Middlesbrough fitness gamble pays off as Michael Carrick gives huge credit to players in Hull win

Michael Carrick gave huge credit to Middlesbrough's players for their hard work and desire as they quickly rebounded with a victory against Hull City.

Bouncing back after the midweek defeat to Blackburn, Finn Azaz scored as one of three players who returned to the side after missing the last game, with Tommy Conway adding a brace to seal the 3-1 win. An important reaction and three points it ensured Boro stay in the Championship top six.

With Delano Burgzorg and Hayden Hackney also returning to the side after missing Wednesday through illness and injury respectively, Carrick was happy the gamble he took to get his in-form players back into the side paid off.

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"All in all, it was good to bounce back from what will hopefully now prove just a blip in midweek," Carrick said. "I thought we played particularly well in certain spells. The lads weren’t all necessarily 100 per cent. Finn and Delano couldn’t really do a lot of training as the two who were mainly affected by the illness.

"H literally trained a little bit yesterday and we weren’t really expecting to have him back. We had the week planned out [without him]. It gave us an element of freshness, with Dael [Fry]’s first game back as well. So while we weren’t at totally full tilt in terms of health, it’s extra credit to the lads.

"That type of game, if you’re not quite at it, it can be difficult. They worked hard as Hull made us work hard for it - opening up the pitch like they did. But we got through it and I’m really happy.”

Boro faced a uniuque task against Hull, who had sacked manager Tim Walter in midweek after four straight defeats. With Andy Dawson in interim charge, Carrick had little information to base his opposition analysis and gameplan on, but always expected that Hull would come to the Riverside and look to keep the ball and stretch things.

That's how it transpired, making the efforts of the returning players while not quite 100 per cent all the more impressive. Executing their press well and dominating in both boxes, Boro were good money for their three points.

“Today was a tough game, and we expected it to be that way," Carrick reviewed after. "The type of team they are, the quality they’ve got and the way they play. The change in managers can go in different ways and adds an element of uncertainty as well, so I expected we’d have to really work for it.

"Those type of games can become quite hard because you’re chasing it and they have the quality to keep the ball off you. It can be a tough afternoon. But the boys stuck at it because it wasn’t easy to have an exact plan for and we had to focus more on just what we could do in terms of our shape and distances and the feeling between each other.

"The boys stuck at it and did the good things to get the result. It was a tricky game but one we came through really well. We did a lot of things well - pressed well, scored good goals and probably could and should have scored more."