The magical moment Hayden Hackney learnt of Middlesbrough captaincy and his response

HAYDEN Hackney had no idea he was going to captain his hometown club at Norwich until he walked into the away dressing room and saw the armband hanging on his peg.

Redcar-born Hackney captained Middlesbrough for the first time in the FA Cup tie against Aston Villa at the start of the year but had never worn the armband in a league game until Sunday.

And for the 22-year-old, a lifelong Boro fan who came through the academy ranks, it was a moment of immense pride.

"I came into the changing room and saw it on my spot," says the midfielder.

"Darks [Peter Darke], the kitman said I'm captain today, then the gaffer spoke to me.

"It was amazing. It's a dream, as I always say. I watched Grant [Leadbitter] and people like that be captain, for me to be able to do it is great."

He added: "I'm not very vocal, just really competitive, so I never really saw myself as captain."

For head coach Carrick, Hackney leads by example and he described it as a "natural decision" to hand the midfielder the armband.

"It didn't take much thinking," he said.

"He didn't flinch, he just got on with his business and played ever so well.

"I didn't want him to change or do anything different and he didn't, he was as good as ever."

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Despite his captaincy pride, Norwich's fightback against Boro took the shine off the day for Hackney, but as disappointed as he was in the immediate aftermath he says there's complete belief in the dressing room.

"We were pretty down in the changing room," admitted Hackney.

"That shows we thought we could have won that game. It slipped away but we'll be working on that to try and see out games and manage them a bit better."

Boro host Coventry City on Saturday sitting ninth in the Championship and are only a point outside the top six, but Carrick's players feel like they should be in a stronger position given the way they've dominated games.

Hackney said: "100% it's coming. We'll stay confident and positive. We see each other every day in training and know how good we can be. We'll keep going.

"When we're training together in a mini-game, we see the standard and think we've got a really good chance this season. Hopefully we can put that into games."