MICHAEL Carrick was left frustrated after Middlesbrough were held to a draw by Preston and says his side need to start "killing teams off".

Tommy Conway put Boro ahead early on and the hosts had more than enough chances to be out of sight before Mads Frokjaer-Jensen equalised for the visitors on the stroke of half-time.

That gave Preston something to hold on to and the visitors followed the lead of Derby and Portsmouth and sat deep in the second half, happy to settle for their point.

“I’m frustrated, we should have won the game," said Carrick.

"We were in a great position where we should then probably go on and win the game. We created enough opportunities again to score more and didn’t give a lot away again. So there were a lot of good things in there that over time we feel will benefit us.

"But again, and I’ve just said this to the boys in there, it’s killing teams off when we’ve got them [that we have to be better].

"We’re 1-0 up, we’ve got them on the back foot, we’ve got to take that next step and push for the next goal and be really positive. "The game drifted a little bit for five or 10 minutes and they grab their goal.

"The game completely changes second half when they’ve got something to hold on to. Towards the end, when teams are there going man for man and are trying to stop us, we’ve got to find ways of breaking them down.

"I thought largely we tried - there was a lot of good attitude and application, but we just couldn’t find that killer pass at the end."

RECOMMENDED READING:

Despite his frustrations, Carrick will cling to the positives and says results "will come" for Boro, who have picked up eight points from their first five games.

He said: “It’s still early. You look at it with Neto still settling, George's (Edmunson) first game, Ben’s (Doak) first game having not been here very long, Tommy (Conway) not here very long… So there is a freshness and settling-in period as well. I’m not getting too frustrated, I’m more taking positives from the potential we’ve got in the group and the excitement of that, more than anything else.

“You see the league, there are some results that not many people would predict and that’s just the start of a season in general. You’ve got to find a way to play yourself into some kind of consistency. If we doing the right things - and the boys have showed many good things - it will come. I’m not frustrated with that."