MICHAEL CARRICK admitted “the tank emptied” on his Middlesbrough players during this afternoon’s 3-1 defeat to Coventry City.

Boro were the dominant side for most of the first half at the Riverside, opening the scoring through Josh Coburn before they were pegged back by a driven finish from Tatsuhiro Sakamoto.

However, they were comprehensively outplayed in the second half as Haji Wright fired Coventry into the lead before Sakamoto’s second goal secured all three points for the visitors.

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Boro were missing a dozen senior players because of injuries or call-ups to either the Asia Cup or Africa Cup of Nations, and Carrick conceded that his inability to make many changes over the festive period eventually caught up with his side.

“I think it’s understandable,” said the Boro boss. “It felt like the tank just emptied at the wrong time for us today, in terms of their energy. I can’t fault them. It’s such a small pool of players we’ve had to pick from a patch-up game to game over recent weeks.

“It probably just caught up with us at the wrong time because first half, I thought we were fantastic. I thought we played some fabulous football and should have, could have, been up at half-time.

“In the end, they are a good team, they’re dangerous and they’re on a good run as well. We knew we were going to be tested and pushed to the limit. In the end, it was just the energy levels and the freshness that caught up with us in the end.”

Coburn made his first start since mid-October after recovering from a groin problem, but looked like he was running on empty for the final quarter of the game.

However, with the bench being made up largely of untried youngsters, Carrick was not in a position to be able to change things.

“Josh was probably ready to start after playing an extended period on Friday night (as a substitute at Huddersfield),” said Carrick. “But playing the full game was a big ask of him.

“It’s kind of needs must at the minute though. There are a few boys playing a bit patched up at the minute, and they’ve had to over a period of time as well.

“That’s where we’re at. I’ve no problem with the amount of games we have played because we want to win games and we want to be successful. It’s just more that the fantastic squad that we’ve got, we’ve only been able to pick from about half of it of late, so it does make it harder for the ones that are playing.”