Michael Carrick's Middlesbrough promotion assessment as gaps grow to Leeds and rivals

MICHAEL Carrick insists he's not paying any attention to the league table at this stage of the season and isn't concerned by the 10-point gap between his Middlesbrough side and leaders Leeds United.

Gaps are starting to open at the top of the Championship, with Boro - currently in sixth ahead of tonight's games - now six points shy of fourth place Sunderland, seven of Burnley and eight of Sheffield United, who have a game in hand.

But Carrick insists his only focus is on his own side's displays and not the league standings at this stage of the campaign.

"I'm not counting the points," he said.

"We're just striving to get as high as we can. We've shown what we're capable of doing and we can take a lot of belief moving forward and pick up the points to be where we want to be."

Rather than look at the table, Carrick wants his players to take "feed off the disappointment" of their defeat to Leeds and ensure they're in the promotion mix come the end of the season when it matters.

He said: "They're a good team. They have largely Premier League players who've played a lot at that level. That's what we're striving to be and we're going in a good direction. We have to take confidence moving through the season.

"Whatever the gap is we have to try and close that and get enough points to get to where we want to be.

"You have to feed off the disappointment and not just accept it. They're a Premier League set-up really.

"We'll move on quickly but the disappointment shows where we're at. There's disappointment in the dressing room but we know what we're capable of doing. We have to feed off it and use it as motivation. If we were accepting it then we wouldn't be at the level we're at and trying to get to. We have to use this for what's coming around the corner."

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Boro have picked up just one point from their last two games but Carrick thinks momentum can soon be rediscovered - as long as his side respond well to defeat when Millwall visit the Riverside on Saturday.

"I think we can but it doesn't mean we will," he said.

"We have to show that. We have tough games coming up, starting on Saturday, so we don't take anything for granted. These two games are probably two of the toughest games we'll get but we've done a lot of good things.

"Tonight was another case of that without having enough clear cut chances. There were opportunities to create opportunities we didn't make the most of. We were certainly right in the game so we'll take a lot from that."