JOSH Coburn was over the moon to end a frustrating wait for a Middlesbrough goal and thanked head coach Michael Carrick for not taking the "easy" option and dropping the young striker.

Coburn has established himself as Boro's first choice centre-forward this season ahead of summer signing Emmanuel Latte Lath, but the Bedale-born 20-year-old had only managed one goal from his eight starts ahead of Saturday's trip to Plymouth and had failed to hit the net in his last five Championship outings.

Even when he's not scoring, Coburn offers Boro an awful lot as a focal point, a willing runner and a combative presence up-top, but he knows strikers will always ultimately be judged on goals - which is why he was so pleased to bag a brace in Saturday's 3-3 draw at Home Park.

“It’s been a little frustrating for me lately," Coburn admitted.

"I’ve been starting games which is brilliant, but I want to score goals and it just hasn’t been happening. I know I will get plenty of chances in this team though, so there is plenty of opportunity to get the goals. I just need to keep going.

"Danksy and the gaffer have been really good with me through this period and they’ve kept me in, which is great.

"It would be easy for them to take me out of the team if I’m not scoring goals. But I know I can do other stuff for the team, it’s not all just about the goals.

"I work hard for the team, hold the ball up and make the runs in behind and things like that. That’s a key emphasis in terms of the all-round performance, but of course, the goals do help with that.

"I do feel I’ve been doing well. But it has been frustrating because I’m a striker and I’m there to score goals. But if I’m not scoring goals, I know I need to help the team as much as possible, and if that’s linking up play, bringing others into play, then that’s my focus."

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Coburn gave Boro the lead against Argyle with a close-range finish and his second was a tap-in rebound after his penalty was saved.

He said: “It was great to give us the lead. I should score the penalty. I want penalties. I want to score as many goals as possible and though I had one goal, I won’t ever settle for that because I want as many as possible. It wasn’t a great penalty, but thankfully it went in in the end."

The only frustration for Coburn on Saturday was the fact Boro didn't end up taking all three points.

He said: “It was an entertaining game, but we’re a bit frustrated in the camp really. It’s one of those where we feel we should have won. We’ve gone ahead and they’ve scored two goals which were preventable. We get back into it and go ahead again but still only come away with a point. So it was an entertaining game, but we know we should have won it. It’s frustrating."