MIDDLESBROUGH were as impressive as Mick McCarthy expected them to be at the Riverside on Saturday, with the Blackpool boss admitting the best team won.

But McCarthy was furious at one moment in particular in the build-up to Boro's opener. While admitting Akpom's finish was a "wonder goal", the visiting manager felt his side played themselves into trouble in the build-up.

He said: "They (Boro) had a lot of possession without really hurting us and we defended well first-half and I thought we had our moments and could have done better with one or two breaks.

“And we had a throw-in here not far in front of me (at 0-0), we threw it backwards and it ended up in our net. If we had thrown it the other direction the goal wouldn’t have come and that really p****d me off.

"It was the most ridiculous thing I've ever seen. We’ve got Shayne Lavery running up the sides and if we stick it up the channel and he gets his backside into the centre half we might get a free-kick, a corner or a throw-in and stay in the final third.

“Instead, we went backwards which is real negative really. I know people will talk about keeping possession but we weren’t doing that, we wanted to be in the final third and that really disappointed me. Then it's a wonder goal with the chip into the top corner.”

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Despite his frustration at the opener, McCarthy had no complaints with the outcome of the game.

He said: “I knew they were a good side before I came here having watched them fly up the league and they showed it today, because they were much better than us.

“We’ve had our moments and at 1-0 we have a great chance. We try to change it and we concede a really poor goal by letting someone run.

“At 2-0, we’ve had another terrific chance. Who knows? If we get it back to 2-1, as we did last Saturday, what we might achieve.

“But they’re better than us, they showed that today but we had our moments in the game.”