Carrick’s not been hit for six

BORO boss Michael Carrick is not ruling his side out of the Championship top-six picture after Emmanuel Latte Lath and Marcus Forss scored to plunder three points for the Teessiders.

Back-to-back wins after a dismal run of only one victory in seven games have kept Boro in with a sniff of a top-six finish.

“We know what this league brings,” Carrick said. “If you can put results together quickly it can make a big difference over a short number of weeks.

“We are not getting carried away with a couple of results but there is still a bit to go yet and all we can do is try to win games.”

QPR head coach Marti Cifuentes could not believe that his side’s run of four games unbeaten had come to an end, leaving them still just a point above the drop zone.

“We had big expectations but we didn’t perform even close to the last game,” he said.

“We had chances to take the lead but we couldn’t. And we conceded poor goals.

“It’s a difficult situation. But we have to believe more than ever in what we are doing.”

Former Hoops keeper Seny Dieng twice kept his old mates out as QPR bossed the first half.

First he dived to his right to parry a shot by Chris Willock.

Then he pushed away an audacious attempt at a lob on the run from Ilias Chair.

After the interval, the outstanding Rav van den Berg slid in to deny sub Paul Smyth after he had gone past Dieng.

Rangers keeper Asmir Begovic had been a spectator until Latte Lath’s volleyed effort after 64 minutes dribbled inside the post.

And as QPR pressed for a leveller, Forss nodded in.