We deserved more than exit, says boss
CHRIS Wilder could not fault his Middlesbrough side’s effort, despite exiting the Carabao Cup following a 1-0 defeat to Barnsley at the Riverside.
A much-changed Boro side, which included no fewer than seven players from the Under-21 squad, largely dominated the game against the League One outfit but just couldn’t find their momentum and were then undone by a sucker-punch in the dying minutes.
Josh Benson reacted quickest as goalkeeper Liam Roberts spilled his effort to turn the rebound home in stoppage time and set up a secondround tie with Leeds United.
For Boro, while it meant a late defeat and exit from the cup, Wilder took more positives than negatives from the game.
He said: “I was delighted with the players. The senior players were excellent in their attitude towards it. Sometimes you look at it from a mentality point of view and your senior players set the tone of that.
“It was a mixed team in terms of senior players and youngsters, and a lot of young boys off the bench too. So you look at what the senior boys’ performances and attitudes towards the game is like, and I thought they were absolutely first class.
“Dael Fry, Tommy Smith, Boles [Marc Bola], Paddy [McNair], Robbo [Roberts], Dunc [Duncan Watmore] all superb in terms of a really good attitude towards it. And then the second bit is the integration of the young players into senior football. That’s always interesting and I
thought they were outstanding.
“I thought they grew into the game and second half they were superb. On top of that, you’re balancing it in terms of conditioning of the players and getting minutes into some.
“You’re looking for Paddy to do 60 minutes, Chuba [Akpom] and Marcus [Forss] to do half an hour because we’re in conjunction with our conditioners and sports scientists to make sure that the main event, and let’s not beat around the bush, Sunday [against Sheffield United in the Championship] is the main event, we’re going in as well as we can do.
“Of course, we’re here to win, and it’s Barnsley who’ve gone through. But I believe, in my honest opinion, we deserved so much more on the night – especially second half, we just dominated it.
“We created chances, moved the ball well and young players grew into the game, finding energy from somewhere at times before then being punctured at the death.”
While not wanting to be too critical of his side, particularly the younger players, he did concede his players could have done better to prevent the goal that ultimately knocked his side out of the cup.
He said: “We didn’t stop a forward ball. [Bryant] Bilongo got caught one versus one and we got done with two of the midfield players, who’d put a hell of a shift in, just caught out of position.
“Other than a couple of forays into our half in the second half, that was their only real chance but that’s how it goes and we have to accept that.”
In my honest opinion, we
deserved so much more on the night - especially second half, we just
dominated it.
Chris Wilder