Middlesbrough boss Michael Carrick admitted he was disappointed not to be leaving Suffolk with all three points yesterday.

Boro made it nine matches unbeaten with a 1-1 draw at the Blues, but had chances to win the game late on - with Vaclav Hladky making a pair of brilliant saves to deny them.

The point leaves Boro's play-off hopes hanging by a thread, sitting eight points behind sixth-placed Norwich City with just three games left.

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Carrick told Teesside Live: "It’s a tough place to come and you can see they’re a really good team, confidence is high and they’re in a really good place.

"Their record here is really good. So it was always going to be challenging to come here, which makes it probably a decent point in isolation.

"But, for us, we came here to win and we wanted to win, so it’s a bit of mixed feelings really overall.

"It could have been three points with the chances we had. I thought the boys did ever so well and put in a hell of an effort.

"On a normal day, we might see that as a good result, but there’s no hiding from what we need at this stage. We were close and possibly should have won it.”

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Carrick concluded: “I thought we handled the occasion pretty well, got ourselves in front with a good goal and grew into the game.

"In the second half we were defensively better and had chances on the break. We’ve often come away to the teams at the top and done well.

"But there’s no hiding from the fact that there is a bit of disappointment that we haven’t won the game."