Middlesbrough: Carrick's call for perspective after West Brom setback

Carrick bemoaned the "soft, avoidable goals" that downed Boro, as Daryl Dike scored a quickfire early double which ultimately proved enough for the Baggies on a day to forget for the Teessiders.

With Sheffield United beating fellow promotion hopefuls Watford, Boro lost ground in the automatic promotion race, slipping to seven points behind the Blades, who still have a game in hand. But Boro, who host Reading this coming Saturday, are still third and five points clear of seventh-place.

Carrick always knew there'd be ups and downs in the run-in and called for calm after the Hawthorns setback.

"We won't be brushing a defeat under the carpet because it's not what we came here for, but that's football, sometimes you get things that don't go your way," the Boro head coach told BBC Tees.

"It shows how well the boys have played that we haven't had many days like that and it's up to us to not have many more.

"This (The Hawthorns) is a tough place to come, we knew that, but giving soft goals away is the frustrating thing. I can't fault the effort of the lads, the commitment, trying to do the right thing but a couple of mistakes cost us."

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Boro headed for West Brom having won their last five games and looking to heap more pressure on Sheffield United above them but quickly found themselves up against it, with Dike scoring twice from close range in the first 10 minutes.

Dike's first came at the end of a well worked move from the hosts but the defending disappointed Carrick, and the second was far too easy, the striker running in between Darragh Lenihan and Paddy McNair and slotting home at the second time of asking after a tame first effort wasn't gathered by Zack Steffen.

Carrick said: "It's frustrating really. We started the game well for five or six minutes. We knew it would be a quick start from them and we wanted to take control of it and I thought we did that really well for a short period of time.

"But then the goals came from nowhere, soft goals that are avoidable, so we're bitterly disappointed. When you're giving them a two-goal start in 10 minutes against a team that's well organised and compact, it was always going to be tough.

"We kept believing. I left half-time believing we could get back into the game, create more chances and score goals, but it was one of those games where it didn't quite happen for us.

"Credit to West Brom, they're a good team, well organised, We knew that, but we'll look at what we can do better, what can we learn from. We won't be too hard on ourselves or beat ourselves up because we've come a long way in a short space of time.

"But at the same point we'll learn and improve. There'll be other challenges between now and the end of the season that we'll be ready for and it's our job to find that solution."