MICHAEL Carrick insists Middlesbrough are "100%" still in the race for the Championship play-offs, despite having to settle for a point against rivals Hull City on Wednesday night.

The draw leaves Boro six points adrift of the top six with four games to play, but asked whether his side are still in with a shout of reaching the play-offs, the head coach responded: "You're kidding, aren't you?

"Of course we are. 100%. We’ve got to win our games, nothing has really changed from last night in terms of Norwich occupying that place. They took a point, we took a point. There are games to play and anything can happen in this league. There is no way we’re giving up on anything yet."

RECOMMENDED READING:

Finn Azaz's second half goal salvaged a point for Boro at the MKM Stadium. Emmanuel Latte Lath had given the visitors the perfect start but Jaden Philogene levelled before Jean Michael Seri took advantage of a Seny Dieng mistake to put Hull in front at the break.

Carrick said: “It was a good game of football. I’m a bit disappointed or frustrated really, that we didn’t get the win in the end.

"Maybe that is greedy, but we came here to win and we gave everything we had to try and win it.

"I’m a little bit disappointed with that, but certainly not disappointed with the players. They were fantastic all the way through, pretty much. Going up 1-0, we just probably didn’t go up the gears from that point.

"They had to change a couple of things and that worked for them to get a spell in the first half and get themselves on top. We came back into it in the second half though after changing a couple of things at half-time. We came back into really well and were fantastic second half. We felt like we could have won it."

Boro and Hull are separated in the Championship table by just a single goal and both teams really needed three points on Wednesday night, which resulted in an entertaining game.

Carrick said: “I think it’s that time of the year and also in the nature of both teams to attack as well. There was a lot of attacking talent and positive players on the pitch as well. It was a good game of football where both sides tested each other with their quality. Just a little bit of a feeling that we could have nicked one."