MIDDLESBROUGH head to Norwich City this evening with Michael Carrick admitting that when he looks at the Canaries, he sees strong similarities to how Middlesbrough were performing in the early weeks of the season.

Boro failed to win any of their opening seven league matches, but Carrick was always confident his side’s strong performances would eventually translate into positive results, and his faith has proved to be justified with Saturday’s 1-0 win over Birmingham meaning the Teessiders have now racked up five league victories in a row.

After enjoying a relatively strong start to the season, Norwich’s form has gone in the opposite direction, with Saturday’s 3-2 defeat to Leeds, when the Canaries saw a two-goal lead completely overturned in the final half-hour of the game, meaning David Wagner’s side have now failed to win six of their last seven matches in all competitions.

Carrick has been poring over the footage from those matches as part of his preparation for tonight’s game, and is adamant Norwich’s recent results do not reflect how they have been playing.

The Boro boss said: “I don’t think you can judge Norwich on just their results so far this season. We judge them on how well they’re playing and what they’re capable of as well.

“They remind me a bit of us when we were finding it a little more difficult to get results but performances were there largely. Watching them over the past few weeks, it’s very similar.

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“They’re very dangerous, very good with the ball, good going forward. They have some very good players and so they can create a lot of chances. They have a lot of experience at this level as well.

“You’ve got to be really good to beat them and we’re well aware of that. The run is the run, results wise, but we’re not looking at that at all. We know it will be a tough game where we’ll have to be at our best to get the result we want.”

Boro could hardly be in better shape as they head to Carrow Road, with Saturday’s victory having lifted them to within two points of the play-off positions.

Triumph again tonight, and they will be in the top half of the table for the first time all season, an achievement that would be a fittingly positive way in which to mark the one-year anniversary of Carrick’s appointment as Boro boss.

He said: “It’s nice to be going into games in such a positive frame of mind, but I must say, even when we weren’t getting the results, I said it throughout that period, the boys stayed in the right frame of mind.

“There is a spring in their step at this present time though, of course. But we have that while also having an understanding that we have to do it all over again every time we play.

“What’s happened in the last six games, ten games, whatever, it doesn’t really matter. What’s important is what happens in the next game.”