Pick of the stats: Middlesbrough v Watford

[BBC]

Middlesbrough will hope to keep their automatic promotion bid alive as they host Watford on Saturday lunchtime (12:30 BST).

Boro won their first home game in seven league matches when Morgan Whittaker scored the winner against Sheffield Wednesday on Wednesday.

But the side are still three points adrift of the second spot with four teams all vying for the coveted position.

• Middlesbrough have lost each of their last three league meetings with Watford, their longest ever losing run against the Hornets.
• Watford, 1-0 winners in this exact fixture last season, are looking to win back-to-back league visits to Middlesbrough for the first time since April 1992 (3 in a row).
• Middlesbrough have only won their final home league game in two of the last six seasons (D2 L2), although one of those was against Watford in 2023-24 (3-1).
• Watford have lost their final away league game in nine of the last 10 seasons (D1 – v Sunderland in 2022-23) since a 2-0 win at Brighton in 2014-15.
• Watford have lost each of their last three league games, all without scoring; outside of the top-flight, only from December 1971 to February 1972 have they ever lost more in a row without reply (7)