MIDDLESBROUGH boss Michael Carrick was left fuming after his side's second half collapse against Sheffield Wednesday.

Boro were on course for an impressive victory after racing into a three-goal lead against in the in-form Owls, but fell apart after the break as the visitors battled back in 16 second half minutes.

Boro have won just one of their last five and have now dropped out of the Championship top six, and Carrick says his side simply have to find a way to stop throwing points away.

"It's worse than frustrating," he said.

"To have so much control and to be in such a good position, we shouldn't have allowed it to unravel so quickly and to flip like it did. "The first half we won't take the positives we should because of the result. It feels like we've come away with nothing. It's not a great day."

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Asked what went wrong at the start of the second half, Carrick said: "Bit of decision making, a couple of half deflections for the two goals, it doesn't take much for it to go both ways.

"We found the difference in the first half but in the second there were too many things we didn't deal with.

"The sending off I don't agree with at all but to have the game flip like that, we can't accept that.

He added: "It's very easy now to say we should have controlled it better, but I think we should have. It all adds up.

"There's a lot of things: it's positioning, decision making, there's a bit of mentality in there, there's a bit of all sorts.

"It doesn't take long to go in the other direction. All the good from the first half, it doesn't feel like it counts for much."

Throwing away points from positions of power in games has become a trend this season, which is something Carrick admits his side can't continue to do if they're realistic about winning promotion to the Premier League.

He said: "No, we can't. Listen, we'll still take a lot from what we can do but we know we can't play for periods in games and then not. We need to find a consistent level of performance. You have to see it through. We keep making it more difficult for ourselves than we should."