Liam Cooper felt United were the better side in Monday evening’s goalless draw at home to Middlesbrough, with the defender pleased with a "positive performance" to take into Saturday’s Emirates FA Cup tie away to Watford.

Cooper, captaining the team once again at Elland Road, helped suppress Boro’s attacking threat of new signing Jordan Rhodes as United enjoyed the clearer of the chances against the promotion hopefuls.

Boro had goalkeeper Dimi Konstantopoulos to thank for a stunning second-half save to keep out Souleymane Doukara’s header which appeared destined for the net, while the first half saw defender Ritchie De Laet clip his own crossbar from Charlie Taylor’s corner.

The visitors played the final four minutes of stoppage time with 10 men following Ben Gibson’s second yellow card of the evening, but their defence held firm as the spoils were shared despite United’s late pressure.

“It was a good point against a very good team in this league,” Cooper said. “I thought we applied ourselves well and were the better team throughout.

“They were always going to have spells but, when they did, we sat in and defended properly and I thought we could have nicked it at the end.

“Middlesbrough are one of the favourites in this league to get promoted, but they came here and we made them look ordinary.

“I thought we applied ourselves properly and were the better team. We had the better chances and we’ve got to move on from this now.

“We’ve got a great cup game now and it was a positive performance to take into Saturday.

“Confidence is high, it was a great result for us and we’re looking forward to the FA Cup now.”

Asked about the defence’s role in containing Rhodes, who had already found the net at Elland Road earlier in the season with Blackburn Rovers, Cooper said: “Jordan is a great finisher, especially in the box, but I thought we dealt with their forward players as a back four really well.

“Our attacking players were causing problems as well. When you’ve got that and it’s all coming together, it makes for a good display. We definitely put one on.

“It’s always nice to keep a clean sheet, especially against second in the league with their strikers and the team they’ve got – they’ve been scoring goals for fun this season. It was a great result for us.”