MICHAEL Carrick believes Middlesbrough's pre-match preparations paved the way for their six-goal show at Oxford - and dished out the praise to his players after another blistering attacking display.

Boro are now the Championship's top scorers after hitting 15 goals in their last three games, with three successive victories lifting Carrick's side up to fifth.

They went 1-0 down early on at the Kassam Stadium but hit back in some style, with Emmanuel Latte Lath scoring a hat-trick, Finn Azaz bagging a brace and substitute Tommy Conway coming off the bench to find the net.

Carrick was thrilled and believes Boro are now playing with a "spring in their step". But as well as being understandably delighted with his side's attacking play, he was also hugely impressed by how they dealt with the brutal weather conditions.

The game was played in a howling wind and with rain lashing down, but Boro took it all in their stride.

"We knew it would be tough, a fast pitch with a lot of wind," said Carrick.

"We spoke over the last couple of days about what it was going to be like weather wise and dealing with it, and expecting the worst really. We came here with that attitude and finding a way. And the boys did that."

As well as hailing his attackers, Carrick picked out Sol Bryn, Dan Barlaser and Jonny Howson for praise, with the trio stepping in for the absent Seny Dieng, Hayden Hackney and Aidan Morris.

He said: "Jonny and Dan came in together. They haven't played a lot but were great and everything clicked from there.

"So many positives, starting with Sol. I'm delighted for Sol. You could go through the full team, there were so many positives. We could have scored even more. It's great."

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Ben Doak built on his superb recent form and won the penalty that set Boro on their way. Carrick felt Elliott Moore should have been sent off for his challenge on the winger but his overriding emotion was relief that the Liverpool winger didn't get injured.

Despite missing some key players, Boro's attacking depth was evident, with Conway, Riley McGree, Marcus Forss and Micah Hamilton all coming off the bench.

Carrick said: “I think you could identify so many of lads of having a threat in so many different ways. Delano played out on the left and then Riley comes on for him, Micah then comes on late as well.

"That’s three lads who all play the same position very differently. It’s really good options. Tommy and Manu as well, up top, very different strengths which helps. Luckily they’re all finding their feet, they all want to start and all want to play.

"You could see that in how we finished because we were still looking dangerous and some of the football towards the end was fantastic and we could have scored even more.

"It’s really encouraging and it’s good to see the boys playing with that spring in the step.

It's not clear at this stage whether Dieng will be ready to return against Blackburn on Wednesday night, with Carrick saying: "He's ill. He came back [from international duty], we'll see, I haven't seen him so we'll see when we get back."

Hackney suffered an ankle injury while away with England's Under-21s.

Carrick said: “He was close-ish. We’ll assess him.”