A “SHOCKING” start to the second half proved costly admitted Middlesbrough manager Tony Pulis after his side were dumped out of the Carabao Cup at the quarter-final stage by Burton Albion.

The humiliating defeat, 1-0 at home to opposition 15th in League One, saw Boro pay the price for missing a handful of first half chances.

And early in the second period Nigel Clough’s Burton scored what proved to be the only goal of the game when Jake Hesketh fired home.

Middlesbrough fans booed their team off the pitch at full-time, and Pulis understood their frustrations.

“The ten minutes at the start of the second half were shocking,” said the boss, whose team have not won any of their last six matches.

“We were so sloppy. It was a culmination of people being sloppy.

“We were really comfortable and I like to think we did really well in the first half, and we wanted more of the same and hope we’d get an opportunity and scored from it.

“The supporters are disappointed like we are. I’m gutted. You don’t get the opportunity to get to a semi-final very often as a player or manager, to not take the chances we’ve had tonight…

“If we’d scored first it would’ve taken a weight off the players’ shoulders and we’d have gone on and won the game, but we didn’t and we were scratching around.

“They had two great opportunities in the first ten minutes of that second half and they took one of them.”

Unlike in previous rounds of a competition that had seen Middlesbrough reach the quarter-finals by beating Notts County, Rochdale, Preston and Crystal Palace, Pulis selected a relatively strong side.

Aden Flint, Stewart Downing, Martin Braithwaite and Jordan Hugill were among the starters, while Britt Assombalonga came off the bench as Boro sought a way of clawing their way back into the contest.

Pulis explained: “I was very keen to win the game. There were players in the team who have the experience.

“Martin’s been on the pitch, Britt has been on, Ashley Fletcher, Hugill, Stewart. You’ve got a hell of a lot of money that this club has spent on forwards and they were all on the pitch. We’ve got to take the chances.

“I’m desperately disappointed and the players are as well.

“I thought we played well in the first half. Burton started better than us in the first five minutes, and then we got hold of the game.”

Missing scoring chances proved Boro’s undoing with most of their opportunities coming before the break, although Flint was guilty of an embarrassing miss in the dying seconds.

Marcus Tavernier crossed from the left to the six-yard box where an unmarked Flint had all of the goal to aim at, yet managed to head wide.

“We’ve had four opportunities when we’ve been through with just the goalkeeper in front of us,” added Pulis, whose team travel to Reading on Saturday.

“We had shots on target and then there was the one that Martin pulled back across an empty goal for Jordan and we don’t put the ball in the back of the net.

“What summed it up is Flinty’s miss in the second half. How he’s missed that goodness knows.

“They are chances and opportunities that come our way and we are just not putting them away.

“The big thing now is that we clear their minds and get them set for Christmas.”

Pulis did reserve words of praise for Grant Leadbitter, however, the experienced midfielder having been recalled last night.

The manager said: “I have to say, one or two moaned, but Grant got hold of the ball, kept it and got us going again. He deserves a lot of credit for doing that.”