AITOR KARANKA spoke at length in Middlesbrough’s Wembley dressing room immediately after suffering play-off heartache to Norwich City about building on this season’s progress.

And that was the message coming from goalkeeper Dimi Konstantopolous afterwards.

The big Greek goalkeeper had just emerged from the debriefing after the Canaries celebrated wildly on the pitch having clinched a place back in the Premier League.

Two goals inside three first half minutes from Cameron Jerome and Nathan Redmond did the damage to break Boro’s hearts and their 40,000-plus supporters as they trudged away from Wembley.

Konstantopoulos described the ‘horrible feeling’ being felt by the players after not hitting the heights they are capable of on, arguably, the biggest one-off game of football that any of them will ever play in their lives.

But the 37-year-old does not think that Middlesbrough should dwell too long on the frustrations, suggesting the mere fact that they reached the play-off final in Karanka’s first full season in charge represents huge progress.

And he is certain that another summer with Karanka’s tinkering will lead to an even stronger chance of returning to the top-flight ahead of a seventh year in the Championship for the club.

Five loan signings - Patrick Bamford and Jelle Vossen included - are due to return to parent clubs.

“We have to trust the gaffer and we will get the right players I am sure to fill the gaps,” said Konstantopoulos.

“We will be more competitive than we were this year I am sure. We have learned a lot. If you think about where we have come since the gaffer came to the club 18 months ago we have done well.

“It’s been a big step for us all. We should be able to handle games better now and hopefully we can get automatic. Automatic should be what we are looking for. It’s great to play here at Wembley like this, but I would have rather been in the top two.

“We will need a good pre-season, we didn’t have a full squad last year so it was difficult. This season we will have a very good pre season and we will be ready for the first game.”

Boro fell behind inside 12 minutes when Jerome robbed Daniel Ayala before beating Konstantopoulos with a side-footed finish. Redmond then added a second soon after breaking beyond Ben Gibson and drilling low a finish.

There was no way back for and the closest they came to pulling one back was when Ayala had two headers go close in the second half.

Konstantopoulos, who suffered play-off final defeat for Hartlepool in 2005, said: “You need a break to recharge physically and mentally after this. This is a horrible feeling, we are all gutted.

“On another day it could have been a different ending. Credit to Norwich they handled themselves very well. When they were on top they took advantage. In the second half we didn’t really hurt them.

“We didn’t play well in the first half. We didn’t settle. When you concede in a game like that early on it can be unsettling and soon after they were lucky to get the second, so they were on top. We tried second half and it didn’t work out. We go again next season.”

Looking on from the bench was team captain Jonathan Woodgate and he was devastated that his hometown club will not be back in the Premier League next season.

Woodgate, set to decide on his future in the next few weeks after reaching the end on his contract, feels Boro have shown by reaching the play-off final and finishing fourth that they are in safe hands under Karanka.

The experienced centre-back said: “It’s not about me, I have not thought about my situation. What matters is that we did so well to get to this stage.

“At the start of pre season we had six players in the dressing room, when the manager took over we were two points above the relegation zone, so we have done ever so well, we just couldn’t get over the final hurdle. Next year will be different.

“But credit to Norwich. They played well. It was outstanding to see 40,000 fans singing their hearts out. It was just disappointing we couldn’t give them the result we wanted. But we are desperate to get this club back in the Premier League and I’m sure it will happen.”