Middlesbrough manager Michael Carrick was left seething after his side squandered a 3-0 lead against Sheffield Wednesday, ultimately settling for a 3-3 draw at the Riverside Stadium. The hosts had dominated the first half, with goals from Ben Doak and a Finn Azaz brace putting them in a commanding position.
However, Wednesday staged a remarkable comeback in the second half, with Svante Ingelsson, Josh Windass, and Yan Valery scoring three quick goals to level the score. Carrick was visibly frustrated with the outcome, admitting that his team’s collapse had overshadowed their impressive first-half performance.
“It’s worse than frustrating,” Carrick said in his post-match assessment. “To have so much control and be in such a good position, we shouldn’t have allowed it to unravel so quickly. The first half, we won’t take the positives we should because of the result. It feels like we’ve come away with nothing. It’s not a great day.”
When asked to pinpoint what went wrong in the second half, Carrick cited a combination of poor decision-making and unlucky deflections. “It doesn’t take much for it to go both ways,” he said. “We found the difference in the first half, but in the second, there were too many things we didn’t deal with… We need to find a consistent level of performance. You have to see it through. We keep making it more difficult for ourselves than we should.”
Carrick’s comments highlighted his team’s ongoing struggle to maintain a consistent level of performance throughout matches. Despite showing promise in the first half, Middlesbrough’s inability to close out the game has left them with a sense of disappointment and frustration.