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Morgan Whittaker is hoping he can use his first Middlesbrough goal as a catalyst after a difficult ten months at the club.
Whittaker joined Boro in a £6 million move from Plymouth Argyle back in January, but has so far struggled to make a positive impression on Teesside. That culminated last month when he was jeered off the pitch by his own fans in a draw at Preston North End, which he described as the ‘lowest point’ in his career.
But having rebounded and bagged his first goal for the club in Friday’s victory over Ipswich Town, Whittaker said: “It’s such a weight off my shoulders. It’s been a long time since my last goal, and obviously what’s happened since I’ve been here has been a really tough time.
“It has been a lot, I’m not going to lie. It’s been lonely, it’s been tough. So, this has just been such a relief, as you can see. I have been very tough on myself, and it’s been tough just dealing with the outside noise as well.
“I just want to thank the manager for putting faith in me and helping me through this time, and certainly the people in my circle, they’ve been a massive help as well. He’s been such a big help for me, and hopefully now that that’s happened, everyone can see that I’m trying to work and just trying to do the best I can for Middlesbrough.
“It was horrible, to be honest. That’s why I wanted to thank the people I thanked, especially the people closest to me, because they knew how tough it was for me. I’ve had some low points, but that’s the lowest I’ve had.
“I’m not going to please everyone, and not everyone’s going to like what I do all the time. So it’s just more doing it for myself and just showing my quality. More goals will help though, so hopefully that’s the first of many.”
While the aftermath of that Preston incident was a real low point for the forward, he learned two things from it. The first was that his manager has so much belief in him, the second was that his team-mates have his back.
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Whittaker said: “Rob just told me he knows what I can do, and just take that going forward, and that he had full trust in me. And I think to hear that from your manager is everything you need to hear, and I think that showed with how I bounced back from that.
“He’s got to know me as a person, and I think that’s been something I’ve not had in the past. The only other manager I’ve had that from in the past was at Plymouth, Steven Schumacher. And then he got the best out of me. I think it’s such a nice feeling to know that I’ve found a manager that knows me and will help me going forward, and just help me when I need him.
“What I liked the most was how happy the players were for me. And that’s massive. I think that’s why we’re doing so well, because the team is really, really together, and you can see that in how happy they are for everyone. They’ve helped me massively. I think, because we see each other every day.
“That’s what was really nice for me, was to see how happy they were for me. And you can just see how together we are as a team, and I think that is one of the reasons why we’re doing so well at the minute, is because we’re such a tight-knit team, and everyone wants to work for each other.”
Whittaker’s goal proved crucial in a 2-1 victory for Boro over promotion favourites Ipswich. On the win, he continued: “After losing against Portsmouth, people might have thought that we would lose again and not stay at the top.
“I think it’s a massive statement that we’re here to stay. We knew how big a game it was. These are the games you need to win if we want to get to where we need to get to, and I think it’s just a massive statement.”
