Boro face Barclays Premier League leaders Manchester United at the Riverside Stadium tomorrow knowing defeat would push them ever closer to the trapdoor with time running out.

Southgate remains confident there is still time for the Teessiders to drag themselves out of a hole in which they have been marooned for some time, and a continuation of their impressive recent record against United would send out a message that they are far from dead and buried.

However, with planning for next season already under way and Southgate having to draw up two different blueprints to cover all eventualities, he admits his responsibilities stretch much further than the club's playing staff.

He said: "What always happens in any club that is relegated, people who aren't earning very much are often the ones who lose their jobs, and that's unsettling for everybody.

"I want to achieve success over the next few games for everybody at the club, not just the players.

"As the manager, you have to prepare for both scenarios. I have to plan budgets and look at the upheaval.

"It hits home to you how difficult it would be if the worst scenario happened because there would be so much uncertainty, such a financial shortfall to meet, so it would clearly set you back as a football club a long way.

"That's why you put everything into trying to keep in this this division, because it gives you a much stronger base to go forward for the future as well."

Last weekend's 2-0 defeat at Arsenal, while not unexpected, left Boro three points adrift of safety and with a major task on their hands to add to their tally of 31 points this weekend.

Results elsewhere effectively reduced the fight for survival to the five teams currently occupying the bottom places in the table: West Brom, Boro, Newcastle, Hull and Sunderland.

Southgate said: "Realistically, I don't see any of them winning all their remaining matches, so the teams on 37 points might have enough now.

"Everybody when they are further up the table - as we were last year - you always think, 'We need another win'. But certainly those on 39, I would think, have got enough.

"Not everybody is going to pick up those points between now and the end of the season."

Boro boast a creditable four league victories - two of them at Old Trafford - and three draws against United in the last eight seasons, and their form against the big four during the current campaign gives them cause for optimism.

Southgate said: "We have got results against Arsenal and Liverpool here this season already, so that fills us with confidence.

"There's nothing to lose because nobody would expect us to get anything from the game - and if we do, that's a huge boost for us."

Southgate will once again name a healthy proportion of academy graduates in his starting line-up tomorrow, and whatever else they learn, he will advise them to study the way in which the likes of Gary Neville, Paul Scholes and, in particular, Ryan Giggs have conducted themselves as they approach the twilight of their careers.

Of Giggs, he said: "Thinking back to when he started, he could have gone any route he wanted to in terms of his lifestyle.

"He was the big thing, wasn't he, and he chose to just really focus on his football.

"He is the most decorated player of probably any generation, so it's a fantastic achievement - and he is still playing a major part when he is on the field, not just off it."