Middlesbrough boss Chris Wilder was pleased with his Premier League loanees after victory over Reading.

Brighton striker Aaron Connolly started before eventually being replaced by Arsenal's Folarin Balogun in the second-half.

“Yeah, it's going to take a couple of weeks to get those boys up to speed," the Boro boss admitted.

“But it was nice to have those options on the bench.

“I was a bit disappointed we didn't have Riley (McGree) available. The time delay for the MLS meant we couldn't get the procedure of getting him registered done in time.

“But the bench is looking better. It's one thing, when I first took over, I looked around and I didn't have the options to do what we did today.

“I thought the contribution of the forwards was good. We gambled, we changed the shape a couple of times.

“Aaron looked bright in the time he was on the pitch and he will get better.

“Both he and Flo got really good receptions from the punters. And Flo, Josh and Duncan gave us a spark to try and get back in.

“As soon as we did get back in, it was just a matter of when not if we got back into the game.

“Six minutes added time could have easily been ten. I understand from their point of view that professionalism. You want to frustrate us and take the sting out of the game.

“For a period I think it did. It frustrated me and everybody in the ground.

“We had to overcome that and we managed to."