THIS season was supposed to be different for Middlesbrough.

After the costly slow starts of the last two campaigns, Boro did everything in their power in the summer to ensure they wouldn't once again be playing catch-up and giving their rivals a head-start.

And yet here they are more than a quarter of the way through the Championship season looking up at gaps that are quickly opening above.

Yes, Boro remain just three points off the top six but they are now seven behind Sheffield United, eight behind Leeds United and 11 Sunderland. Boro are once again making life difficult for themselves.

Remarkably, Boro are now two points worse off than they were at this stage last season.

That's a startling and alarming comparison considering Carrick's side picked up just two points in seven winless games to start last campaign and were picking up the pieces after a summer of testing upheaval.

Fast forward 12 months and the most recent summer window couldn't have been much different. Boro were well prepared and efficiently and impressively executed their plan, landing top targets - several early in the window - and equipping Carrick with a squad that looked to be at least on par with the division's best.

That's why there's understandable frustration at Boro's underwhelming start. And as much as Carrick stresses his disinterest in the league table at this stage of the year, Boro are just a few games away from being a third of the way through the campaign. At some stage promise, potential and performances have to be turned into results.

Boro have won successive games just once this season. That lack of consistency doesn't bode well for a team that now need to bridge gaps above just to get on level terms with their rivals, never mind stay there.

Slow starts cost Boro automatic promotion two seasons ago and a play-off place last term. If Boro come up short this season, they'll again be left to regret missed opportunities and dropped points in the early stages of the campaign.

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The hope was the Sheffield United win would be the springboard Boro needed but not for the first time this season one shuffle forward was quickly followed by a step back.

Coventry City, like Bristol City last month, headed to the Riverside winless on their travels. A heads up ahead of Tuesday's trip to Loftus Road that QPR haven't yet won at home this season.

Hayden Hackney's red card midway through the first half obviously gave Coventry a leg-up on Saturday but Boro had been sluggish, sloppy and second best in the 20 minutes that preceded the sending off.

They actually improved after going down to 10 men but the outcome always felt inevitable before and after Bobby Thomas' opener late in the first half, though Boro made a decent enough fist of it after the break, led by tireless Tommy Conway.

As was the case at Norwich six days earlier, Boro lost their grip in the final stages. Haji Wright, like Thomas in the first half, was unmarked to tap in before Josh Eccles streaked away to score the third.

"It could have been six," was the taunt from the away end, with Coventry having three goals disallowed.

“I’m really frustrated with how the game has ended really because I thought, with 10 men, we felt we were still in the game," said Carrick.

"To concede the two late goals and go off feeling like that, everyone going home feeling like that, I felt for the boys."

"[At half-time] we felt we had a genuine chance of still getting something from the game. We had opportunities and moments around their goal where it could have fallen for us or we could have taken them. We looked in a good place at that stage but the second goal makes it unravel."

Stoke in the cup and Watford, Norwich and now Coventry in the league - Boro have "unravelled" too often.

"The way the game has ended and we've lost, it's important we don't let this get to us too much," stressed Carrick.

"It can go that way. If you get a man sent off, anything can happen in the game. It's important to take a step back and reprepare for Tuesday and freshen it up. This league can throw things where results happen.

"Generally our performances have been really good. Today we didn't start particularly well but we'll clear our heads and bodies and move on to Tuesday and Saturday quickly."

The majority of the home supporters had left before full-time on Saturday.

Boro need positive results against QPR and Luton to lift the mood and to ensure those gaps above don't get any bigger.