'They were much better than us': Mick McCarthy delivers his verdict on Blackpool's defeat to Middlesbrough

There was no new manager bounce for the Seasiders as they slumped to a disappointing 3-0 defeat at the Riverside, extending their winless league run to 11 games.

Blackpool did have their chances, Jerry Yates heading against the post while it was only 1-0 being their main one, but in truth Michael Carrick’s side were well worthy of their three points to keep them in third place.

“I knew they were a good side before I came here having watched them fly up the league and they showed it today, because they were much better than us,” McCarthy said.

“We’ve had our moments and at 1-0 we have a great chance. We try to change it and we concede a really poor goal by letting someone run.

“At 2-0, we’ve had another terrific chance. Who knows? If we get it back to 2-1, as we did last Saturday, what we might achieve.

“But they’re better than us, they showed that today but we had our moments in the game.”

While Boro were dominating possession before their first goal, Blackpool looked relatively comfortable dealing with them and were beginning to grow into the game themselves.

But Chuba Akpom broke the deadlock with a goal out of nothing with a clever chip that beat Chris Maxwell’s desperate dive.

“They weren’t really hurting us. But we had a throw-in near the touchline and we went backwards and it ended up in our net, which was the most ridiculous thing I’ve seen,” McCarthy said.

“We’ve got Shayne Lavery running up the sides and if we stick it up the channel and he gets his backside into the centre half we might get a free-kick, a corner or a throw-in and stay in the final third.

“Instead, we went backwards which is real negative really. I know people will talk about keeping possession but we weren’t doing that, we wanted to be in the final third and that really disappointed me.

“It’s a wonder goal with the chip into the top corner.”

The Seasiders also had a double changed line up in the second-half prior to Middlesbrough doubling their lead, through Akpom once again.

By the time Kenny Dougall and Sonny Carey made it onto the pitch, the game had been put to bed by the hosts.

“I was trying to get somebody to commit a foul or do something to stop the game, but it just didn’t happen,” McCarthy said.

“We got played around and it’s a good goal by them, but it’s really poor by us letting people run in the box.

“The third one (is poor), we’re not marking properly. It’s people just not doing their job properly and it’s cost us.

“I’ve changed the shape, I’ve gone 4-4-2 to try and get something out of the game and to be fair we had our chances throughout the game. That left us a bit open but I said to the lads I’ll take responsibility for the last 10 to 15 minutes when they were breaking on us.”