STEVE McCLAREN was full of praise for his goalkeeper Brad Jones and the rest of the Boro defence after they gave everything for the cause against Newcastle last night.

Australian goalkeeper Jones produced a flawless display capped by a world class save from James Milner, while Gareth Southgate epitomised the Boro spirit as he refused to be substituted despite a nasty head wound from an accidental clash with Alan Shearer.

"When you get big results you always have blood in the dressing room and players coming out limping," said McClaren. "You could see after the game that the players had put their bodies on the line. Let's hope the point proves valuable at the end of the season."

Physio Chris Moseley initially indicated that Southgate should come off but the skipper insisted on returning to the fray - and suffered another painful challenge from the former England striker just seconds later. Southgate needed seven stitches but McClaren is hopeful that he'll be in the side for Saturday's trip to Anfield.

"He's okay, hopefully we'll patch him up because we need him there on Saturday," he said. "It was always going to be a tough game, it was always going to be close, derbies always are. We had two great chances from Szil and Jimmy at the start of the second half and we felt if we'd scored at that time we felt would have held on.

"They had two moments themselves, Brad was fantastic for one of the saves and N'Zogbia missed the other. You need a goalkeeping performance when you come away from home and we got that."

Three points would have been a huge step for Boro in their quest for a UEFA Cup place, but McClaren was satisfied with a point and more steady progress towards the club's goal.

"A draw was a fair result, we've never won or even got a point there since I came to the club and I think it was a point gained," he said. "You're always in with a chance if you keep a clean sheet and our back four were very good, especially the two centre-halves, and we had chances at the other end.

"We dominated and were in control in the first half and we just said let's get stronger in the second. We did that especially at the beginning and we missed two glorious chances and they get stronger at they end but we held on magnificently."

Tony McMahon, Stuart Parnaby, Michael Reizger and James Morrison are in the squad for the Liverpool game, but Gareth Southgate and George Boateng are both doubtful.

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