MICHAEL Carrick was frustrated by Middlesbrough's game management at Watford and how quickly the game "unravelled" after such a dominant and impressive performance.

Boro were on course for their third straight Championship win after George Edmundson's opener nine minutes into the second half, but Carrick's side collapsed late on as Edo Kayembe equalised before fellow substitute Kwadwo Baah struck a late winner.

Boro should have been out of sight long before Watford's late show, with several chances spurned before and after Edmundson's opener.

Not for the first time this season, Carrick told of the need for Boro to start "killing teams off" but even at 1-0 he felt his side should have comfortably seen the game out.

"For three quarters of the game it was a top performance so to be sitting here with nothing is very tough to take," said Boro's head coach.

"I know why and some of the reasons why we ended up losing it.

"There were a couple of things we didn't help ourselves with, which we'll look at.

"To let the game slip away from such a commanding position, it shows what happens if you're not quite at it. There are really big positives to take from it but a big negative at the end."

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Finn Azaz and Emmanuel Latte Lath were both guilty of missing first half chances. Latte Lath had a goal ruled out shortly after Edmundson's opener before Ben Doak was twice denied by home keeper Jonathan Bond.

Carrick said: "We had chances but we still should be able to see it off. At 1-0 we're in a good position, we can't expect to be winning by twos and threes and fours every week. We need to kill teams off when we have them in the position to do so. But then managing the game, knowing the momentum and how it can swing and doing things to stop that. Too quickly the game unravelled for us."

Asked what went wrong for Boro in the last quarter of an hour, Carrick said: "There's a lot of things through the game, all the little details that we put in place that enabled us to play well for so long. We just came off them in some ways and then paid the ultimate penalty."