MICHAEL Carrick will ring the changes in midfield and attack for Middlesbrough's Carabao Cup second round tie against Stoke City tonight - but is desperate to win the game and set about building some momentum on Teesside.

The likes of Alex Gilbert, Dan Barlaser and Josh Coburn are all expected to come in to the side, while Micah Hamilton looks set to make his first start. Carrick has a decision to make on Tommy Conway, who was a likely starter tonight but might have played his way into the starting XI at Cardiff on the back of his match-saving cameo against Portsmouth.

As much as he'd like to shuffle his pack across the pitch, Carrick doesn't have the options to make many changes in defence, with Rav van den Berg, Dael Fry and Darragh Lenihan all out missing, with the head considering handing a first start to 17-year-old Harley Hunt, who joined from Swindon earlier this summer.

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Despite promising changes, Carrick takes the cup competitions seriously, with Boro having enjoyed a memorable run through to the last four in this competition last season, and the head coach again wants to advance against tonight's Championship opponents.

"Definitely in midfield and forward areas we feel that we’re pretty strong at the moment (so will make changes)," said Carrick, whose side snatched a deserved league point against Portsmouth thanks to a last minute Conway penalty on Saturday.

"Across the backline we don’t have many options at the moment, so we’ll have to manage that.

"Ultimately, we want to win that game. We want to get into the habit of winning games and playing well and I feel like we can take momentum from the Portsmouth game and build on it.

"The start of the season, I had it as a player myself, it’s the league, then it’s the cup, it’s a mixed bag and everyone is trying to find their rhythm to get started. That’s just the nature of it. Because we have got such a strong squad and good balance in most positions at the moment, it allows us to make some changes, as we did against Leeds.

"We’ll just have to try and get that balance right again."

Carrick added: "There's not two sides with a separation (between league and cup). Everyone is in it together.

"The subs made a big impact against Portsmouth and we played really well at Leeds (in the first round). It's a group effort. We'll use the game well enough with who plays and the games ahead with getting the balance right."

Teenager Hunt was on the bench at Leeds and kept his place in the squad for the league games against Derby and Portsmouth.

He only turned 17 earlier this month but the coaching team have been impressed and Carrick said he was open to the idea of giving the youngster his first start tonight.

He said: "That's something we need to take into account. If he does, great, fantastic, I wouldn't be against it. We'll just have to see how the others are really and assess."