'Hadn't had a touch' - Michael Carrick's frank verdict on Middlesbrough's loss to Preston North End

Michael Carrick was left scratching his head after Middlesbrough's 2-1 defeat to Preston North End on Wednesday night.

The Lilywhites made it three wins on the bounce, thanks to goals from Liam Millar and Emil Riis - who netted his sixth goal against Boro. Millar opened the scoring on 23 minutes, but Finn Azaz' wonder strike levelled the game prior to the hour mark.

With Boro looking in the ascendency, though, North End went down the other end and retook the lead through Riis - who pounced on a looping, loose ball and slotted into the open net. The result left Middlesbrough in 13th spot, without a win in four league games.

"It's a tough one again, it's a tough result to take," said Carrick. "The results aren't going our way. I feel like I'm going round in circles and giving you similar answers every week. I thought tonight we deserved a lot more from the game but we're not getting it. We need to accept and do something about it. I feel like we should've won the game, but we are not winning games so something has got to change.

"I can't fault the effort of the boys and the quality of the play was really good - but we definitely haven't got the balance between performances and results. They hadn't had a touch in our box and we were 1-0 down today. That's happened two or three times over the last six weeks. There was a lot of good things in the game but them moments are going against us. I am sure it will turn, but at the moment it's tough yeah."

He added: "I think a lot of the performance was positive. You try and build your performance. I thought we had enough to win the game today. Moments are killing us a little bit. We have to defend better at times, we have to block shots, we have to score at the other end. A lot of it is there, but we have to get the balance right."