Michael Carrick makes interesting Coventry point after Middlesbrough rebound with two big wins

Michael Carrick made an interesting Coventry City-defeat point after Middlesbrough sealed a perfect comeback from the disappointment, winning back-to-back league games for just the second time this season.

An emphatic 5-1 victory over Luton Town on Saturday followed the midweek 4-1 win at QPR to send Boro into the international break in far better mood. It proved how quickly football can change, particularly in the Championship, with the mood particularly low after last weekend's 3-0 defeat to Coventry City after Hayden Hackney's red card.

But in summing up what ended up being a really good week for Boro after that, the Boro boss insisted that the way they had played in that game after going down to ten men actually gave them plenty of belief. They then used that to set up their excellent two victories after.

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Carrick explained: “It’s nice to be rewarded, there’s no doubt about that. The boys have shown an unbelievable amount of character and belief over time to keep doing the right things. It shows a lot of trust in us to follow certain instructions, and I appreciate that from the players.

"I think, from where we were last week, playing with ten men and the way we handled that gave us a lot of belief heading into these two games. A lot of that kind of stuff gets lost, and I understand why it gets lost because, in the end, it was not a nice defeat scoreline-wise.

"But we took a lot from it when we talk about performances, knowing what you’re capable of. To then put two results on the end of that, feels good. But in a funny way, I think the way we played against Coventry gave us a lot of belief coming into these two games. We added the finishing touches at the top end of the pitch and it made the difference."

With five goals against Luton Town - all really excellent goals from a Boro perspective as well - Boro scored nine goals within two games for the first time in Carrick's two years in charge. It made a big change to their goal difference, which had been -1 heading into the QPR win on Tuesday.

“I was pleased with a lot of it,” said Carrick, talking more specifically about the Luton win. “I have to say, though, that I’m not really getting carried away by it because I think we’ve been doing a lot of that build-up and breaking for some time now.

“The boys were clinical and ruthless and obviously had a feeling about scoring goals at the moment. They’ve also been shared amongst the group, which is great. But, from that side of things, it wasn’t really a big jump for me. Yes, the goals came, so it probably feels like it was. But I think a lot of what we’ve been doing in terms of building up the play has been good.

“What I will say is that playing against Luton, with the way they play man-for-man, is different, and we had to adapt to it. You’re not really getting many passes man-for-man, and I think the first 25 minutes showed that. So, it’s about trying to be decisive when you do get it, and I thought the boys adapted unbelievably well."