"The derby has an added incentive. We've got to go and make sure that we perform on the day," Southgate was quoted as saying by the Evening Gazette.

"Our response is very important now."

Boro and their neighbors have 36 points each, five ahead of Birmingham, who lie in the 18th spot.

Still, Southgate believes this tally is not enough to place his side into the comfort zone.

"We're not naive enough to think 36 points will be enough to keep us in the division so there's still a lot of work to be done," he said.

"We were in that position against Reading and didn't take that.

"On Saturday, what we had was the opportunity to wrap it up on that side of things and we didn't take that."