MICHAEL CARRICK claims Middlesbrough’s impressive finish to the season has given them a strong platform to build from next term.

Boro’s hopes of scraping into the play-offs finally came to an end last night as they suffered a 4-3 defeat to Leeds United in a chaotic game at the Riverside.

The loss ended a nine-game unbeaten run that had featured victories over Norwich, QPR, Birmingham, Sheffield Wednesday and Swansea and creditable draws against promotion-chasing Southampton, Hull and Ipswich.

Boro have been unable to match last season’s efforts, when they lost in the play-off semi-finals to Coventry City, but given the challenges of the last few months, when the injury list has continued to mount, Carrick feels there is plenty to be positive about as thoughts turn to the summer.

“One hundred per cent, there’s a lot to build on,” said the Boro boss. “It’s credit to everyone really. After the last week or so, and where we found ourselves, then this game (against Leeds) could easily have been one of those games where you accept that it is what it is.

“I’ve seen it loads of times towards the end of a season, but the boys are not like that and they showed that. They’ve shown that we’re building something.

“It’s been a stop-start year with the injuries and players coming in and out, that’s made it difficult, but the boys have applied themselves fantastically well and have just started to get some rewards for it. We didn’t in this game with the result, but performance wise, there were definitely loads of positives.”

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Emmanuel Latte Lath’s form over the last couple of months has been a definite positive, with the Ivorian having hit a rich vein of goalscoring in the second half of the campaign.

Last night’s double made it nine goals in his last ten matches, a rate of return that makes it impossible not to wonder what might have been had the summer signing from Atalanta been able to remain fit in the first half of the season.

“He’s (Latte Lath) shown what we hoped and knew he was capable of,” said Carrick. “He’s shown that.

“I’ve said many times that’s he’s had a kind of stuttering season because of injuries, but he’s certainly looked dangerous. He’s found that knack of scoring goals, and I think as a team, coming to the end of the season, we’ve shown that we’ve made big improvements.

“And then you only have to look at the team to see the amount we were missing again (against Leeds). It’s fantastic to have the young players on, fantastic to get AJ (Matthews) on the pitch, but I’ve lost count of the amount of lads who were missing really.

“To keep going and finish the season like we have, against some really good teams, I’m really proud of the lads.”