Blues boss Mick McCarthy admitted his side were second best and deserved nothing from their 2-0 defeat at Middlesbrough

“Second best, got nowt, deserved nowt,” was the Town manager’s succinct summing up of his side’s performance at the Riverside.

He said the players were understandably down after such an under par display: “The atmosphere in the dressing room was as you’d imagine, pretty sombre and not very buoyant after that, not buoyant at all.

“Disappointment as much as anything about the way we played. We didn’t compete, not like we normally do.”

Why was that the case? “If knew why that was I’d put it immediately right,” McCarthy continued. “I could give you a whole host of reasons: we’ve had players away, we’ve had a bit of a broken week. We’ve travelled up, but I never believe that because we have to travel anyway.

“But I actually think they played well. Before the goal there wasn’t much in it but once they got the goal, I thought they played well. They got on top of us and didn’t let us play at all.

“I would also say that they’ve got a fair few quid in that team, I have to be honest. They’ve just signed Lee Tomlin and Danny Graham was being sold to Swansea and Hull in the Premier League, and then there’s Mustapha Carayol, they’ve got Albert Adomah on the bench, who they spent a million quid on.

“So, they’ve got a good side, Grant Leadbitter, who we couldn’t afford to keep, Nathaniel Chalobah is on loan from Chelsea.

“They’ve got a good side and to stop that we’ve got to play well and we didn’t. I guess I should give them some credit because I thought they did play well.”

He was disappointed with his side's defending for both Danny Graham’s goals: “We had the best chance through Tayls just prior to the first goal.

“It wasn’t like us, not like my team, not like us to let Carayol wriggle out of that and then come on the inside and shoot. Unlike us, but I don’t want to detract from them because I thought they played well.”

McCarthy was unsure whether keeper Dean Gerken ought to have done better: “I haven’t really seen that again. I don’t know how difficult it was to stop, so I’ll have to have another look at that.”

As for Graham’s second, a header from a Leadbitter corner, he added: “It was awful marking, that’s not like us.

“Bad day at the office, I go back to my first comment — didn’t get owt, didn’t deserve owt, second best. You can ask me to put meat on the bones of that but I think it sums it up fairly.”

Frank Nouble was substituted at the break, but McCarthy says he could have replaced any of his frontmen.

“He put in as much effort as anybody, I could have taken any one of the three of them off, to be fair,” he continued. “But I was going to go 4-4-2, see if we could get something back and he was the unlucky one who had to come off.

“I thought I’d leave Tayls where he was and see if he could replicate some of last week’s performance, and I don’t think he did.

“Murph looked like he’d been away and hadn’t had a week’s training with us. It could have been anybody.”

The Town boss says centre-half Christophe Berra is OK despite receiving treatment after kicking George Friend’s foot in a strong tackle in the second half: “He’s all right, he’s very lucky, he could have been carted off with that challenge.”

McCarthy confirmed that Anthony Wordsworth missed trip with the back problem he suffered in training on Thursday and said skipper Carlos Edwards was left behind as he wasn’t going to be in the 18: “Carlos wasn’t going to be on the bench, so he stayed and trained with a view to Tuesday and Saturday.”

Middlesbrough manager Aitor Karanka was relieved to see his side score after drawing seven consecutive blanks, a total of 12 hours and 14 minutes without a goal.

“Finally the goals arrived and I’m very happy,” he said. “The first thing is our supporters deserve to see us scoring goals and winning, and the second thing is for my team because they were working very well in the last game at home and they deserved to score goals.

“[I said that] if we played as we are playing at the moment, the goals would arrive and finally they arrived.”

Photo: Action Images

Michael11 added 18:39 - Mar 8 On my way home at the minute, still absolutely fuming. Clueless tactics and a dreadful performance. We made a very poor Middlesbrough side look decent. Yet again, the same faces let us down. Dean Gerken's just a complete liability, Green and Tabb are also just terrible. It was a big pitch and them two just looked lost. Why on earth you'd bring a defensive midfielder like Hyam on when you're 2-0 down is beyond me! Mick got it completely wrong today and I can't think of any positives whatsoever.

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LiamCP123 added 18:43 - Mar 8 We lost. Let's all be retards and say 'Mick out'. WHO'S WITH ME!?
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brittaniaman added 18:57 - Mar 8 GOT NOWT! DESERVED NOWT! Well your the Boss Mick PUT it RIGHT FOR GOODNESS SAKE AND GET SOME HELP ON YOUR TACTICS IF YOU CANNOT HANDLE THEM YOURSELF
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TimmyH added 19:07 - Mar 8 'they've got a fair few quid in the team' - the latest of the strange excuses, when we have players who cost us a 'fair few quid' (only 1 name springs to mind) your reluctant to play him Mick! - By the way was it a case of we couldn't afford to keep Leadboots? I thought we had enough of him. Sounds like Mick hasn't a clue why we played so badly...not a lot of hope then.
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Wickets added 19:09 - Mar 8 Yer long way to go for such a poor performance/effort. Please Mick can we see Hyam and Williams start and please keep Taylor in, he was as good as anyone.
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runningout added 19:09 - Mar 8 don't get the Leadbitter comment... He's average at best. Yet another winnable game thrown away. Weekend ruined!!!
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prebbs007 added 19:11 - Mar 8 If you hadn't made such a dreadful team selection Mick this would not have happened !!! Tabb is DIRE ! Nouble is a JOKE ! Anderson our best right midfielder / winger. Williams only here for a month so play him ! If Hyam should play rugby cos he never makes a forward pass ever, he is so far away from championship standard. Chambers getting skinned far too regularly. Berra covers smith almost every match. Murphy is a lump with no football ability, Green cudnt get in a team that lost 5-1 at home to Bolton. Select rubbish and this is what happens Mick. 1 attempt on goal against a team who hadn't scored for 12 hours . Oh how we miss Didzy..... One man team? You bet we are!!! Disgrace !!!

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Radlett_blue added 19:11 - Mar 8 As predicted, MM bigs up Boro.
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Tractamatt added 19:12 - Mar 8 LiamCP123 calling people retards in pointless and tasteless if there are people who want to vent their spleen at the manager for being one dimensional and seemingly clueless as to how to move the club forward as far as results go then that is their right, You have no right what so ever to use that sort of mindless and offensive terminology to have a, what in your mind is funny, dig at them for doing so

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raycrawfordswig added 19:12 - Mar 8 Same old Blah Blah Blah heard it all before.Get some quality players in during the Summer and shift the deadwood.No pace in the team at all we play dead slow or slower
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Arthur_Hayes added 19:26 - Mar 8 I'm fuming at the grammar, punctuation and spelling on this board. For the record: You're - as in, you are a complete plank. Your - as in, your spelling is bad. They're - as in, they are not very clever. Their - as in, their schooling didn't amount to much. There - as in, go and sit in the corner over there. Lesson over, as you were.
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BriggEnd added 19:28 - Mar 8 Another pathetic and out of form team we carnt beat again. We are average from back to front inconsistant.
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Letchworth_Blue added 19:30 - Mar 8 LiamCP are you 10?
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NoelTheDub added 19:38 - Mar 8 Mick forget blaming the mid week games,forget blaming the traveling,the sooner the better you stop putting players in trouble ie out of position and expect them to get you a result,Green is a out and out centre mid why i ask has he not played there he was lost out wide today on a big pitch,Chambers got slaughtered as would be expected v a good left winger because he is a good centre half,as for Tabb and Nouble why are these lads starting instead of Hunt,SEB,or Anderson at this stage because your team is sent out just not to lose Ican understand if we were in the bottom 3 but the top 8 or so this logic is unthinkable IMO, i rest my case.....

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Beattiesballbag added 19:42 - Mar 8 MM's dire defensive tactics will I'm afraid catch up with him sooner or later even the fans who, hear no evil,speak no evil, see no evil, are going to have to face facts that we're going no where with him at the helm, we're just treading water! As he didn't go out & make a positive signing last close season I can't imaging this close season will be any better, All the forwards were already here last season just on different contracts & one central defender & one defensive midfield player were signed that were not the positions that needed strengthening........can't see it getting any better!

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jonwatson75 added 19:47 - Mar 8 The thing that baffles me most is ... Under mick you expect effort hardwork and organisation. Today we lacked it all. Chambers got skinned because he is a centre half not a full back. He also had nouble clueless in leaving men in front of him . Terrible team performance. Murphy and Berra only two for me did a really shift. Taylor tried hard too. We were seriously poor today. No fight. No spirit and little clue which really worries me . Nouble is dreadful. We so so so miss didsy. Green and tabb and skuse very poor .

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warbeat78 added 19:47 - Mar 8 A big pitch should have played hunt& anderson from start with williams & skuse width against boro wingers
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BlueArmy01 added 19:51 - Mar 8 Its got nothing to do with Micks poor tactics he can only work with what he has got and is doing abetter job than most could. He is not being backed financially and nor would any other manager. wake up and realise this is probably is as good as it is gonna get under the financial constraints in place.
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TimmyH added 19:51 - Mar 8 Arthur_Hayes - as in grammar nazi Did you come on here just to respond to that? perhaps you should go on a teaching website or maybe pick Mick up on 'Nowt'.
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Walk_the_Wark added 19:56 - Mar 8 I've never been so bored and dejected supporting Town- even under Keane. MM should retire. And we need to move forward
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JWM added 19:59 - Mar 8 Walk the wark you are such a clown!
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Walk_the_Wark added 20:02 - Mar 8 No you're the clown JWM- still satisfied??? Jesus- what games are you watching?? This man is out of date and out of his depth- admit it
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NoelTheDub added 20:04 - Mar 8 At 2 nil down the Hynm sub beggers belief ,what were you thinking Mick as not a person on the planet bar you can understand that, have a go for petes sake instead of accepting at ht we are not to concede any more and that was your priority.You have traveling fans at the game and they deserve much more than that rubbish thinking..
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Chicago_Blue added 20:05 - Mar 8 2-0 down at the break and needing to go for it. So what does he do? Take off a striker and put on a defensive midfielder who can't pass it forward and looks like he should be prancing about in a boy band than playing in midfield!
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peteswindon added 20:07 - Mar 8 Just look at were we are compared to this time last year. Ok we don't like losing but at least we have progressed. Anyone that believes we are a top six team is living in cloud cuckoo land.
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