Middlesbrough head coach Michael Carrick admitted that losing late on against Preston North End stung, as the home side snatched a 2-1 win.
in particular was a cause for concern for Carrick during the first 45, the Boro boss unhappy with how much the North End midfielder was allowed to get on the ball.
Having to adapt to cover the availability of Whiteman had a ‘knock-on effect’ on Carrick’s side but he was pleased with how his side adapted. He said: “I thought in the first half they caused us problems, to be fair. We had a few issues with a lot going through their deep midfielder, I thought we got to grips with that in the second half pretty well."Because of that, the other boys were covering a bit more space than we would have liked and then there was a knock-on effect. I felt we identified that and the boys dealt with it well in the second half.
"We looked dangerous. It was more of what we were trying to do and it was more emphasis on it being the spaces we were trying to hurt them with. We didn't quite hurt them enough in the top end and in and around the box.”