Michael Carrick insisted Liverpool loanee Ben Doak was just rested as he was absent from Middlesbrough's 1-0 FA Cup third-round defeat to Blackburn Rovers.

Boro crashed out of the cup at the first time of asking for the third consecutive season under Carrick as the Boro boss made seven changes in total. Handing opportunities to fringe players such as Law McCabe, Alex Gilbert and Micah Hamilton, it was the absence of Doak from the squad altogether that drew a lot of attention.

Asked about his absence after, Carrick said: “Ben was just rested, exactly the same as Neto [Borges] and Finn [Azaz] as well. We’ve made changes throughout the season and it’s worked fine. We made them today for different reasons but we certainly came here to win the game, and had the belief we could.

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"I’m not too happy that we haven’t. I thought there were generally speaking a couple of good performances - Law [McCabe] was particularly bright and showed really good quality and dealt with the game really well.”

In a game very similar to the league meeting at the Riverside two months ago, Boro ultimately couldn't use their possession to break down a solid and compact Blackburn defence. In response, an error-ridden five minutes from Boro gifted the visitors their passage to the fourth round.

In between Tom Glover almost gifting Andi Weimann an open goal and Georged Edmundson dallying to allow Harry Leonard to run through one-on-one, Weimann did capitalise on Matt Clarke's poor attempt to clear a cross, as the Austrian fired home from inside the area.

“We’re disappointed to lose the game, and definitely in the way that we did," Carrick said. "No goal is a good goal to concede, but that was one I thought we could have done an awful lot more to stop. I’m disappointed with that.

"It was a tight game really, with not much in it. There wasn’t much of a spark or an attacking threat from either side. It always felt like a game where one goal would decide it. As it turned out, I was disappointed with that."

On his side's deficiencies at the other end, he added: “We had moments but we struggled to break them down. A couple of opportunities, but ultimately, we just couldn’t find it on the day. We make plenty of changes through the season at times and still carry the rhythm and level of performance needed. Today, we just didn’t quite have that difference to be a good team. In the end, they found that moment and it’s disappointment."