TO appreciate why Michael Carrick was so satisfied with Middlesbrough's win at Swansea City - even if he wasn't keen on some aspects of the performance - we must first consider what has gone before.

There was Plymouth away, Bristol City away, Leeds away and Hull City at home. All games since the start of November that Boro could - should - have taken something from, and yet their points tally from those fixtures totalled one.

As pleased as Carrick was with a lot of what he saw from his side in all four of those games, every team is ultimately judged on points rather than plaudits for performances.

Which brings us to the away dressing room at the Swansea.com Stadium and the conversations that were taking place between the players early on Saturday afternoon. The nub of the discussion was the importance of finding a way to win, an art mastered by every successful team. It's something that Boro have struggled with at times in the first half of this Championship season but was the story of their Swansea success.

Carrick summed it up with his answer to his first question in his post-match press conference.

“I’m delighted with the result. I’m delighted with the boys for their effort and the spirit to get through a game like that where it didn’t come easily for us on the day," he said.

"It wasn’t a naturally free-flowing performance from us. We’ve had them recently and not won, so to do so this time feels good."

The Boro boss continued: "There was a feeling before the game actually with the boys about finding a way to win and having that winning feeling. There was a real determination within the group which I could feel before the game in the dressing room.

"Sometimes you have those games where you have to find a way. The conditions weren’t particularly easy to play in in terms of the weather. But the boys were excellent in terms of their spirit which is really pleasing."

As Carrick alludes to above, Boro didn't play particularly well in Wales. They scored with their first real chance through Sam Greenwood after Swansea had missed several, but then conceded a soft equaliser to Jamal Lowe on the hour mark. At that stage, you feared a repeat of Plymouth, Bristol City and Leeds where control quickly turned to chaos, and yet Boro managed to settle the game down again.

READ MORE:

And it's at this stage that Carrick made his decisive match-winning changes, freshening up his forward line with the introduction of Sammy Silvera and Morgan Rogers.

The positivity of both - who will almost certainly be in the starting XI at Port Vale on Tuesday night - swung the game back in Boro's favour, though Carrick's side would still have likely had to settle for a point had it not been for Carl Rushworth's costly concentration lapse. He picked up rather than kicked away Harry Darling's back-pass and through a sea of white shirts Silvera somehow found a gap big enough for a ball to fit.

With the stoppages that were added on, 18 minutes would still be played after Silvera's strike - and they were managed superbly by Boro, who didn't panic or sit deep and didn't really give Swansea a sniff of a second leveller. In fact, the closest the game came to a fourth goal was when Isaiah Jones struck the crossbar deep, deep in added time. By that stage, the Jingle Bells chant in the away end was in full flow.

The importance of this win obviously wasn't lost on the supporters who made the long trip or on Carrick, who had lost three games on the bounce for the first time. Boro needed to change their direction of travel in the table and this was a timely boost ahead of Tuesday's cup quarter-final.

Carrick will hope for a better performance at Vale Park, but what matters most is that Boro once again find a way to win.