'Stable' Middlesbrough FC must carry on regardless, insists Michael Carrick

But if they are to stay in with a shot of finishing in the top two come mid-spring, that simply must stay the same in the final key quarter of the season.

Boro have the best points return in the Championship's past 12 games alongside Burnley, with both picking up 30 points - but now is not the time for admiring statistics and enjoying the view.

Carrick, well versed at pressure scenarios at the sharp end of seasons in his playing days at Manchester United, said: "Consistency finds you out in the end.

"You either put it together and you’ve got the ingredients of the mental capacity and the physical capacity and the technical capacity to go again and go again and keep improving.

"Or you can be a little bit sporadic and kind of do alright, then do well and then maybe not do so well.

"So consistency is the biggest challenge and I have to say, yes we’ve had a couple of little blips, but I don’t think we’ve had dips in performances for great periods of time. That’s a huge credit to the players.

"Yes, of course, we’re here to help them and steer them, but seeing them perform so consistently and enjoying themselves is really good to see.

"The group have been so strong and so consistent and so stable.

"I’d say the biggest challenge in football is consistency.

"Whether that’s consistency through the training week or through a 90-minute game, or certainly over a period of time."

Having won on the road at some traditionally tricky venues such as Sheffield United, Blackburn Rovers and Hull City, Boro are now assigned with laying a ghost at the Liberty Stadium, where they have not won in seven matches since a 3-0 win in August 2009.

Carrick, for his part, is refusing to read too much into that.

The Boro chief, whose side will be backed by over 1,200 fans, continued: "I'm not really one for looking at past records.

"Teams change that much season to season in terms of managers, players, style of play.

"So history of results for certain teams at certain grounds, me personally, I don’t look into that so much.

"We understand we’re going there to play against a good team that really test you and like to play a certain way.

"They are good at what they do and we’ll respect that.”