Middlesbrough's dominance in Blackpool victory delights Michael Carrick as Michael Appleton hits out at contentious decision

Isaiah Jones struck in the 15th minute in an authoritative first half and made their dominance pay shortly after the break via a Marcus Forss penalty. Chuba Akpom sealed the result with 25 minutes remaining as Boro climbed up to 16th in the table, leaving Blackpool still teetering two points above the bottom three.

Carrick believed it was the complete performance and the perfect response to the 1-1 draw with Bristol City at the weekend. His side had 63 per cent possession at Bloomfield Road and produced 19 shots at goal.

“I am delighted for the players, for the amount of effort and how much we’ve improved from game to game. Off the back of Saturday, doing so well and not getting what we wanted from the game, to do what we have tonight,” reflected Carrick.

"We had a bit of everything in the performance: goals, clean sheet, we defended well and looked dangerous and played some really good football.”

The former England international was not concerned at half-time that they would let their slender 1-0 lead slip.

“I wasn’t worried, no,” added Carrick. “I didn’t like the last five minutes of the first half and I spoke about that at half-time.

“We were accepting balls coming into the box and not being proactive in stopping it from happening. But we dealt with it ever so well in the second half.

“It was just about not getting too comfortable, which we didn’t. All round it was a good night for us. There were so many positives.”

Blackpool boss Michael Appleton felt the visitors should not have been awarded a second-half penalty when goalkeeper Chris Maxwell was penalised for appearing to bring down Forss.

“It was clearly not a penalty but we allowed them to give the referee a decision,” insisted Appleton.

“That was the most disappointing thing. It wasn’t down to any fantastic play from their point of view, it was down to a couple of errors from us that allowed the referee to make a decision.”