HE might be a managerial novice, but thanks to a playing career that took him to the very top of the game, Michael Carrick has seen more than enough in football to appreciate that the path of progress is rarely smooth.

So, while there was understandable disappointment in the wake of the 3-1 defeat at Burnley that snapped Middlesbrough’s five-game unbeaten run under their new boss, there was no sense of needing to go back to the drawing board.

Yes, there are lessons to be learned from events at Turf Moor, not least when it comes to defending crosses into the box, a recurring frailty that continues to rear its head every now and then, and withstanding the seemingly relentless waves of second-half pressure that ultimately carried Burnley to victory.

Prior to Carrick’s arrival, though, Boro were conceding costly clusters of goals to the likes of Barnsley, Preston and Cardiff City. Shipping three in the space of 12 minutes against a Burnley side that might well be playing Premier League football next season is far from ideal, but as Carrick rightly pointed out in his post-match debrief at the weekend, it does not undo much of the good work that has been performed in the last six weeks. After four or five jumps forward, it is not the end of the world to have to take one step back.

“You’ve got to be calm about it,” said Carrick, who will now tackle his first managerial festive programme, with Boro facing three games in a week against Wigan, Blackburn and Birmingham. “We said before the game it was never going to make or break the season.

“It’s one game in a season - that’s just how it is. It’s not a case of having to start from scratch again just because we’ve lost a game – it’s about building on what we’ve already done, and I feel we’re a better team than we were six or seven games ago.

“I think we’re a better team now, and maybe that’s reflected in the fact we’re disappointed to have come here and not got something from the game. It’s about building and carrying on improving and getting better. Today won’t make or break things or tell the story of our season.”

That is true, and having inherited a side that were scrambling on the brink of the relegation zone, Carrick still heads into Christmas presiding over a team that sit just four points off the play-off positions.

Nevertheless, after overseeing a marked defensive improvement since taking over in late October, the former England international will still have been slightly concerned at the lapse into bad habits that enabled Burnley to turn Saturday’s game on its head after Duncan Watmore’s coolly-taken opener had given Boro something to hold on to at the start of the second half.

Manuel Benson had been at fault for Boro’s opener, but Burnley’s Belgian winger more than made amends as he turned inside Ryan Giles before firing past Zack Steffen at his near post. Giles’ forward runs from full-back have added a major weapon to Boro’s attacking arsenal this season, but defensively, he can be vulnerable in one-on-one situations and Benson exploited his frailties ruthlessly throughout the second half.

Steffen can also be undone on occasion, and for all that Carrick leaped to his defence, the American goalkeeper should have done much better seven minutes after conceding the opener when he allowed Benson’s cross to sail all the way through the 18-yard box before finding the net via the inside of the far post. Steffen’s distribution was also erratic for much of the afternoon, and with Liam Roberts having done nothing wrong on the limited opportunities he has been afforded in the first team, Carrick’s goalkeeping pecking order cannot be dictated by the fact that one of his shot-stoppers is on loan from Manchester City.

Jonny Howson was the Boro player at fault for Burnley’s third, although there was an element of misfortune to the attempted near-post header that resulted in Josh Brownhill’s corner being diverted into the midfielder’s own net.

“I’ve watched the goals back and listen, any goal you concede, you can find detail in the build-up,” said Carrick. “You can find something that you can do to stop it, and the details we spoke about before the game - the fine margins - they can be key in these games.

“The first one, coming in on his left foot is avoidable because we give him too much space. Then, from their point of view, the inswinging cross is a great goal for them and something they’re good at. You don’t necessarily need someone to get contact, as we saw.

“From our point of view, it’s a soft one, and then obviously the corner goes in. So, for all our hard work and closing the space and looking good as a team, to concede the goals we did was very frustrating.”

There was further frustration in stoppage time, with Chuba Akpom’s weak spot-kick being saved by Arijanet Muric, although Boro should not have been awarded the penalty in the first place with referee David Webb wrongly adjudging that Connor Roberts had handled the ball on the goalline when it actually struck the crossbar. Like Boro, Webb will have left Turf Moor having to accept that he did not have his best afternoon.