‘We came here to win’ say Boro spoil sports

MIDDLESBROUGH manager Michael Carrick admitted a tinge of disappointment his in-form side were not able to inflict maximum damage on Ipswich Town’s automatic promotion hopes.

As it was, Boro had to settle for a point that moved Ipswich to the top of the Championship.

Boro took the lead after 20 minutes through a header from Emmanuel Latte Lath but Town struck back 10 minutes later when Massimo Luongo crashed home a corner by Leif Davis.

Carrick said: “It’s a tough place to come and you can see they’re a really good team, confidence is high and they’re in a really good place. Their record here is really good so it was always going to be challenging to come here, which makes it probably a decent point in isolation.

“But, for us, we came here to win and we wanted to win, so it’s a bit of mixed feelings really overall.

“We know what we needed [as far as play-off hopes were concerned]. It doesn’t change what we do for the next game, though.

“We want to finish the season strongly and continue to do the right things. We’re on a decent run at the moment and we want to try and keep building on that. The aim is to just try and keep winning football matches really.

“There are a lot of good things again. There are things we need to improve upon and be better at but there are some good things that we can take from it.” Ipswich: Hladky, Tuanzebe (Ball 89), Woolfenden, Burgess, Davis, Morsy, Luongo (Taylor 77), Giraud-Hutchinson, Chaplin (Travis 89), Sarmiento (Broadhead 59), Al Hamadi (Moore 59). Unused substitutes: Walton, Harness, Jackson, Humphreys.

Middlesbrough: Dieng, Ayling, van den Berg, Clarke, Engel, Howson (Barlaser 86), O'Brien, I Jones, Azaz, Silvera (Greenwood 69), Latte Lath. Unused substitutes: Finch, Gilbert, Dijksteel, Bangura, J Jones, Thomas, McCabe.

Referee: S Allison (Somerset).