GEORGE Edmundson thinks it's only a matter of time until Middlesbrough give someone a good "thrashing".

In meetings with his players, Michael Carrick has stressed the importance of Boro "punishing teams" when they're on top and making their dominance count in games - which made Saturday's collapse at Watford all the more frustrating.

Boro should have won comfortably against the Hornets but couldn't add to Edmundson's opener and paid the price when the home side came roaring back late on.

It was Edmundson's first goal since his deadline day move from Ipswich but that was no consolation for the defender, who was honest in his assessment of the Vicarage Road defeat.

“It’s good to get my first goal, but if I’m being totally honest, with the way the game has gone, I couldn’t care less," he said.

"We came here to win the game and we wanted another clean sheet. We’ve thrown it away really. Something we’ve spoken about is the fact we control games, create loads of chances, but we need to start punishing teams.

"I think this season somebody will get absolutely thrashed. Sometimes 1-0 can be enough, but a lot of the time you need that second and sometimes even third goal."

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For all putting games to bed has been an issue for Boro this season, Edmundson says that wasn't the only problem at Watford.

He told BBC Tees: "At the other end, we’ve got to defend better. They threw a lot of attacking players on as they were chasing the game, but, realistically, it should never have got to that.

"We should have been out of sight. It’s one of those things. It happens and all we can do now is take the positives from it and learn from it. I don’t like losing, and neither do any of the other lads in the changing room.

"I’m certainly not going to be happy tonight. But I’ll wake up tomorrow, watch the game back and then look to learn from it."

Boro were backed by a sell-out away following at Watford and Edmundson wanted the fans to know how much their support is appreciated.

He said: “It’s a hell of a long way and costs a lot of money for them to come down to support us. I

"It’s something we said before the game: 'We’ve got to try and repay them as best we can’.

"Obviously we haven’t done that. It is something that goes into our team talks though. We respect that fans use their hard-earned cash to come and support us. We appreciate it and we try always to repay that, but we just fell a bit short."