Delighted Michael Carrick said he can take "so many positives" after Middlesbrough put in their best performance of his tenure so far to hammer Blackpool 3-0.

Isaiah Jones, Marcus Forss and the in-form Chuba Akpom struck to move Boro up to 16th in the Championship table, four points clear of the drop zone.

It extends Boro's unbeaten stretch to three games with the first clean sheet under Carrick one of several positives to come from the victory at Bloomfield Road.

As well as the comfortable victory and the clean sheet, Carrick was delighted to hand a senior debut to Pharrell Willis, who was introduced from the bench for the final stages of the game.

Carrick said: "It feels good. I'm delighted for the players, for their effort and how much we've improved game to game, especially on the back of Saturday and not getting what we felt we deserved. Goals, a clean sheet, we defended well, played some really good football. We got everyone involved off the bench and gave Pharrell his first appearance, so all in all a very good night. I thought we went from strength to strength in the second half."

Boro created a string of chances and their victory margin could have been greater but as good as some of their attacking play was, it  was the clean sheet that particularly pleased Carrick.

He said: "There was one freekick at the end and I'd have been kicking ourselves if we conceded. I was desperate for that clean sheet for the way the lads defended. We wanted the clean sheet and want to build on the defensive foundations. I was just as happy with the clean sheet as the goals scored."

Boro led 1-0 at the break thanks to Jones' goal and quickly doubled that advantage early in the second period, Forss winning and converting a penalty. Akpom initially looked like he was going to take the spot-kick but handed the ball to his strike partner.

Carrick said: "We hadn't really overly spoke about penalties and who was the taker. I liked the fact Chuba accepted it and Marcus deserved it for his performance. And Chuba got his goal as well.

"It was a good night for us, so many positives. I was delighted for Marcus. All the effort and the work he has put in. I was delighted for him."

Carrick also hailed the travelling Boro fans who packed out the away end at Bloomfield Road.

He said: "I've loved the support from the fans. We've had three games away from home and we've had pretty much 3,000 at every one of them. On a Tuesday night, it's not easy and you can see how much the boys appreciate it. I've spoken to the lads about the connection with the fans. We're going to need them to get us through games at times and at the same time we need to give them something to shout about. Tonight was the night we all wanted."