have wanted, as his side took no real negatives or any signs of injuries from.

While the level of the opposition should of course be taken into account, there were so many positives for Boro to take away from it. They won comfortably, they netted five goals, only conceded one shot on target never mind any goals and got valuable minutes into all of the players, and perhaps more importantly the three new signings as they look to integrate into the team.

The Boro players who impressed against Bishop Auckland

Reflecting after, Wilder felt it had been a good afternoon for his side. He said: "We're delighted with that. First of, a thank you to our hosts who have been great hosts and always show us great hospitality, including when our under-23s play here. It's been a good day for us. We got our pre-season under way on a good pitch infront of a decent turn out as well [it was a sell-out crowd of 1,900]. We scored a few goals and we got ourselves going."

That was the key for Boro. They got themselves going. And while we shouldn't read too much into it, the manner of the victory was particularly pleasing too. Naturally the tempo won't be the same in these games in comparison to when the season kicks off in under a month's time, but it was easy to see and hear that Wilder's demands and high standards were still