WEDNESDAY’S victory over Norwich City was a huge result in terms of easing Middlesbrough’s worries after they had tumbled into the bottom half of the table. The challenge now though, as Michael Carrick freely admits, it to ensure it does not prove to be yet another false dawn.

Every time Boro have taken a step forward this season, it has almost always been followed by an immediate step back.

Since claiming six league victories in a row in September and October, the Teessiders have only recorded back-to-back league wins once in their subsequent 22 games.

The lack of any kind of consistency has been a key factor in their failure to mount a viable play-off push, so with a top-six finish not quite off the table given that Boro have a game in hand on six of the seven teams directly above them in the table, Carrick admits it is imperative his side build on their midweek success when they head to Loftus Road today to take on QPR.

“It’s easy to say that’s what we want to do, but we said that after Leicester too,” said the Boro boss, whose side head into the weekend ten points adrift of the play-off positions and nine points clear of the bottom three. “QPR is the next game and, like any other, it’s a game we want to win.

“We’ve beaten a good team that were in really good form, and shown we’re capable of winning that game, however it came. Against certain teams this season, we have found different ways to win. But the next game is important now and we obviously have three games close together before the break and we need to make the most of that.”

While there were celebrations in the stands at the end of Wednesday’s win over ten-man Norwich, the mood amongst the squad was much less triumphant.

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There is a collective acceptance that the season has not gone to plan, and a strong desire to do as much as possible to put that right in the 11 games that remain.

So, as soon as the final whistle blew in midweek, attention immediately switched to today’s game against a QPR side who have improved markedly since Marti Cifuentes was appointed head coach at the end of October.

Having been in the bottom three for much of the season, Rangers have hauled themselves a point clear of the drop zone, having lost just one of their last nine games.

“It was all quite calm afterwards (on Wednesday), to be honest,” said Carrick. “They weren’t ecstatic at all. It wasn’t over-celebrating, it was more a case of, ‘Right, a good win, something to build on’.

“There was no high emotion. Probably with the way the game went towards the end, it was over with a good few minutes to go, so that probably summed up the mood in the changing room. It was more business-like. It was a good win, but we move on.”

Isaiah Jones is pushing for a return to action after he was an unused substitute on Wednesday, but neither Dael Fry nor Hayden Hackney are expected to be ready for a return to the squad at Loftus Road.

Middlesbrough (probable, 3-4-3): Dieng; van den Berg, McNair, Clarke; Ayling, Howson, O’Brien, Engel; Forss, Latte Lath, McGree.