Middlesbrough v Coventry: No 'knee-jerk' or 'quick fix' January signings, insists Michael Carrick

A tight looking race for two spots, as it stands, looks like it has the potential to go right down to the wire. There’s also likely to be a realisation that success could well boil down to a canny signing here or there this month.Boro are in the mix alongside the likes of Hull City and big rivals Sunderland. Most would expect them and others to possibly be competing in a small market for a certain type of player to provide a sugar rush until May, most likely on loan.

For his part, Carrick - just as he has kept calm and focused amid his club’s early-season travails and during some significant injury issues - insists that Boro won’t be diverting from the script.

Signings will be strategic and not for the short term, Carrick stresses.

On whether he would like signings early in the window or is prepared to be patient, the Boro chief said: "Both, to be honest!

"If we are looking to do something, we want to try and get it done as quickly as we can, of course we do for different reasons.

"But we understand how it works. It is not always in our hands and not always straightforward, so there’s a bit of patience about it.

"It’s got to fit. It’s not a ‘knee-jerk’ and not one because we have got an injury here or an injury there or some lads don’t really come up.

"It’s for the bigger picture, really and it wouldn’t be a quick fix until the end of the season.

"It’s got to fit into the plan and it is what it is.

"But for sure, if we are trying to do something, we’d (ideally) like to get it done sooner rather than later."

The new year sees Boro compete with one of those sides in the play-off picture with them in Coventry, who they know a fair bit about after locking horns regularly in 2023.

In four meetings, Carrick's side failed to beat the Sky Blues, including in two legs of a play-off semi-final with the Teessiders having not beaten their Midlands rivals in their last five outings, all told.

Mark Robins's side have also seen their colours lowered just once in their last ten league matches.