GRANT LEADBITTER admits Middlesbrough are facing their ‘biggest test of the season’ after a run of four games without a victory, but maintains the bigger picture remains positive with the club at the top of the Championship table.

Jordan Rhodes’ stoppage-time equaliser at MK Dons lifted Boro above Hull City into top spot, and Aitor Karanka’s side now boast a two-point advantage over third-placed Burnley, with a game in hand over the Clarets.

But while Burnley have picked up five wins and two draws from their last seven league games, Boro have claimed just two points from the last available 12.

Tuesday’s draw means the Teessiders have now failed to beat Bristol City, Nottingham Forest, Blackburn and MK Dons since their last win over Brentford, a sequence that represents their worst run of the season by a considerable distance.

Even last season, when Boro failed to secure automatic promotion and dropped into the play-offs, they did not go four successive league games without a win, and Leadbitter accepts the pressure is intensifying ahead of Monday’s trip to Leeds United.

However, the skipper insists there is no need to panic, and retains faith in the group of players who have taken Boro to the head of affairs thanks to their performances in the first six months of the season.

“It’s a test for us now,” said Leadbitter, who played alongside Adam Forshaw at Stadium MK as fellow midfielder Adam Clayton dropped to the bench. “It’s really the first big test of the season, and we have to come through it.

“We just have to believe in ourselves and believe in what we were doing to win games earlier in the season. If we do that, we’ll get back to winning ways and the results will come. It’s not like we’re far off. But we want to improve and if we do that, we’ll start winning again and picking up points.

“There’s a long way to go – 17 games – and every team will be saying the same thing. Every team has a target – we’ve got ours – and we’re still on course to achieve that. But that’s not to say we’re not disappointed with the last few games, because we are.”

Boro looked badly out of sorts on Tuesday, despite facing an MK Dons side who remain just three points clear of the relegation zone.

Trailing to Dean Bowditch’s early effort, the Teessiders struggled to carve out clear-cut opportunities despite dominating possession for large spells of the game.

David Nugent spurned a decent second-half opening as he shot wide, but the visitors were indebted to Rhodes, who came off the bench to head home Ritchie De Laet’s cross and claim his first goal since a £9m deadline-day move from Blackburn Rovers.

Karanka must now decide whether to hand Rhodes his first Boro start at Elland Road, and while he clearly feels a debt of gratitude to Nugent, who scored his sixth goal of the season in last weekend’s home draw with Blackburn, it is increasingly hard to justify the Spaniard’s reluctance to promote his new acquisition to the starting XI.

Who he plays behind him is more of a moot point, with neither Kike Sola nor Gaston Ramirez having impressed in the ‘number ten’ role in the last two games, and there is surely an argument for restoring Stewart Downing to his preferred central position rather than stationing the former England international on the left wing.

Whatever Karanka chooses, it is imperative Boro produce an improved display against a Leeds side who have won the clubs’ last three meetings at Elland Road, although Leadbitter maintains it is important not to be too downbeat despite the recent drop-off in performance levels.

“We have to remember where we are,” he said. “I think every single person at the football club would have taken this position if they had been offered it back in August.

“We haven’t won in four games now, and we’re disappointed about that. We know we have to improve that record, but every team has a little run like this, and it’s about how you come out of it. We have to get back to winning ways as quickly as we can.

“Football is never easy, but we’ll stick together. When you don’t win for a few games, that’s the time when you need to stay strong as a group and help each other to change things.”

With Albert Adomah having been axed from the squad entirely on Tuesday night, it is possible to detect a sense of instability that was not apparent a couple of months ago. To Leadbitter, however, it is simply important that everyone sticks together to pursue their common goal.

“It’s football, and it’s about how you deal with this,” he said. “I believe in the players in that dressing room. We’re in the middle of February, and we’re at the top of the league – we have to remember that.”