AITOR Karanka says his friendship with Jose Mourinho is helping him with his first English management job at the Riverside.

The Middlesbrough manager celebrated his first win on the road since he took charge in November, and knew his former Real Madrid boss and mentor was watching on the television.

Such is the bond between Karanka and the Chelsea manager that he received an unexpected message of support as Arthur Adomah netted the second goal at the Den.

“Jose is a very good friend, and I was lucky to work three years with his staff at Real.

You can learn every second with him,” said Karanka.

“When I finish a game, my first messages are to my family, then to Jose, and when we scored the second goal Jose sent me a message. Everyone is looking at Middlesbrough games.”

The Spaniard does not expect to make immediate dips into the transfer window when it opens in under a fortnight.

With five changes from the side that suffered a late defeat to Brighton, Karanka once again said he believes there is enough talent within his squad.

“I know the squad because I work with the players every day, and today I played two players who don’t normally play, Jozsef Varga and Emmanuel Ledesma. It’s not new because I work with them every day,” he added.

“There were five different players and then there were another 20 minutes with different players.

“I was very happy with them, and I always have said that if some players come in January, it’s because they will be better than my players.”

Meanwhile, Shay Given believes the three points at Millwall can give Boro confidence for the tough Christmas period.

The on-loan keeper will face league leaders Burnley and high-flying Reading three days later at the Riverside.

However, with the win at the New Den ending a run of three games without a win, the former Ireland international is sure Boro can spring a surprise.

“We’ve not been playing badly, it’s just the last-minute goals that have been costing us so much, but we showed in spells that we can play the ball and cause problems for teams,” he said.

“So I think we can get a lot of confidence from this. I was delighted with the clean sheet, especially with the wind swirling all over the place.”