Middlesbrough 2 Rotherham United 0

AITOR KARANKA’S football philosophy is based on creating a fantastic team spirit, which is why he was seething long after the final whistle had blown at the Riverside Stadium.

Even though Middlesbrough had claimed three valuable points in the Championship’s promotion race, the on-field spat between Kike and Patrick Bamford over who would take a stoppage-time penalty infuriated the head coach.

Thankfully for Karanka, Middlesbrough had already done the job, with Bamford’s 66th minute goal adding to Lee Tomlin’s lovely opener four minutes after the break. Otherwise Kike could have been in even deeper trouble with the boss.

Karanka, who claimed there was an air of negativity surrounding the club before the weekend, is desperate for his camp to stay united and focused solely on the main aim, which in the short term is winning the four remaining matches to maintain hopes of finishing in an automatic promotion place.

Unnecessary disruption, like a disagreement over who takes a late penalty, is not something he wants hanging around his squad.

He said: "With the penalty, I prefer to not say anything, I'll keep it to myself. I'd rather not say anything. I was angry, yes, so that's why I prefer to say nothing.”

While Karanka chatted, an emotional Kike had still not completely forgiven Bamford as the players warmed down on the pitch behind him. The reality is that Bamford was designated the penalty taker in the dressing room beforehand in the absence of Grant Leadbitter.

But after Kike had earned the penalty, by drawing a foul from Lee Frecklington, he demanded to take it having been keen to boost his own confidence by trying to score for only the third time in the Championship since the turn of the year.

Bamford, even though he missed the spot-kick when goalkeeper Emiliano Martinez dived to his right to make a strong save, has had no such problems in front of goal. He had already grabbed his 16th in the league, equalling the best return by a Middlesbrough player in the last 25 years. Nine of those have arrived in 2015.

The 21-year-old had had a quiet afternoon by his recent standards after he was asked to switch back to the wider role to accommodate Kike through the middle. But then he burst in to life midway through the second half to grab his sixth goal in eight matches.

His charge deep in to the Rotherham half was followed by a clever one-two with Tomlin and Bamford calmly side-footed his finish beyond Martinez to give Middlesbrough the breathing space required for the closing stages.

Nerves had eased after the restart when Tomlin finally opened the scoring after a frustrating first half when Middlesbrough failed to turn their possession domination in to goals a week after suffering the set-back of losing at Watford.

Tomlin, who drilled a low strike inside the bottom corner from the edge of the box after creating space for himself, was the difference.

Karanka said: “I don't like to speak about individuals. I want to speak about the team because we're working every single day to be a team and I don't want to discuss individuals.

“We had a lot of chances to score more goals. It's frustrating that we're not taking all our chances. Promotion can come down to goal difference, but the main thing is three points and we have got those here.”

Rotherham have won just one of their last ten away games so were always destined to struggle against a team boasting the best home record in the division.

But after a frustrating first half the Millers must have felt they had a chance. Daniel Ayala, Albert Adomah and Kike all wasted chances before Tomlin’s timely intervention. As well as the injury-time penalty miss, Kike and Emilio Nsue also went close with decent efforts before full-time.

Karanka said: "I don't know how many chances we created to score, it could have been 5-0 in the end but we had to settle for two. I keep saying the same things about missing chances, but the most important thing is that we won.”

More annoyingly from a Middlesbrough perspective was that the three teams above them in the promotion race all won too, so the Teessiders remain two points adrift of leaders Bournemouth and a point shy of both Norwich City and Watford.

The situation tees up Friday’s trip to Norwich nicely, although Karanka only wants to focus on tomorrow night's visit of top six contenders Wolves to the Riverside.

Karanka said: "We have to win our games, concentrate on ourselves. If we win four games we'll get promotion but it's very difficult to do that.

“At this time every single point is important as all the other teams at the top have won and we're still up there fighting for a top two place.

“You never know how many we need to win. All I am focused on is Wolves because they are pushing for a play-off position and they made it hard for us when we went there. I prefer to look at that game rather than all four.”