Michael Carrick rued Middlesbrough’s defensive frailties as scoring three goals away at Plymouth Argyle was only good enough to earn a point for a second consecutive season.

Boro were made to come from behind three times in their pre-Christmas draw at Devon, as Jonny Howson, Hayden Hackney and Emmanuel Latte Lath scored their goals. But they were only good enough for a draw on a day where Boro’s defending left a lot to be desired.

Offering his verdict after, Carrick said: “I can’t say I’m frustrated because we didn’t do enough without the ball defensively to deserve anything better from the game. The attacking play at times was decent enough and we scored some good goals.

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“But we can’t concede goals of that nature three times away from home and expect to come back with much more than a draw. They’ve got good players with quality for individual moments. They’re quick and can carry the ball up the pitch.

“They caused Sheffield United a lot of problems and were unlucky not to get anything out of that one. So we knew we had a tough test and I’m just disappointed with how we dealt with it really.”

Boro were particularly exposed out wide by Wayne Rooney’s side, with all three goals of very similar nature. Getting in behind Boro in wide areas as their full-backs were left two-on-one, Plymouth found it too easy to cut Boro open.

To the credit of Carrick’s side though, they showed great character to ensure that, on a largely poor day, they fought to earn something from the game. That was the one positive the Boro boss took from the game.

“I was pleased with the boys’ character and belief to keep pegging it back in the second half like we did,” he said as he looked in more detail at the game. “First half, we weren’t at our best. Ultimately though, we can’t expect to concede that many goals and win games every week.

“It’s something we spoke about after. There was plenty of good attacking play and perhaps we could have scored a couple more. But we just give ourselves too much to do in the end. That’s football.

“There are momentum swings in any game. We did start well and had an element of control to it. Credit to them, they put a lot of bodies forward though and make you defend.

“The injury to Obafemi took a while to sort and that maybe knocked our rhythm a bit. It’s not an excuse though and we have to be better - we can be better. I thought we were in the second half. They had some breakaways, but I thought we were better and created more opportunities.”