There was a sense of the mood changing for Middlesbrough in defeat at Portsmouth. This might be Michael Carrick’s most difficult period in the Boro hotseat now.

Just one win in seven after the 2-1 defeat at Fratton Park, Carrick conceded after that he understood the frustrations that the away fans - who’d travelled so far for the club - showed at full-time of yet another game of points thrown away.

Carrick has had tough periods as Boro boss before. He had enough credit in the bank from his first season to negotiate the choppy waters of a difficult start to last season. In other tougher periods throughout last term, some leeway was offered due to the freakish nature of Boro’s injury list.

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But this season Boro started the campaign with high expectations after a strong end to last year. Backed by Steve Gibson and co. in the transfer market, hopes were high that Boro could mount a serious promotion challenge. With 19 games remaining, Boro are in poor form and scrapping to get one of what looks like two remaining play-off spots. It should have been better.

As Boro fans voiced their frustrations at full-time at Fratton Park, the first signs of a change in mood on Teesside were in motion. The biggest issue for Carrick is that the problems that cost them another three points are problems that have been evident all season. Ultimately, as head coach, it’s his job to solve that.

One-nil up at half-time thanks to Emmanuel Latte Lath’s 11th goal of the season, Boro should have won the game from there. Unable to produce the end product to score a second at one end, their inability to defend well for 90 minutes came to the fore again as they conceded two soft Matt Ritchie goals in the second half and lost 2-1.

While Carrick’s coaching could undoubtedly change plenty, one thing he just cannot really coach is mentality. The harsh reality for Boro this season is, for whatever reason, they appear so soft-bellied. They might find that harsh, but the reality is in the results.

Another three points dropped this weekend, that’s now 14 points that Boro have dropped when scoring first in a game. There were also two points dropped at Norwich where, although they fell behind, they came back to lead 3-1 at half-time only to draw 3-3. If Boro had any kind of game-management to even turn those 16 dropped points into only eight, the picture would be considerably different. In the top-half, only 11th-placed Norwich have a worse record than Boro in that regard.

It was a tough afternoon at Fratton Park for Rav van den Berg as he was forced to cover at right-back in the absence of Anfernee Dijksteel. He was by no means to blame solely for Boro’s shortcomings on Saturday, but his moment’s lapse in concentration just before Pompey’s winning goal summarises the kind of pressure that Boro just keep bringing on themselves.

Having reacted well to falling behind and quieting the home crowd’s energy, Van den Berg’s underhit backpass that almost gifted Callum Lang a goal ultimately buoyed the Fratton faithful again. The players on the pitch reacted and duly delivered. Those kinds of errors and moments of allowing momentum to swing in games have plagued Boro throughout the season. They just don’t seem to do it well and it’s starting to look as though it feels as inevitable to them as it does us.

Not making the most of their own opportunities never helps. At 1-0, both Hayden Hackney and Delano Burgzorg had good chances to double Boro’s lead. As we’ve seen, not even three-goal leads leave Boro secure this term, but it certainly gives you a better chance. Though Carrick played down Boro’s game-management after the game, it’s a problem he knows he has to solve.

“We can call it game management, but I thought we were managing the game well until their first goal - we were fine until that point,” he insisted. “When you do defend moments, when you don’t defend moments, is that game management? The flow of the game wasn’t a problem up until that point.

“We’ve got to be careful with that game management in that one instant. One moment, we let it slip and the game from there changed. That’s football and it’s part of the challenge. It’s not easy to just flip it again.

“We had control for large parts but there is no hiding from it, we’ve been in good positions in games and come away with the win enough, but I’m not shying away from the fact it’s something we’ve got to do a lot better with. That’s the magic ingredient we’ve got to find.

“It’s hugely disappointing and we’ve got to do something about it. You can’t score three or four goals every week. Let’s be honest, over the course of the season, we’ve scored a lot of goals. We’ve scored goals in games to put ourselves in good positions, like Cardiff we go 1-0 up, 1-0 up today. More often than we have been, we have to make that enough. We can’t just expect to score loads of goals every week.”

It’s a fair point from the Boro boss, but is an issue when the evidence suggests they just can’t keep clean sheets often enough. In Boro’s last five, they’ve managed only four goals. Since drawing 3-3 consecutively at Plymouth and against Sheffield Wednesday, there appears to have been a look at the balance of the side. While they’ve only conceded four in that time, it’s only been enough for one win. It all comes back to Boro not managing games and situations in games better. Missing big chances and conceding soft goals - it’s the story of Boro’s frustrating season. And yet, they’re still right in the battle for the top six because clearly, on their day, that quality is there. They can be as good as anyone in this division, make no mistake.

The recent results have seen Boro drop out of the play-off places. There are 19 games remaining and a few tough games ahead, starting against Tony Mowbray’s West Brom on Tuesday evening at the Riverside. You couldn’t write the script sometimes, as the Boro legend makes a welcome return to management after his cancer treatment.

Regardless of subplot, Carrick has a big job on his hands because he has to find a way to turn this around. Home form has been particularly poor. Evidence that there will be no panicked decisions from the hierarchy can be found in the decisions to push to sign Ryan Giles this month, while looking to secure George Edmundson permanently. Both are deals that show Boro are backing their head coach’s wishes and needs.

It makes sense for now. Boro are still more than within that play-off fight and, on their day, are as good as any side above or around them. But worryingly befitting of a mid-table Championship side, they have this Jekyll and Hyde tendency which keeps costing them.

In his toughest period as Boro boss yet, not helped by the undercurrent of potentially selling star man Latte Lath this month, Carrick has to find a way to turn the form and change the mood. This was always going to be a huge season for Boro. They have the quality, and that would make it all the more disappointing if they were to blow it.