Michael Carrick hailed the impact of his substitutions as Middlesbrough left it late to snatch a dramatic 1-0 win at Hull City on Wednesday night.
Ben Doak, Alex Gilbert and Delano Burgzorg all made a difference in the second half. It was Burgzorg who created the decisive moment for Gilbert to slot in the winning goal after 93 minutes and break City hearts while sparking wild scenes of jubilation in the away end, which included Boro club captain Jonny Howson.
Those changes were in stark contrast to City boss Ruben Selles, who was unable to call on a host of attacking talent, all of whom would have been in the Tigers’ starting XI against Boro, including Liam Millar, Mohamed Belloumi and Kasey Palmer. Sunday’s matchwinner at Blackburn Rovers, Ryan Longman, was also sidelined with a groin injury.
“It’s been a busy period, so we felt it would be wise to freshen things up. There was also the fact that we’ve got good players, so we don’t feel we’ll have a drop-off,” Carrick said.
“With Riley (McGree), that was more about how he’s a bit different to Della and suited how we wanted to use certain spaces in the game. I thought that worked well at times. But largely, it was about freshening things up and keeping our energy levels high.
“It worked. I thought the subs were a natural progression. Lukas did ever so well considering he’s only played 10 minutes. I thought Izzy was fantastic – him and Anf down that side, on and off the ball. They were really good. Riley caused problems in the pocket with Finn too.
“We just felt we needed that bit extra, which we were fortunate to have off the bench. We had that bit of freshness for that last little push. It felt like it might not come when we had a few chances, but it was a good spell for us. We had to wait a little longer, but we got what we deserved, I think.”
The win moved Boro up to fourth in the Championship, and Carrick felt it was a result his side merited having restricted the hosts to not a single shot on target. “That one felt like a really big win for us,” he continued. “We’ve got to feed off it, we’ve got to use it as a springboard.
“I actually thought we played really really well on a difficult pitch and it took us a little time to adjust to that. But we defended well early on and in the end, that gave us a platform where one goal was enough. That’s something we’ve missed previously. There were probably three or four moments in the first half where we clicked and looked dangerous and I thought, ‘that looks like us’.
Midfielder Howson was once again unavailable because of a calf injury, but Carrick gave the 36-year-old midfielder the green light to be in Middlesbrough’s away end at the MKM Stadium. “It was nice to see him,” Carrick added. “We had a conversation the other day and I was all for it. “I’ve done it myself with my children and I said ‘you’ve got to do it, you’ll enjoy it’. I hope he didn’t leave early!”