MICHAEL CARRICK felt his Middlesbrough’s side ‘spirit and unity’ was the key to their batting 2-0 win at QPR.

Boro made it two wins in the space of three days as second-half goals from Emmanuel Latte Lath and Marcus Forss sealed victory at Loftus Road.

The Teessiders’ clean sheet was their first in the league since beating West Brom before Christmas, and while Seny Dieng made a couple of decent first-half saves, the quality of Boro’s defending was such that an in-form QPR side never really looked like scoring.

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“It was a tough game,” said Carrick, whose side head to St Andrew’s on Tuesday to play Birmingham City in their game in hand. “It wasn’t the prettiest game, there won’t be terrific highlights as such, but that didn’t matter.

“The highlights were more the team, the unity, the spirit and the willingness to work for each other. There was a real determination to get something from the game, and then we had moments of quality and glimpses of good play.

“Defensively, as a team, once we settled into it after the first 15 minutes or so, I thought we were pretty good on that side of things. To find out a way to grind out a win was quite pleasing really.”

While Carrick would ideally like his side to win by playing attractive football, he has seen more than enough in his career to know that there are days when there is a need to scrap things out.

This was one such occasion, and with Rav van den Berg superb at the heart of Boro’s five-man backline and skipper Jonny Howson leading by example at the base of midfield, the Teessiders dug deep to claim a victory that lifts them back to within eight points of the play-off positions.

“I thought there was a little period at the start where they had a couple of moments around our box,” said Carrick. “That was a couple of moments too many for our liking, but after that, I thought the boys settled into it really well.

“Sometimes, you’ve got to adapt to the type of game it is, and it was a bit stop-start at times. It wasn’t exactly ball on the floor, with a lot of football, but the boys did what they needed to do to get the win, and I was delighted with that side of it.”