MICHAEL Carrick hailed his players for their ability to "suffer" as Middlesbrough dug deep to continue their Championship charge with a hard-fought win at Birmingham City.

Matt Crooks struck twice early in the second half to put Boro in control at St Andrew's but Tahith Chong's close range header 16 minutes from time meant Carrick's side had to grind out the points, which were secured when the Championship's top scorer Chuba Akpom slotted home his 13th goal of the season late on.

Carrick had told his players before the game that they had to "build a performance" against John Eustace's side, and was delighted his side passed a different type of test to make it seven wins from 10 since the head coach's appointment.

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Carrick said: "We controlled it first half and then got our joy second half. We built that from the first half really.

"It’s a difficult place to be at half-time when you’ve played well but don’t have the rewards. You can come in and pat each other on the back and say, ‘same again’, but it’s never going to be the same half of football after the restart. The boys went out with good intentions in the second half though to finish them off and thankfully that’s what we managed to do."

He continued: “The message was more to be prepared to build a performance and put in the hard work and show the will and desire to do that. You can only hope rewards come from that. It was a mentality thing for us.

"You can’t expect a perfect game of football. There was almost two sides to our performance. The first we did terrifically well and won a lot of the first and second balls, allowing us to control it more. But then there was the other part to our performance which was after they got their goal and put us under a bit of pressure.

"That’s what they can do because of the energy of this stadium. I’ve had it for many years here and every time I’ve come, the energy can flip here so quickly. We knew that and we spoke about that at half-time with the lads about managing the energy and atmosphere in the stadium and ultimately managing the game.

"For a few minutes it was a different challenge for us but then the third goal killed it off. I was delighted because we had everything in the performance. There was some real team defending and solid shape at one end and then some quality at the other end.

“I was almost happier that we had to go and suffer for a few minutes and we had to find a way to win. That was a good challenge for us and once again shows that spirit and energy within the group. At the time, if you’d have asked me at 2-1, it wasn’t exactly comfortable. But when you come through that, it’s a good place. Hopefully the boys will take a lot from it."

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Carrick is hopeful of adding to his squad this month, with Boro targeting three signings, but the head coach isn't expecting any incomings in the first week of the window.

He said: "We're working at things and trying to improve the squad, there's not much more to tell you at this stage."