Michael Carrick told of his pride in his players and felt Middlesbrough played "ever so well" against Hull City - despite a second half collapse on their way to a fourth defeat in their last five games.

Boro got themselves in front against the Tigers thanks to Emmanuel Latte Lath's sixth minute opener but failed to build on their bright start and let the visitors - who were dreadful in the opening period - back into the game.

Liam Delap levelled for Hull on 69 minutes before substitute Ozan Tufan scored the winner eight minutes from time.

Boro were booed off at full-time after falling to a third successive defeat, but Carrick insists there were a lot of positives to take from his side's performance.

He said: "I thought we played ever so well. Against a good team, we gave them next to nothing, played some really good football, looked dangerous and had so many opportunities.

"I'm bitterly disappointed. I'd have been bitterly disappointed with a draw after that to be honest with all the good things that I saw in the game. It's one of them things.

"It's the way it's gone. We need to be that bit more ruthless but I thought we gave them hardly anything in the game. We didn't let them have much. I thought the second goal would come but we just didn't quite have that quality with our last pass or finish to make it count."

Carrick was asked what he thought his side did specifically well against Hull.

He said: "I thought we pressed fantastically well. I don't think they had a spell in the game where they opened us up, which they can do because they're a good team.

"I thought we pressed well from the front, blocked the spaces we wanted to block, defended high up the pitch for the most part.

"I thought we controlled the ball and looked really dangerous. We made a couple of tweaks tonight which I thought worked. I felt really good and I was really proud of the boys for the way it was going in the second half, then we suffer that blow.

"We had enough, definitely more than enough (chances) to score at least one or two more in terms of the opportunities and we could have created even more with the space we created in and around the box. Ultimately that is the difference with results.

"As I said, when you do that many good things what we felt we did in the game, it's disappointing you don't get what you think you deserve."

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Boro have now slipped into the bottom half of the Championship table but Carrick insists he's not concerned and disagreed with the suggestion his side need a spark to get the campaign back on track.

He said: "I thought there was a spark tonight. I don't think we need a spark.

"I thought the performance was there, so in terms of a spark, no. I thought the boys did a lot of good things and we'll take a lot of confidence from it.

"Yeah, the result is the result and we can't hide from that, but there's enough from us to take from that. If we play like that most weeks we'll be fine."

Josh Coburn was left out of the squad against Hull, with Daniel Nkrumah, the 20-year-old who signed from Leyton Orient in the summer included on the bench,

Carrick said: "Josh has been carrying a niggle for a little bit so we just have to look after him. We'll see when we can get him back."