MICHAEL Carrick hailed Middlesbrough's display of resilience after their come from behind victory at Huddersfield Town - with the head coach encouraged by the "healthy rivalry" in his squad.

Carrick praised goalscorers Sammy Silvera and Isaiah Jones and was delighted with the reaction of Rav van den Berg after his early mistake gifted Huddersfield an opener after just four minutes.

Boro recovered and, helped by an early Huddersfield red card when Jaheim Headley was sent off, booked their spot in the second round thanks to a 3-2 victory, with Riley McGree also on the scoresheet.

The victory was Boro's first of the season after the opening day defeat to Millwall, with Carrick revealing his message to his players after that defeat.

"I spoke to them this week, and talked about how sometimes the struggles and setbacks teach you about yourself," he said.

"I'm delighted. It was challenging at times and they put us on the back foot with the early goal. It was a test for the lads to see how we coped and I was really happy.

"There were some good individual performances but all in all a number of things made it a good night."

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Carrick took responsibility for van den Berg's early error, after the defender gave the ball away as he tried to pass it out of Boro's box. What delighted the head coach was the way the young defender recovered.

He said: "I'll take responsibility for the first goal. That's what we ask them, we've had a lot of success playing that way, but I'm just happy with the reaction.

"Rav has just turned 19 but he has so much about him. His character and attitude, it's not easy to deal with something like that but he did very well. I didn't doubt him, that's kind of the person he is. I was really pleased with the way he dealt with that."

Both Silvera and Jones staked their claim for a start at Coventry with eye-catching displays.

Carrick said: "I already had something to think about. That's the quality we have in the group in certain positions.

"I'm really pleased. We want boys to be playing well and we want lads to take their chances and force their way into the team.

"That's great, it's healthy rivalry, it makes the team and squad better. I'm really pleased with them boys, they took their goals well."