Michael Carrick responds after Sheffield United man’s Middlesbrough ‘already promoted’ claim

Michael Carrick has rejected claims that his Middlesbrough side “thought they were promoted” after beating Sheffield United at Bramall Lane back in February.

United midfielder Ollie Norwood revealed recently that Boro’s celebrations in the tunnel after that 3-1 victory, which threatened to blow the promotion race wide open, “probably lit the fire in us to say:’No, that’s not happening’.”

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Norwood added: “They thought they were promoted that night. Which was interesting. We’ve been through it, we understand there’s going to be highs and lows. You can’t win every single game in football. It’s near on impossible, especially in the Championship.

“It’s a different mentality within the group and for us players who’ve been through it’s been guiding the one who haven’t at times and keeping calm heads. I think we’ve done that really well.”

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Ahead of Boro’s clash with fellow play-off hopefuls Luton Town on Monday evening, the claim was put to Boro boss Carrick - who insisted he didn’t think his side did over-celebrate.

“I certainly didn’t think we were promoted because we weren’t,” the former Manchester United man added. “I don’t think we were disrespectful, and I’d pride myself on that, to be honest.

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“I think it was a big win at the time because Sheffield United have had a great season. They deserve to be where they are in the table and credit to them for that.”

Carrick insisted there was no disappointment around the Riverside at failing to claw back the gap to United - which was down to four ponts at one stage, and a single point at half-time on April 1.

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“It’s a long season and there are always plenty of ups and downs,” Carrick added. “I said at the time, from where we’ve come from and the run we’ve been on, we weren’t getting carried away when there was talk of it and it was closer.

“We always understood how tough it was to get that final step, so we’re certainly not disappointed with where we’ve ended up.”

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