Michael Carrick insisted that he would not be dragged along with the 2-1 victory from Middlesbrough to Blackburn Rovers, a result that brought them to the top six of the championship.
Two goals in the first 10 minutes before Boro did the damage, with Rovers -Baas Valerien Ismael still awaiting his first victory since he took over from John Eustace.
Tommy Conway only needed two minutes to put the visitors first, neatly flickering Kelechi Iheanacho's Pass about Joe Rankin-Costello before he ended up past Aynsley Pears.
Iheanacho was again involved for Boro's second of the game and put Samuel Iling-Junior on the edge of the box, with his bent strike that the Blackburn keeper wrongly has.
Boro's victory brought them in fifth place in the rankings, although Coventry City, West Bromwich Albion and Bristol City are all in action on Saturday and can climb above it.
Middlesbrough last participated in the Premier League in 2016-17, with a real opportunity to return to the top flight this season after a series of impressive results.
Carrick, however, was quick to temper those elevated expectations and said that he will continue to take Boro's remaining league matches one match at the same time.
“Let's not be dragged too much, there is a lot to go. I have seen it before. I am old enough and ugly enough to know what the end of this season entails,” Carrick said.
“Tonight was a good victory for us and we have a big game on Tuesday evening.
“We take every game as it comes and we are in a good place.”
Friday evening winners! pic.twitter.com/irocktimtd
– Middlesbrough FC (@boro) April 4, 2025
In the meantime, for Blackburn, their slump continued past the table, whereby the supporters of Rovers announced their feelings during the club's hierarchy during the game.
The opening phases turned out to be difficult for Blackburn Chief Executive Steve Waggott, Chief Operating Officer Suhail Pasha and head of the football activities Rudy Steed.
The trio was in the stands, despite fang groups who encouraged them not to attend the rest of the home games of Rovers this season.
For the first time since February 2021, Blackburn has lost five games in a row under Tony Mowbray, although Ismael believes that happiness simply is not on their side.
“We want to start the game well and it brings you into a difficult situation [conceding after 74 seconds]. We can avoid the goal. We have lost two important duels, “said Ismael.
“The second goal shows the situation when we bend in our own goal.
“I think that at the end of the first half and completely in the second half is how we wanted to start the game with more faith, desire, to concentrate on ourselves.
“The show was there, you just have to stay at 0-0 for as long as possible and at some point to have a chance.
“We had a good chance in the second half to score, but we are not lucky at the moment.
“The first mistake you make or the first shot of the opponent goes into the goal, so it's hard.”
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