Michael Carrick enjoyed a 2-1 away victory at Norwich as he marked a year in charge of Middlesbrough football club.
As he approaches his 46th Championship game (if you include the two play-off matches against Coventry) where would his side finish if the games were condensed into one season?
Given that he arrived last October, with the team in a bit of a slump, he worked near miracles last season to even contest the play-offs. After a fantastic run of results with some wondrous displays of free-flowing football during the winter months, Boro began to apply themselves so impressively, that a scintillating 3-1 victory at Bramall Lane had fans believing they could actually make the automatic promotion spot.
In the end it wasn’t to be and a jaded Boro faded at the end of the season and lost out in the semi-finals of the play-offs to Coventry.
A rebuilding job for Carrick
Having to rebuild the squad almost from scratch after losing all of their loan signings that made up the real spine of the team in Steffen, Giles, Ramsay, Akpom and Archer, Carrick found it difficult to get momentum early in this campaign. He has had to be patient whilst trying to nurture his 12 new arrivals-many of which were between the ages of 18-21-through a tough batch of results as they settled into new surroundings.
After 7 games without a win, Boro hit form and have won 6 league games on the spin in a streak that has seen them propel upwards through the league towards the periphery of the play-off places.
All of that said, and even though he has encountered a couple of periods of realignment in terms of personnel, Carrick still has a mightily impressive points tally in the 45 league games so far. His record reads, won 24, drawn 7, lost 14, with a current total of 79 points and an astonishing goal difference of +30.
Missed opportunity
Should his Boro side beat Stoke on Saturday, he will have amassed a very respectable 82 points over the course of 46 games against Championship opposition. That would have been enough for 3rd place last season, one better than they actually managed. Third place was occupied by Luton Town who ended up in the Premier League after taking care of Sunderland and then Coventry in the final. It was an opportunity missed by Boro who had occupied third right up until the last few games of the season.
82 points would have secured 3rd in three seasons out of the last ten. They would have finished 4th in four seasons and 5th in three seasons. So, on average 82 points would have been good enough for 4th position over the course of the last ten Championship seasons.
Middlesbrough host Stoke City on Saturday hoping to get another three points and secure yet another win, it would be their seventh on the spin and as they sit only two points adrift of third placed Leeds, it could set up the forthcoming games with Leicester City and Leeds United nicely.