Warnock bites his tongue after bad day for the Boro

A DOWNHEARTED Neil Warnock said yesterday’s 2-0 defeat at Barnsley illustrated how badly Middlesbrough need to overhaul their squad this summer.

The veteran boss criticised keeper Marcus Bettinelli, whose blunder allowed Alex Mowatt’s corner to find the net to open the scoring at Oakwell.

Boro contained the hosts comfortably up to that point but yet again shot themselves in the foot and left Yorkshire pointless.

“Without me being too honest I don’t know what to say,” said Warnock. “I’m usually very honest but it’s not a day to be honest.

“It’s a day to say what we’ve been saying for the last few weeks – we need to improve the squad. Today demonstrated where we need to improve.”

What disappointed Warnock so much was the fact Boro had executed the game plan up to the hour mark and matched Barnsley at their own game.

“I can’t fault them, the game was exactly how we knew it was going to be,” said the boss.

“We competed and had the best chances – take one of them and we win the game. But the longer it went on, you thought they might get something and the goal, what can you say about a goal like that? George [Saville] should have scored and I don’t think they would have come back.

“I don’t think they knew how to break us down and then we give away a goal like that. My missus would have been disappointed with that.”