We’re all in this together – Carrick feels the pain of fans and players
MICHAEL Carrick hopes to keep building the connection between Middlesbrough and its supporters after getting a glimpse of what could be achievable during the play-off semi-final defeat by Coventry City.
More than 30,000 Boro fans were present at a sold-out Riverside on Wednesday evening to get behind their side in the quest to beat Coventry and make it to Wembley for the play-off final. Sadly, things did not go to plan, as Gustavo Hamer’s fine finish ended Boro’s promotion dream for this season.
Carrick, like everyone associated with Middlesbrough, was left disappointed at full-time that all the hard work to turn the season around and go from 21st to the play-offs ultimately wasn’t rewarded with the Wembley trip and promotion party that many, including him, felt it deserved. Nevertheless, while appreciating the anguished mood, Carrick also sent a defiant and uplifting message to Boro fans, as his attention turned towards the future and using this season’s experiences to build for next season.
Asked if the support on the night was evidence of what can be achieved, Carrick said: “For sure. We’ve built a connection with the supporters over time and it’s grown and grown home and away. We appreciate the time, the effort and the money that they put into supporting us because it’s incredible.
“The disappointment is big, not so much for myself but for the group – for the players and the staff, and the supporters and the club in general. I’m in a position where you try and help and guide to take on the responsibility of trying to produce for the football club. We just fell a little bit short, but I’m hugely proud of all of them.
“The players have been unbelievable and it genuinely is a special group – one of the best groups of people I’ve been involved with, and I really can’t fault them.
“That’s what’s disappointing more than anything, because they’ve given everything they possibly could and didn’t get what I think they deserved. Not deserved in terms of a football sense, but deserved in terms of what they gave and what they sacrificed. So that hurts me to think that they’ve not been able to achieve what I wanted them to.
“We’ve got to use this as the foundation – as hard as it is to sit here in this moment and say that. I didn’t want to have to be sitting here and saying that, but that is the reality. Without thinking too far ahead, we’ve got to use this to build on.”