MICHAEL CARRICK won the League Cup twice as a player – now, the Middlesbrough boss finds himself just three wins away from repeating the feat as a manager.

In his first full season in management, Carrick has led Boro into the last eight of the Carabao Cup for the first time since 2019, with this evening’s 3-2 win at Exeter City having secured a last-eight spot.

Previous wins at Huddersfield, Bolton and Bradford had proved Boro’s liking for knockout football, and while he might have made seven changes to his starting side this evening, Carrick is determined to keep giving the League Cup his full attention.

The Boro boss said: “For me, cups are special. You can turn your noses up at them sometimes, and I understand why some people maybe don’t take them as seriously as was maybe the case in the past because it does give you extra games and it does stretch you a bit.

“But we’re in this business to try to be successful and set up special occasions and special nights. It’s a little bit different to the week in, week out and we’ve enjoyed ourselves in this competition.

“We’ve been away in every game and had to do a fair bit of travelling, so we’ll see what the next one brings. There’s some big teams left in it, and it’s a big challenge ahead for us, but at least we can enjoy the journey home.”

This evening’s game was a thriller, with Boro falling behind to a great long-range strike from Ryan Trevitt.

Goals from Morgan Rogers and Sammy Silvera turned the game on its head at the start of the second half, but Trevitt struck back with another superb strike to make it 2-2.

The Exeter midfielder went from hero to zero in the final ten minutes though, tugging back Morgan Rogers to enable Emmanuel Latte Lath to slot home a winner from the penalty spot.

Carrick said: “It was a classic [cup tie] really. I thought we started okay, nothing special but in control of the game. They score from an unbelievable strike and you’re left wondering if that’s how the night’s going to go.

“But we found a rhythm and a spark in the second half and the boys start playing well to turn it around. All of a sudden, they go and put another one in and you’re wondering how?

“We defended the goal really well all night, Tom (Glover) didn’t really have a save to make but he’s had to pick it out of the net twice.

“Credit to them, I thought they organised themselves really well and made it difficult for us. But the longer the game went the more the space opened up and we used that well in the end.”